BRIDGEPORT — Don’t call it the Beanpot, SNY president Steve Raab insisted Monday at Webster Bank Arena.

The long-awaited tournament among Connecticut’s four Division I men’s college hockey programs is at the heart of “Connecticut Ice,” and it will be the main attraction of the last two days of the event, Jan. 24-26, 2020.

But SNY, which will televise the tournament, and the schools and the arena plan a bigger event, , built around state hockey's grass roots, and want it to grow further.

“The Beanpot is a terrific tournament in Boston with 67 years of history,” Raab said. “Connecticut Ice will forge its own path, with a three-day festival.”

The plan is to include boys and girls youth hockey, clinics for young players sponsored by USA Hockey, a game among state prep schools and a game among state high schools.

The heart, though, will be the tournament that finally gets Sacred Heart, UConn, Yale and Quinnipiac together, similar to the Beanpot, which annually sells out Boston Garden for Boston University, Boston College, Harvard and Northeastern.

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“I grew up here in Connecticut, and I grew up Friday and Saturday nights begging my parents to go to Yale hockey games,” said Sacred Heart coach C.J. Marottolo, who’s from North Haven.

“This event, when it finally became a realization, it really hit me that it’s going to impact thousands and thousands of kids and families fortunate to come to this event, and it’s going to create memories forever. I still have my memories. It’s going to create traditions in families.”

The tentative schedule plays the preliminary round on the Saturday night, and a consolation and championship on the Sunday night, with the pairings to be determined.

“We grew up watching Yale games and, as Quinnipiac got better, watching Quinnipiac,” Sacred Heart freshman defenseman Colin Bernard of Stamford said. “It’s pretty awesome for youth to come to one place and watch those four teams compete.”

Teammate Mike Lee of Hamden had season tickets to watch the Bobcats.

“I started in Yale’s learn-to-skate program at the Whale (Yale’s Ingalls Rink),” Lee said. “Playing those teams now, especially in this atmosphere, is going to be a great experience.”

Yale coach Keith Allain joked that Marottolo, his former associate head coach at Yale, left out that he was begging his parents to go watch Allain play.

“Connecticut has a great hockey tradition,” Allain said. “When I came to Yale as a coach (in 2006), C.J. left me a gift of (Milford’s) Mark Arcobello and (Greenwich’s) Sean Backman, two Connecticut players who were really, really instrumental in turning the Yale hockey program around and giving us a chance to compete on the national level. There are more players like that out there, and we have to continue to find them.

“This tournament’s a great idea. On its own, it’s unbelievable,” he added, “but with the festival they’ve put together for youth hockey, the things they’re going to do for the hockey community, it puts it over the top.”

UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh talked about the Connecticut players he recruited to Boston College when he was an assistant there: Ryan Shannon of Darien, Greenwich’s Cam Atkinson, Simsbury’s Tommy Cross, Ben Smith of Avon, Wallingford’s Pat Mullane.

When he came to Storrs, he said, he wanted to make sure he had an assistant from Connecticut.

“I hired Joe Pereira from West Haven,” he said, “and since he was hired, he’s been clamoring for us to get this tournament underway.”

After a few fits and starts — a holiday tournament featuring UConn and Sacred Heart here in 2014 was supposed to be the precursor for a “Connecticut Beanpot” the next year that didn’t materialize — it appears everyone is on board.

“From a college hockey perspective, it’s two great local nonconference games that now have some extra incentive behind them, with a bigger crowd, maybe a trophy at the end,” said Quinnipiac associate coach Bill Riga.

“But it’s so much more than that to us, with the whole event. It’s about giving back to youth hockey, kids in the community, raising the profile of college hockey but also hockey in general in Connecticut.”

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