Battle for Pikes Peak

Battle for Pikes Peak
CC – Air Force Rivalry
Air Force Falcons	Colorado College Tigers
Ice Hockey First Meeting CC 5–1 @AFA – December 5, 1969 Last Meeting CC 4–3 @CC – November 28, 2015 Next Weekend Series 26 November 2016 Games Played 72 Current Winning Streak CC – 1 All-time series CC leads 59–11–2 Battle for Pikes Peak AF (3) CC (0) 2013 2014 2015

The Battle for Pikes Peak is a college ice hockey rivalry series that is played between the Colorado College Tigers and the Air Force Academy Falcons.

Background

The two schools have played each other since the Air Force Academy introduced ice hockey to its sporting schedule in the 1968–69 season. Colorado College started its hockey program thirty years before in 1938 and had been the lone top tier college hockey team till the University of Denver added ice hockey in 1949. The rivalry between Colorado College and the University of Denver, commonly called the Battle for the Gold Pan, has had a far more reaching intensity and history. However, unlike CC and DU, who are 65 miles from each other, CC and the Air Force Academy are only 11 miles apart (both within Colorado Springs city limits).^[1]

Setup

The rules to the series is very similar to that of the more widely known Battle for the Gold Pan.There are however many distinct differences. Unlike the four games per year between CC and DU, Air Force and CC have traditionally played only two games per year (between 2011 and 2014 only one game was played), this is mostly done in part as Air Force and CC have never been in the same conference. Air Force is currently part of the Atlantic Hockey Association, while Colorado College is a founding member of both its former and current hockey leagues, respectively the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and National Collegiate Hockey Conference. Both play a home-and-home series on weekends, where both teams play on each other's home ice on back-to-back nights. The home ice for the Colorado College Tigers is the Broadmoor World Arena (which is a larger Olympic-size rink), while the home ice for the Air Force Falcons is Cadet Ice Arena (which is a smaller NHL-size rink). The difference in rink size is again, similar to that of the rivalry between CC and DU. The setup is that the winner of the series wins the Pikes Peak Trophy. If a tie is reached then the trophy is retained by the previous winner. In the 2016/17 season both schools faced off again for only one game in the regular season.

Cadet Ice Arena home of the Air Force Falcons

Broadmoor World Arena home of the Colorado College Tigers

See also

• Battle for the Gold Pan

References