It would depend on a couple things for me. The first thing I did after reading the OP was go to the UConn website to see who they were playing. Arizona State? Like
@BigErnMcCracken I had no idea that they even had a hockey team. I had always thought of college hockey as more of a regional thing, with a ton of east coast schools involved and some from the Midwest. Does ASU have a good team? If I'm skipping first night, I'd want to make sure the game is competitive...otherwise it's really just a half-step ahead of first night on the intensity scale.
Proximity would probably factor in, too. If I could easily make it to the XL center, I'd probably go with the hockey game. If I'm a student on campus, and it's a Friday night, I'm probably not planning on taking a bus to Hartford.