A rivalry that began as a favor, peaked at a national championship, and still cannot settle its own record book.
Most rivalries argue about who is better. Boston College and Notre Dame cannot even agree on what has already happened.
Going into their most recent meeting in November 2025, the Boston College record book had the series at 50 games with the Eagles ahead 25 wins, 22 losses and 3 ties. Notre Dame’s record book called that same game the 50th, with Boston College leading by one win fewer. Wikipedia, working from its own game log, counts 50 total meetings with the Eagles ahead 26 wins, 22 losses and 2 ties.
Three sources, three answers. One tie in the 1990s, counted or not counted, has quietly moved the whole ledger.
Everything else about this series is easier to pin down, and better.
It started as a favor
The two programs first played on December 20, 1969, at Chestnut Hill, where Boston College won 7 to 3. Nine days later they played again in South Bend, and Boston College won that one 7 to 4.
Those games happened because the older program helped the younger one. John “Snooks” Kelley, a 1930 Boston College graduate who coached the Eagles for 36 years, agreed to schedule Notre Dame at a point when Charles “Lefty” Smith was building the Irish program from its first varsity season. Kelley won an NCAA title in 1949 and became the first college hockey coach to reach 500 career wins. Smith later had Notre Dame’s rink named for him.
The trophy the two teams now play for carries both their names, which is a neater piece of symmetry than most rivalries manage.
The nickname came later. The hockey series predates the football rivalry it borrowed the name from, and it acquired the Holy War label because these are the two Catholic universities that compete against each other at the top level of American college sport. They remain the only two members of the Atlantic Coast Conference that sponsor Division I men’s hockey, which is why they keep finding each other on the schedule even when they are in different leagues.
The night it counted most
On April 12, 2008, in Denver, they met for the national championship. It was the first time the two had ever been drawn together in the NCAA tournament, and it remains the only time they have played for a title.
The first period ended scoreless. Boston College scored three in the second, Notre Dame answered with one, and the Eagles added another in the third to win 4 to 1. It was Boston College’s third national championship. It was Notre Dame’s first appearance in a title game, and the program is still waiting for its first championship.
Nearly two decades later, that game still shapes the rivalry. Brock Sheahan, who played for Notre Dame in that final and returned as the program’s head coach, put it plainly before the 2025 meeting: speaking as a player, losing that game still hurts.
The four years they shared a league
Notre Dame joined Hockey East in 2013 and stayed four seasons, which meant two meetings a year instead of one. Their first game as conference opponents was played outdoors at Fenway Park in January 2014, and Boston College won 4 to 3.
That same season produced the series’ strangest weekend. In the Hockey East quarterfinals at Chestnut Hill, eighth seeded Notre Dame beat top seeded Boston College in a best of three, taking the opener 7 to 2, dropping the second 4 to 2, and winning the decider 4 to 2.
Notre Dame left for the Big Ten in 2017. The series continued anyway, at least once a year, usually around Thanksgiving.
The one that never happened
In 2021 the two were drawn against each other in the first round of the NCAA tournament in Albany. They had not met that regular season because the pandemic had shut down games between conferences, and the bracket seemed determined to arrange it regardless.
Notre Dame had to withdraw before the puck dropped because of positive tests within the program. The game was ruled a no contest and Boston College advanced. The series did not resume until 2022.
Where it stands
The most recent meeting was November 28, 2025, at Kelley Rink in Chestnut Hill, on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Boston College won 5 to 3, its second straight in the series.
The teams did not meet at all in the 2024 to 2025 season, when Notre Dame spent Thanksgiving week at the Friendship Four tournament in Belfast. That is the shape of this rivalry now. It is not guaranteed by a conference schedule or protected by a trophy game on a fixed date. It survives because both programs keep choosing to play it.
By the numbers
| First meeting | Dec. 20, 1969. Boston College 7, Notre Dame 3 |
| Total meetings | About 50, depending on whose book you use |
| Series lead | Boston College, by four wins or fewer |
| Highest stakes | 2008 national championship, Boston College 4, Notre Dame 1 |
| Largest win | Notre Dame 14, Boston College 3, in 1971 |
| Lowest scoring game | Notre Dame 1, Boston College 0, in 2003 |
| Longest unbeaten run | Boston College, 8 games, 1995 to 2002 |
| Most recent meeting | Nov. 28, 2025. Boston College 5, Notre Dame 3 |
Common questions
Why is it called the Holy War on Ice? Boston College and Notre Dame are the two Catholic universities competing at the highest level of American college sport, and the hockey series borrowed the nickname from the schools’ football rivalry. The hockey series is actually the older of the two, dating to 1969.
Have Boston College and Notre Dame played for a national title? Once. Boston College won the 2008 championship game in Denver 4 to 1, claiming its third national title and denying Notre Dame its first.
Who leads the all time series? Boston College, though the two schools’ record books disagree on by how much. Published figures put the Eagles somewhere between two and four wins clear across roughly fifty meetings.
What trophy do they play for? A memorial trophy named for Lefty Smith and John “Snooks” Kelley, the two coaches in charge when the series began in 1969.
The next one
There is no date set. There rarely is until the schedules come out, and in one recent season there was no game at all.
That is the risk with a rivalry nobody is obliged to play. It is also why it means something that they keep playing it, and why a Friday afternoon in late November tends to feel bigger than a nonconference game has any right to.
A note on the numbers: Boston College and Notre Dame maintain different official records for this series, and independent record keepers differ from both. Figures here are given as ranges where the sources conflict.
