On Friday, December 3, State Senator Ed Kennedy joined with UMass President Marty Meehan, Congresswoman Lori Trahan, UMass-Lowell Chancellor Jacquie Moloney, UMass-Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, Odyssey Trust Chairman Martin McDowell, Former Chairman Eric Porter, and Odyssey Trust Chief Executive Robert Fitzpatrick at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell to announce that the Friendship Four Hockey Tournament will return to Belfast, Northern Ireland on November 25-26, 2022. The tournament was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid pandemic restrictions. In addition to the two UMass hockey teams, the hockey teams from Dartmouth and Quinnipiac Colleges will also participate in the Belfast tournament next November.
The tournament was developed in 2015 to promote education, social welfare, and community integration in Northern Ireland as part of the sister cities agreement between Belfast and Boston. Previous winners of the Friendship Four Hockey Tournament are Northeastern (2019), Union (2018), Clarkson (2017), Vermont (2016) and UMass Lowell (2015).