Quinnipiac, Harvard, Colgate, and Cornell Advance to ECAC Hockey Championships in Lake Placid March 17-18
Whitelaw Cup, NCAA Tournament Berth goes to winner
Tickets Available HERE
Quinnipiac, Harvard, Cornell, and Colgate each earned a spot in this weekend’s ECAC Hockey Tournament Championship after sweeping their opponents in the quarterfinal round last weekend. The four schools will face off at the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid for a single-elimination tournament that will determine the conference champion. The winner will be rewarded with the Scott M. Whitelaw Cup and an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Friday, March 17
4:00 pm | Colgate vs. Quinnipiac
7:30 pm | Cornell vs. Harvard
Saturday, March 18
7:30 pm | Championship Game
Quinnipiac, the top seed in the tournament, comes into this weekend’s ECAC Hockey semifinals riding high after beating Yale 3-0 on Friday and then 6-2 on Saturday to extend its season record to 30-3-3 overall. The Bobcats, ranked No. 2 nationally in the latest PairWise poll, were unbeaten on their home ice this season with a 15-0-1 record.
Quinnipiac and Colgate split their two meetings this season, with each team winning at home by a 3-2 score. Colgate, the tournament’s No. 5 seed, advanced to the semifinals in Lake Placid with two victories on the road over St. Lawrence. Colgate (17-5-5 overall record) scored four unanswered goals Friday in the first game of the series to secure a 4-3 overtime win, then came back with a 3-2 victory on Saturday.
Third-seeded Cornell and Harvard, the No. 2 seed, will face off in the tournament’s other semifinal. Harvard, the defending ECAC Hockey tournament champion, is sixth in the PairWise Rankings, earning its spot in Lake Placid with a pair of 6-1 victories over Princeton. Harvard (23-6-2) has beaten Cornell twice this season – 2-1 in overtime on Dec. 2 and 6-2 on Jan. 28. Cornell (20-9-2), No. 12 in PairWise Rankings, punched its ticket to Lake Placid with a two-game sweep over Clarkson on home ice in Ithaca.
The winner of this weekend’s tournament in Lake Placid will be crowned as the ECAC Hockey champion, which includes an automatic berth into the 16-team NCAA Tournament. The NCAA field is made up of six conference champions as well as 10 other teams selected on an at-large basis. The national champion will be decided April 6 and 8 at the Frozen Four in Tampa, Florida.
Last year, Harvard earned the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament after beating Quinnipiac 3-2 in overtime in the ECAC final. The Bobcats gained entry to the NCAAs as an at-large selection. The Crimson lost their first-round matchup 4-3 to Minnesota St., which went on to advance to the championship game before losing to Denver 5-1 in the final. Quinnipiac beat St. Cloud State 5-4 in the opening round then lost 7-4 to Michigan in the quarterfinal round.
The ECAC Hockey Tournament began in 1962, with the championships held at Boston Garden each year until 1993 when it moved to Lake Placid for the next 10 years. The championships were played in Albany from 2003 to 2010 and in Atlantic City, N.J., from 2011 to 2013, before moving back to Lake Placid in 2014.
Friday and Saturday’s games will be televised live on ESPN+.
Tickets are available at: https://www.tixr.com/groups/legacysites
Spectator information: https://lakeplacidolympiccenter.com/todo/ecac-mens-hockey-championship/