🏒 Coming for the Winter Invitational, November 27–28?
Our Studio Cottage is our year-round unit and sits a short walk from the Olympic Center — about ten minutes on foot to the door of the Herb Brooks Arena. A real kitchen for the Thanksgiving weekend, a fireplace you light yourself, and no one in the corridor at midnight.
Cold coming off Mirror Lake on the walk down. Woodsmoke from a fireplace you lit yourself. The smell of a turkey that has been in your own oven since morning. And ten minutes past your porch, a building where the crowd noise still gets into the walls.
You came for the hockey. You’ll stay for the quiet afterwards.
The tournament, plainly
The Adirondack Winter Invitational runs Friday, November 27 and Saturday, November 28, 2026 at the Herb Brooks Arena inside the Lake Placid Olympic Center, 2634 Main Street. It is the fourth annual edition, presented by the Golden Arrow.
Four Division I men’s programs play on neutral ice: Clarkson, RIT, St. Lawrence and Merrimack. Two Division I women’s games run alongside them, St. Lawrence against Merrimack on both days.
The schedule
Friday, November 27
12:00 pm — St. Lawrence vs Merrimack (women)
4:00 pm — St. Lawrence vs Merrimack (men)
7:00 pm — Clarkson vs RIT (men)
Saturday, November 28
12:00 pm — St. Lawrence vs Merrimack (women)
4:00 pm — St. Lawrence vs RIT (men)
7:00 pm — Clarkson vs Merrimack (men)
Tickets: $50 all-event for adults, $30 for a single day, $15 for students and youth aged 7–18, seniors 65+, and military with ID. Children six and under are free. Olympic Center Box Office: (518) 523-3330.
Full details and tickets: lakeplacidolympiccenter.com/adirondack-winter-invitational
Why this one is different from a neutral-site game anywhere else
The games are played in the 1980 rink. Not a building near it, not a rink named after it — the sheet where the United States beat the Soviet Union on 22 February 1980, with the same bench, the same scoreboard clock, the same low ceiling that traps noise and hands it back.
Two of the four programs are North Country schools. Clarkson is in Potsdam, St. Lawrence in Canton — about two hours northwest, and rivals for more than a century. Putting them in Lake Placid on Thanksgiving weekend means the building fills with people who grew up on this rivalry, plus alumni who drove up for the holiday and families who planned the weekend around it.
Clarkson has played all four editions. Past champions: Arizona State in 2023, UMass Lowell in 2024, Alaska in 2025.
Thanksgiving weekend is the part people underestimate
Thanksgiving 2026 falls on Thursday, 26 November. The tournament is the Friday and Saturday immediately after.
That combination is why this weekend books differently than a normal hockey weekend. Families are already travelling. Students are already home. The trip is a holiday first and a tournament second — which means the question isn’t just where you sleep, it’s where you eat, and where everyone sits when the game is over.
In a village this size, Thanksgiving weekend is the hardest week of the year to get a table. Restaurants that stay open are booked out, and the ones that close for the holiday close early in the week. If your plan for Thursday dinner and Friday breakfast is “we’ll figure it out,” you will be figuring it out at nine o’clock at night in a car.
What a cottage does that a room can’t, this particular weekend
- A real kitchen, on the one weekend of the year you need one. Roast the turkey. Eat when you want. Skip the reservation problem entirely.
- A standalone building. No one above you, no one beside you, no corridor of hockey families arriving back from a 7pm game at the same moment you did.
- A ground-floor bedroom. No stairs, no upstairs, no one else’s floor as your ceiling.
- A fireplace you light yourself, with real logs, in the last week of November.
- An actual key. Not a code, not an app, not a lockbox with a dying battery in the cold.
- A fenced yard, if the dog came for the holiday too.
None of that exists at a property with six units at one address. It isn’t a question of quality — it’s a question of what the building is.
You can walk to the rink
The Olympic Center sits on Main Street, a short walk from our door — about ten minutes on foot. On a Friday night in late November that walk is the good part of the evening: cold air, the lake going black on your left, the lit face of the Olympic Center ahead, and the noise reaching you before you get to the doors.
It also solves the practical problem. Parking around the Olympic Center on a tournament night is a competitive sport of its own, and a 7pm game means leaving in the dark either way. Walking means nobody is moving a car twice, and nobody is the designated driver.
Where to stay for tournament weekend
The Studio Cottage is our winter unit. It sleeps 2 and is open year-round — the right base for a couple coming up for the weekend, or for alumni who want to be walking distance from the building rather than driving in from Saranac Lake.
Bringing the family? The Two Bedroom Cottage sleeps 4–5 and the GO-Cottage Dual Cottage Retreat — both cottages together — sleeps 6, with two kitchens and two fireplaces. Both are seasonal units, so late-November dates are by arrangement. Ask us — Thanksgiving weekend is exactly the kind of booking we open them for.
If you’re building a longer weekend around it
- The Olympic Museum, in the same building as the arena — worth an hour before a 4pm face-off, especially with kids who only know 1980 as a film.
- Miracle on Ice, properly — where to see the rink, the Team USA locker room, and the Mike Eruzione Team Shop.
- Mirror Lake — the loop path takes about an hour on foot, and late November is the quiet before the ski season starts.
- Main Street — the village turns over to the holiday season the first weekend of December, so this is the last quiet weekend before the lights go up.
🏡 Stay at GO-Cottage
Two historic cottages in the village — about a ten-minute walk to the Olympic Center and the Herb Brooks Arena. Firepit, fenced yard, real kitchens, ground-floor bedrooms.
- Studio Cottage — couples, sleeps 2 · open year-round
- Two Bedroom Cottage — families, sleeps 4–5 · seasonal, ask for winter dates
- GO-Cottage Dual Cottage Retreat — extended families / groups, sleeps 6 · seasonal, ask for winter dates
All three pet-friendly at $25/night per pet.
Frequently Asked Questions: Adirondack Winter Invitational 2026
When is the Adirondack Winter Invitational 2026?
Friday, November 27 and Saturday, November 28, 2026, at the Herb Brooks Arena in the Lake Placid Olympic Center. It is the fourth annual edition of the tournament.
Which teams are playing?
Four Division I men’s programs: Clarkson, RIT, St. Lawrence and Merrimack. Two Division I women’s games also run, St. Lawrence against Merrimack on both days.
How much are tickets?
All-event tickets covering both days are $50 for adults. Single-day tickets are $30 for adults and $15 for students and youth aged 7–18, seniors 65 and over, and military with ID. Children six and under are free. The Olympic Center Box Office is (518) 523-3330.
Where is the Herb Brooks Arena?
Inside the Lake Placid Olympic Center at 2634 Main Street, Lake Placid, NY 12946 — the rink where the United States beat the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics.
Where should I stay for the tournament?
Stay in the village so you can walk to the arena rather than park near it on a tournament night. GO-Cottage’s Studio Cottage sleeps 2 and is open year-round, about a ten-minute walk from the Olympic Center. The Two Bedroom Cottage sleeps 4–5 and the Dual Cottage Retreat sleeps 6; both are seasonal, so ask about late-November dates.
What else is happening that weekend?
Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26, 2026, so the tournament is the Friday and Saturday immediately after. Restaurants in the village book out over the holiday weekend, which is the main practical argument for staying somewhere with a kitchen.
