The Navy hockey team celebrated its best season ever in 2014, winning the Eastern Collegiate Hockey Association title and reaching the quarterfinals of last month’s ACHA Division 1 National Championships. On Tuesday, the team got a reward.
The team was treated to a day with hockey’s greatest prize, the Stanley Cup, thanks to a program from Discover credit card that allows more than just each year’s NHL champion to spend a day with Lord Stanley’s Cup.
“I am so proud of the incredible season these young men had,” Navy coach Mike Fox said in a news release. “For Discover and the NHL to recognize our accomplishment by allowing the team a chance to spend a day with the Stanley Cup, is a perfect ending to the season; especially for some of our players, who will be leaving to serve their country in a few short weeks.”
Navy competes in the ACHA’s Division 1, the highest level of club hockey. A 5-1 win over Drexel in their league championship game in February gave the Midshipmen a bid to the national championship tournament in Newark, Del., where they topped West Virginia in a play-in game before beating perennial power Liberty University in the round of 16, 4-3 in overtime.
The team’s Twitter feed is full of pictures from the day with the Cup, which seemed like a great reward for a successful season and long-deserved recognition for a strong club hockey program.