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.
Format 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.
Conference standings
Bracket Teams are reseeded for the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
Results Note: All game times are local.
First Round (5) Union vs. (12) Brown
(6) Harvard vs. (11) St. Lawrence
(7) Colgate vs. (10) Yale
(8) Clarkson vs. (9) Rensselaer
Quarterfinals (1) Quinnipiac vs. (8) Clarkson
Clarkson wins series 2–0
(2) Dartmouth vs. (7) Colgate
Dartmouth wins series 2–0
(3) Cornell vs. (6) Harvard
Cornell wins series 2–1
(4) Princeton vs. (5) Union
Princeton wins series 2–0
Semifinals (2) Dartmouth vs. (8) Clarkson
(3) Cornell vs. (4) Princeton
Championship (2) Dartmouth vs. (4) Princeton
Tournament awards All-Tournament Team G Emmett Croteau* (Dartmouth) D Tim Busconi (Dartmouth) D C. J. Foley (Dartmouth) F Kai Daniells (Princeton) F Joshua Karnish (Princeton) F Hayden Stavroff (Dartmouth) * Most Outstanding Player(s)
References