The Hockey East Association, also known as Hockey East, is a college ice hockey conference which operates entirely 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 from what is today known as ECAC Hockey, after disagreements with the Ivy League members. The women's league began play in 2002.

On October 5, 2011, the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish (an ACC member outside football) announced they would be joining Hockey East as the conference's first non-New England school in 2013 after the CCHA folded. On March 22, 2016, Notre Dame subsequently announced their men's hockey team would leave Hockey East for the Big Ten Conference at the start of the 2017–2018 season. The University of Connecticut (UConn) and Hockey East jointly announced on June 21, 2012, that UConn's men's team, then in Atlantic Hockey, would join the school's women's team in Hockey East in 2014. On October 24, 2013, Merrimack College, already a member of the Hockey East men's league, announced that it would upgrade its women's team from club level to full varsity status effective in 2015 and join the Hockey East women's league.

On May 2, 2017, the College of the Holy Cross announced that it would join Hockey East for women's hockey only starting in 2018–19.

There are currently 12 member schools, with 11 participating in the men's division and 10 in the women's division.

  Men     Women     Both  

Teams' records against current conference opponents.

The Hockey East Championship Game has been held in Boston since 1987. Originally held at the Boston Garden, it moved to TD Garden in 1996. Prior to moving to Boston, the first two men's Hockey East championships were held in Providence, Rhode Island at the Providence Civic Center.