Catamount Cup has become a staple in the hockey culture of New England. The original four teams invited were the University of New Hampshire, Dartmouth College, Northeastern University and the hosting University of Vermont.

Since the first tournament, teams as far as Minnesota and Alabama have participated.

The Catamounts have won the most Cups – five out of 14 of them – winning in 2005, 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2013.

This year, however, the Catamounts placed second to a strong Providence College team. The University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the Air Force Academy placed third and fourth, respectively.

“You have to tip your cap to Providence,” Coach Kevin Sneddon said. “I think they played an excellent game. We took too many penalties in a short time period and that wore out a lot of our players.”

In the Catamounts’ win over Air Force Dec. 28, sophomore Brady Shaw scored the winning goal in the 4-2 win. Sophomore Mario Puskarich, senior Jake Fallon and junior Jonathan Turk also scored for the Cats, with junior goalie Brody Hoffman picking up the win.

The win also marked the 750th win in program history.

“We did a good job, especially in the third period, of getting back to our game,” Shaw said.

“It was tough to bounce back [after Air Force went up 2-1] but I think we did a good job,” he said.

The Catamounts are now in an Ivy League stretch.  They lost to Yale University 3-1 Jan. 3 and beat Dartmouth College 4-1 Jan. 11.

After that, they begin a four game home series which features Northeastern University, as well as No. 1 Boston University led by first-year sensation Jack Eichel.