Dartmouth, Cornell, Princeton, Clarkson to Play for ECAC Hockey Title in Lake Placid

Clarkson Returns to ECAC Semifinals After Dramatic Upset in Quarterfinal Round

Dartmouth, Cornell, Princeton and Clarkson are headed to Lake Placid after securing quarterfinal victories to advance to the ECAC Hockey Men’s Championship round set for Friday and Saturday in the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena.

Dartmouth will take on Clarkson in the first semifinal matchup Friday at 4 p.m., followed by Princeton facing off against Cornell at 7 p.m. The winners will meet in Saturday’s championship game at 5 p.m. with the Scott M. Whitelaw Cup and an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament on the line.

Friday, March 20
Clarkson vs. Dartmouth, 4 p.m.
Princeton vs. Cornell, 7 p.m.

Saturday, March 21
Championship Game, 5 p.m.

THE TEAMS

Dartmouth (21-7-4)
The Big Green, ranked No. 9 in the latest USCHO poll, return to the ECAC Hockey semifinals in Lake Placid for the third consecutive year. Dartmouth will face Clarkson in Friday’s opening game, looking to avenge last year’s 4-1 semifinal loss to the Golden Knights. Dartmouth is enjoying one of its best seasons in program history, with 21 wins matching school records set in 1941-42 and 1947-48. Sophomore forwards Hayden Stavroff (28 goals and 19 assists) and Hank Cleaves (38 points) lead the Big Green offensively with junior goaltender Emmett Croteau holding down the defense.

Clarkson (18-16-3)
The Golden Knights pulled off the upset of the tournament with a two-game quarterfinal sweep of top-seeded Quinnipiac, ranked 10th in the USCHO poll. Clarkson, the tournament’s No. 8 seed, scored two short-handed goals within 38 seconds late in the third period Saturday then locked up the victory when Erik Bargholtz netted the game-winner at 14:21. Bargholtz and Matthew Mayich each had a goal and an assist in the game. Clarkson is making its second-straight appearance in the ECAC Hockey semifinals in Lake Placid. The Golden Knights beat Dartmouth 4-1 in the ECAC semifinals last year before falling 3-1 to Cornell in the final.

Cornell (22-9-1)
The Big Red return to Lake Placid with their sights set on a third-straight ECAC Hockey men’s tournament title. Ranked No. 8 in the latest USCHO poll, Cornell is powered by ECAC first-teamers Jonathan Castagna and freshman Alexis Cournoyer, the MAC Goaltending Ken Dryden Goalie of the Year. Casey Jones replaced Mike Schafer as Cornell’s head coach this season and will face Princeton head coach Ben Syer, who spent 13 seasons as an assistant coach for the Big Red.

Princeton (17-12-3)
The fourth-seeded Tigers capped a historic season on home ice with two 5-2 victories over Union in the quarterfinal round. Kai Daniells and David Jacobs lead a balanced attack for Princeton, which had nine players record more than 10 points throughout the season. The Tigers return to the ECAC Hockey semifinals in Lake Placid for the first time since 2018, when they beat Clarkson 2-1 to capture the championship.

LAST SEASON

Cornell defeated Quinnipiac 3-2 in the semifinals before securing a 3-1 win over Clarkson in the championship game to deliver retiring head coach Mike Schafer an emotional farewell and his seventh ECAC tournament title. The Big Red claimed the conference’s automatic NCAA tournament berth, while Quinnipiac received an at-large selection.

TOURNAMENT HISTORY

The ECAC Tournament began in 1962 with the championships held at Boston Garden each year until 1993 when it moved to Lake Placid. The 2026 tournament marks the 22nd Championship to be hosted at the Olympic Center. Cornell has won the most ECAC Hockey men’s tournament titles with 24, followed by Harvard with 11. No other program in the league’s history has won more than seven tournament trophies.

On March 9, 1989, the league paid tribute to retiring ECAC Commissioner Robert M. “Scotty” Whitelaw by announcing that the Men’s Ice Hockey Championship trophy would be named the Whitelaw Cup. Whitelaw joined the ECAC in 1960 as Assistant Commissioner, two years before the ECAC Division I Ice Hockey Championship was formalized.