Spectacle

Mark Ostow

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In front of 15,000-plus fans, most of them wearing blue or crimson, the Yale men’s ice hockey team—the defending national champions—beat Harvard 5–1 at New York’s Madison Square Garden on January 11. Secretary of State John Kerry ’66, a Yale hockey alumnus, gave the Yale team a pregame pep talk and dropped the ceremonial first puck, with hockey legend Mark Messier and other luminaries looking on. Yale’s Spizzwinks, an a cappella group, sang the national anthem, and both college bands played. The teams traditionally play two games per season at their respective home rinks; this third game, promoted by a for-profit producer as the “Rivalry on Ice,” is a new addition that will be repeated in 2015 and 2016. It was the 239th meeting of the two teams, and the largest crowd ever to watch them.