ITHACA, NY — After securing its 13th Whitelaw Cup by winning the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC), Cornell University's men's hockey team now enters the gauntlet of the NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament this weekend.
Cornell will enter with a 21-6-6 record in the Springfield, Massachusetts bracket with a first-round matchup against the University of Maine (23-11-2) looming Thursday. The game is scheduled to begin at 5:30 pm and will be shown on ESPNNews and ESPN+.
Thursday's winner will go on to face the winner of the first-round game between the University of Denver and the University of Massachusetts. If Cornell advances, they would face either Denver or Massachusetts on Saturday, March 30 at 4 pm There are 16 teams in the tournament, which culminates with the national championship game on April 13 in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
The rest of the bracket can be seen below:
Cornell secured its latest conference championship in Lake Placid this past weekend, defeating St. Lawrence 3-1, fueled by two goals from freshman forward Jonathan Castagna. It's the Big Red's first conference title since 2010, though the school's 13 title triumph are the most in the league's history.
“They just rallied so much this year, got better all the time,” head coach Mike Schafer said in a post-game interview with ESPN. “It's been a long time. […] Lake Placid brings back a lot of memories, to win it is outstanding.”
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