No. 9 Men's Hockey Wins ECAC Hockey Tournament In Overtime Against Princeton

Saturday, March 21

Lake Placid, N.Y. / Herb Brooks Arena

5:00 PM

Dartmouth College

No. 4 Princeton

No. 9 Men's Hockey Wins ECAC Hockey Tournament In Overtime Against Princeton

3/21/2026 11:27:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score Championship Shirt

By: Dan Richeal

LAKE PLACID, N.Y.—For the first time in program history, Dartmouth men's hockey won the ECAC Hockey Championship on Saturday after defeating Princeton 2-1 in overtime at Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid.

The Big Green opened the scoring at the 12:45 mark of the opening period as Hayden Stavroff scored his nation leading 29^th goal of the year. Dartmouth was on the power play and the puck came to CJ Foley at the point as Dartmouth was finishing a change. Stavroff joined the play and Foley dropped it to him, Stavroff walked in and used his quick release to beat the netminder to make it 1-0. Foley picked up his 21^st assist on the play while Hank Cleaves notched his team leading 22^nd assist.

There were just 11 combined shots in the first period, but the Big Green took a 1-0 lead to the locker room despite Princeton outshooting Dartmouth 7-4. Dartmouth edged out Princeton 10-9 in faceoffs in the first period.

The second period saw the Big Green outshoot Princeton 10-4 but neither team solved each other's netminders.

8:46 into the third period Princeton tied the game at one.

The game stayed tied for the rest of regulation and the title game headed for overtime.

Both teams tallied five shots in the overtime session but it was the fifth Dartmouth shot that ended the championship game. Tim Busconi picked up a failed Princeton clear and walked to the top of the left circle before ripping a wrist shot through a screen and into the back of the net. It was Busconi's second goal of the season and his first career game winning goal.

Emmett Croteau was nearly perfect once again in net. The junior made 25 saves as he picked up his 15^th win of the season. On the weekend in Lake Placid, the junior finished with a 0.46 goals against average and a .982 save percentage. Following the game he was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

The Big Green dominated the faceoff circle as they won nearly 61% of faceoffs. As a team Dartmouth went 39-25 while both Nathan Morin and H. Cleaves won 12 faceoffs.

Dartmouth blocked 15 shots in the game while Jack Silverberg, H. Cleaves, Morin, and Cam MacDonald each blocked a pair of shots.

Stavroff, Foley, and Busconi along with Croteau were all named to the All-Tournament Team.

The Dartmouth penalty kill went 2-2 while allowing just four shots.

It is the first time in program history that Dartmouth has won the ECAC Hockey Championship. It was the first time since 1980 that Dartmouth had played in the ECAC Championship game.

The Big Green earn the automatic bid the NCAA Tournament with the win and will appear in the national tournament for the first time since 1980. Dartmouth will find out its opponent and region on Sunday, Mar. 22 at 3 PM. The NCAA Men's Hockey Selection Show will be broadcast on ESPNU starting at 3 PM.

To order your official Dartmouth Championship T-Shirt click here.