The University of South Carolina Club Division I Ice Hockey team is returning to the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) College Hockey Tournament this week as the defending national champions. After completing the regular season with an 8-3 win over Clemson to a sold out rink, Cock Hockey is entering the tournament as a top seed.
Hockey is traditionally more popular in the northern part of the U.S, but junior captain Jake Puskar hopes to change that.
“Football, baseball, basketball are more of the headline-hoggers down here,” Puskar said. “We really think that one day hockey down here is gonna be just as relevant.”
The Gamecocks finished the season first in the College Hockey South Conference, with the top four seeds going into the AAU Tournament being occupied by other members of the College Hockey South.
At both the local and national level, ice hockey is growing in popularity. Cock Hockey sold out their last two games at Flight Adventure Park in Irmo and viewership numbers are up nationwide following the 4 Nations Faceoff Tournament between the U.S, Canada, Finland, and Sweden. The NHL reported that the U.S and Canada Final was recorded as the most watched non-NFL game ever on ESPN, as well as topping every U.S telecast with the exception of election coverage, college football, and the NHL.
“Hockey is on a pretty explosive growth trajectory,” Chris Caldwell, the Sport, Media, and Entertainment Initiative Director at USC said. “I think that kind of rising tide is lifting all the elements associated with hockey.”
The Four Nations Tournament averaged approximately 6.5 million viewers across North America, which translates to a 256% increase from the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. NHL per game viewership averages have risen from 391,000 in the 2020-2021 season to 504,000 in the 2023-2024 regular season.
As the home rink for Cock Hockey, Flight Adventure Park in Irmo is the only ice rink within more than 100 miles of it.
“I don’t think that anyone could have expected to sell out weekend after weekend,” Flight’s General Manager, Brenshon Stovall said about the success of Cock Hockey and their sold out games. “They win, and when they do win, it’s well deserved. Celebrating them is something that’s really big that we want to continue to do.”
Cock Hockey heads to Jacksonville this week, with their first game scheduled for Wednesday at 4:15 p.m against the Alabama Crimson Tide.
