2026 ECAC Hockey men's tournament
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Lake Placid, New York
| 2026 ECAC Hockey men's ice hockey tournament | |
|---|---|
| Dates | March 6–21, 2026 |
| Teams | 12 |
| Finals site | Herb Brooks Arena Lake Placid, New York |
| Champions | Dartmouth (1st title) |
| Winning coach | Reid Cashman (1st title) |
| MVP | Emmett Croteau (Dartmouth) |
ECAC Hockey men's Ice Hockey Tournaments 2027 → | |
The 2026 ECAC Hockey men's tournament is the 65th tournament in league history. It was played between March 6 and March 21, 2026. Dartmouth defeated Princeton 2-1 in overtime to receive ECAC Hockey's automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament. It was the first ECAC tournament championship in program history.
The tournament features four rounds of play. The teams that finish above fifth place in the standings received a bye to the quarterfinal round. In the first round, the fifth and twelfth seeds, the sixth and eleventh seeds, the seventh and tenth seeds and the eighth and ninth seeds played a single-elimination game with the winners advancing to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals the one seed played the lowest remaining seed, the second seed played the second-lowest remaining seed, the third seed played the third-lowest remaining seed and the fourth seed played the fourth-lowest remaining seed each in a best-of-three series with the winners of these the series advancing to the semifinals. In the semifinals the top remaining seed played the lowest remaining seed while the two remaining teams play against each other. The winners of the semifinals play in the championship game, and no third-place game is played. All series after the quarterfinals are single-elimination games. The tournament champion receives an automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament.[1]
Conference standings
| Conference record | Overall record | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | W | L | T | OTW | OTL | SW | PTS | GF | GA | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA | |||
| #11 Quinnipiac † | 22 | 17 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 102 | 48 | 38 | 26 | 9 | 3 | 157 | 88 | ||
| #8 Dartmouth * | 22 | 13 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 47 | 81 | 53 | 34 | 23 | 7 | 4 | 124 | 70 | ||
| #9 Cornell | 22 | 15 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 47 | 71 | 42 | 33 | 22 | 10 | 1 | 109 | 64 | ||
| Princeton | 22 | 11 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 37 | 63 | 57 | 34 | 18 | 13 | 3 | 103 | 90 | ||
| Union | 22 | 11 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 36 | 71 | 68 | 37 | 22 | 12 | 3 | 140 | 98 | ||
| Harvard | 22 | 11 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 35 | 61 | 64 | 34 | 16 | 16 | 2 | 92 | 100 | ||
| Colgate | 22 | 9 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 30 | 68 | 74 | 37 | 13 | 20 | 4 | 99 | 125 | ||
| Clarkson | 22 | 9 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 29 | 65 | 65 | 38 | 18 | 17 | 3 | 111 | 111 | ||
| Rensselaer | 22 | 8 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 26 | 55 | 70 | 35 | 11 | 23 | 1 | 80 | 115 | ||
| Yale | 22 | 7 | 14 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 22 | 63 | 80 | 31 | 8 | 22 | 1 | 79 | 115 | ||
| St. Lawrence | 22 | 6 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 20 | 59 | 99 | 35 | 7 | 25 | 3 | 85 | 151 | ||
| Brown | 22 | 4 | 16 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 17 | 44 | 83 | 31 | 5 | 24 | 2 | 63 | 119 | ||
| Championship: March 21, 2026 † indicates conference regular season champion (Cleary Cup) * indicates conference tournament champion (Whitelaw Cup) Rankings: USCHO.com Top 20 Poll; updated March 22, 2026 | ||||||||||||||||||
Bracket
Teams are reseeded for the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds
| First Round March 6–7 | Quarterfinals March 13–15 | Semifinals March 20 | Championship March 21 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Quinnipiac | 0 | 3 | - | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Union | 9 | 8 | Clarkson | 3 | 4 | - | ||||||||||||||
| 12 | Brown | 0 | 2 | Dartmouth | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Clarkson | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Dartmouth | 4 | 4 | - | |||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Harvard | 4* | 7 | Colgate | 1 | 1 | - | ||||||||||||||
| 11 | St. Lawrence | 3 | 2 | Dartmouth | 2* | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Princeton | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Cornell | 1 | 4 | 5 | |||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Colgate | 3 | 6 | Harvard | 3 | 0 | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| 10 | Yale | 2 | 3 | Cornell | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Princeton | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Princeton | 5 | 5 | - | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Clarkson | 2 | 5 | Union | 2 | 2 | - | ||||||||||||||
| 9 | Rensselaer | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)