The Hockey East Association, also known by the short name of Hockey East, is a NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey conference which operates in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference.

Hockey East came into existence in 1984 for men's hockey when most of its current members split apart from what is today known as ECAC Hockey. It largely sought to emulate the Big East Conference, which had grown quickly since its creation a few years earlier. The women's league began play in 2002.

On October 5, 2011, the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish (a Big East member outside football) announced they would be joining Hockey East as the conference's first non-New England school in 2013 when the CCHA folds.

There are currently 11 member schools; the men's division of Hockey East has ten members, while the women's division has eight.

There are also on-going talks that UConn's mens' hockey team may join Hockey East in the future with its women's program.

The Hockey East Championship Game has been held in Boston since 1987, at the Boston Garden, and now the TD Garden, since 1996. The first two were held in Providence, Rhode Island at the Providence Civic Center (now the Dunkin' Donuts Center).

Michael Matheson (born 8 September 1970) is the Public Health Minister in the Scottish Government. He has been an SNP Member of the Scottish Parliament since 1999, first representing Central Scotland and, since 2007, the Falkirk West constituency.

He was the Shadow Deputy Minister for Justice from May 1999 until September 2004. From September 2004 until September 2006 he was Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport. Matheson served on the Parliament's Justice 1 Committee from January 2000 until October 2004. During the 2000 SNP deputy leadership election he was the campaign manager for Roseanna Cunningham.

Matheson first stood for the SNP in the 1997 general election for the Hamilton North and Bellshill seat. In 1999 and 2003 he contested the Falkirk West seat in the Scottish Parliament, which was won both times by independent Dennis Canavan, who had been rejected by the Labour Party. Matheson won the constituency in the 2007 election, after Canavan stepped down. Canavan has endorsed Matheson for re-election in 2011. Matheson is also ranked second on the SNP's regional list for Central Scotland.