Thursday, March 19, 2026

Men’s Notes: Championship Week

Tourney Titles, NCAA Berths at Stake

With the NCAA Selection Show set for Sunday afternoon, we’re just days away from learning the field for the 2026 NCAA Tournament.

Six conference playoff championships – and the tournament auto-bids attached to those championships – will be decided this weekend. Four of those six title game matchups are already known, while two others need to first settle their conference semifinals.

Here is where each conference tournament stands:

Atlantic Hockey America
Championship matchup: #2 seed Sacred Heart at #1 seed Bentley
Regular-season champion: Bentley
Defending AHA playoff champion Bentley punched a return ticket to Saturday’s title game by sweeping Holy Cross last weekend in their best-of-three quarterfinal series … Sacred Heart eliminated No. 3 seed Robert Morris in three games … The Pioneers are seeking their first-ever AHA playoff banner.

AHA Men’s Championship Page

Big Ten
Championship matchup: #5 seed Ohio State at #2 seed Michigan
Regular-season champion: Michigan State (third consecutive)
Ohio State knocked off top-seeded Michigan State 3-2 in overtime to return to Saturday’s title game for the second year in a row … The Buckeyes are after their first Big Ten Tournament championship … After defeating No. 3 seed Penn State, Michigan will make its sixth Big Ten championship game appearance having previously won three of them.

Big Ten Tournament Page

CCHA
Championship matchup: #2 seed St. Thomas at #1 seed Minnesota State
Regular-season champion: Minnesota State (second consecutive)
Minnesota State hosts St. Thomas on Friday in a rematch of last year’s Mason Cup title game … A win would give the Tommies the program’s first-ever Mason Cup (and NCAA postseason berth), while the Mavericks are chasing their fourth Cup in five years … MSU defeated Michigan Tech 7-2 in Saturday’s CCHA semifinals, while UST edged Augustana 2-1.

CCHA Mason Cup Playoffs Page

ECAC Hockey
Championship matchup: TBD
Regular-season champion: Quinnipiac (sixth consecutive)
No. 8 seed Clarkson will face No. 2 Dartmouth in the first of two semifinals Friday in Lake Placid, followed by No. 4 Princeton vs. No. 3 Cornell … The winners will meet in Saturday’s championship game … Cornell is looking for its third straight ECAC playoff championship … Clarkson and Princeton last won the conference tourney in 2019 and 2018, respectively, with Dartmouth chasing its first title.

ECAC Men’s Hockey Championship Page

Hockey East
Championship matchup: TBD
Regular-season champion: Providence
TD Garden in Boston will host a pair of semifinals matchups on Friday: No. 2 seed UMass vs No. 8 Merrimack, and No. 3 UConn vs. No. 4 Boston College. The two winners will square off the following night … Merrimack advanced by toppling top-seeded Providence 3-2 in overtime on Saturday … BC (2024) and UMass (2022) have both won the tourney in recent years, while UConn and Merrimack are both seeking a first Hockey East playoff banner.

Hockey East Tournament Page

NCHC
Championship matchup: #4 seed Minnesota Duluth at #2 seed Denver
Regular-season champion: North Dakota
UMD knocked off regular-season champion North Dakota, defeating the Fighting Hawks 5-1 at Ralph Engelstad Arena … DU advanced with a 2-1 overtime win over Western Michigan … Both the Pioneers and Bulldogs are seeking their fourth NCHC playoff crowns.

NCHC Frozen Faceoff Page

The NCAA Selection Show is scheduled for Sunday, March 22, at 3 p.m. ET on ESPNU.

Daily Scoreboard | Weekly Schedule | Scoring Leaders | Goaltending Leaders

Hobey Top 10:

The 10 finalists for the 2026 Hobey Baker Memorial Award were unveiled Wednesday afternoon:

Michigan State G Trey Augustine (Jr., South Lyon, Mich.)
Boston College F James Hagens (So., Hauppauge, N.Y.)
Michigan F T.J. Hughes (Sr., Hamilton, Ontario)
Penn State F Gavin McKenna (Fr., Whitehorse, Yukon)
Minnesota Duluth F Max Plante (So., Hermantown, Minn.)
Denver D Eric Pohlkamp (Jr., Brainerd, Minn.)
Dartmouth F Hayden Stavroff (So., Columbus, Ohio)
Michigan State F Charlie Stramel (Sr., Rosemount, Minn.)
Sacred Heart F Felix Trudeau (Sr., Terrebonne, Quebec)
Quinnipiac F Ethan Wyttenbach (Fr., Roslyn, N.Y.)

The list will be narrowed down to the three “Hobey Hat Trick” finalists on April 2. The winner of the award will be announced April 10 at the NCAA Frozen Four in Las Vegas.

We’re Going Streaking:

A pair of sophomore forwards are scorching-hot heading into conference championship weekend.

Bentley’s Michael Mesic (Fort Myers, Fla.) has scored a goal in eight consecutive games, the longest such streak in NCAA Division I men’s hockey this season. Merrimack freshman F Justin Gill (St-Joseph-du-Lac, Quebec) previously held that distinction with a seven-game streak from Jan. 23 to Feb. 20.

Bentley and the Falcons face Sacred Heart in Saturday’s Atlantic Hockey America championship game.

Meanwhile, Boston College’s James Hagens (Hauppauge, N.Y.) is riding a 13-game point streak, matching the 13-game run by St. Thomas’ Lucas Wahlin (Sr., Woodbury, Minn.) from Dec. 6 through Feb. 6 for the nation’s longest this season.

Hagens will look to extend his streak Friday in the Hockey East semifinals against UConn.

The Pioneer Spirit:

Sacred Heart sophomore G Ajeet Gundarah (Richmond, British Columbia) was sidelined for nearly three months earlier this season due to injury, missing all of December and January, plus much of February.

But since returning to the SHU lineup on Feb. 20, Gundarah has gone 7-1-0 in eight starts with a 1.50 goals against average and .948 save percentage. He’s logged the fourth-most minutes (479:35) in college hockey during that stretch.

Eric the (Crimson) Red:

Denver junior D Eric Pohlkamp (Brainerd, Minn.) is just four points away from reaching 100 for his career, a milestone previously reached by only one other active NCAA Division I defenseman this season:

Active NCAA Points Leaders (Defensemen)
Rk	Name, School	Pts
1	Chris Hedden, Air Force	108
2	Eric Pohlkamp, Denver	96
3	Boston Buckberger, Denver	84
4	Mac Gadowsky, Penn State	82
	Jake Livanavage, North Dakota	82

Pohlkamp and the Pioneers will host Minnesota Duluth in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff championship game.

NCAA Milestone Watch:

100 Career Points
99 – F Christian Fitzgerald, Wisconsin
98 – F Stephen Castagna, Bentley
98 – F Felix Trudeau, Sacred Heart
96 – D Eric Pohlkamp, Denver

60 Career Goals
56 – F Lucas Wahlin, St. Thomas

50 Career Goals
49 – F Davis Burnside, Ohio State
48 – F Aiden Fink, Penn State

100 Career Games (goalies)
97 – Trey Augustine, Michigan State

10 Career Shutouts
9 – Trey Augustine, Michigan State
8 – Michael Hrabal, UMass

SID Stuff:

Marshall Haim’s game recaps for Cornell always offer plenty of great tidbits and Sunday’s entry was no different. In fact, we’re pulling not one but two nuggets from his latest gamer:

Freshman F Caton Ryan (San Francisco, Calif.) picked up the primary assist on Michael Fisher’s game-winning goal, giving Ryan 30 points on the year. He became the first Big Red rookie to reach that mark since Riley Nash had 32 points in 2007-08.
Ryan’s classmate, freshman D Xavier Veilleux (L’Ancienne-Lorette, Quebec) became the first rookie defenseman in school history with 20 assists in a season.

Ryan, Veilleux and the Big Red will face Princeton on Friday in the ECAC Hockey semifinal in Lake Placid.

Notebook Quotebook:

“Every time you go to the front of the net, you pay the price. Sometimes you get rewarded, but when you can score a goal all of that pain goes away.”

— Robert Morris junior F Cameron Gavey (Oakville, Ontario) after scoring a go-ahead goal in Robert Morris’ 5-2 win over Sacred Heart in Game 2 of the AHA semifinals (source: RMUColonials.com).

NHL Note of the Week:

Former Boston University D Cole Hutson (2024-26) scored an empty-net goal in his NHL debut Wednesday night with the Washington Capitals, just four days after completing his sophomore season with the Terriers. He is the younger brother of Montreal D Lane Hutson (BU, 2022-24), the 2024-25 Calder Trophy winner, and AHL Bakersfield F Quinn Hutson (BU, 2022-25), who made his own NHL debut last spring with Edmonton.

Hutson produced 10 goals and 22 assists in 35 games in 2025-26 and was sixth in the NCAA in scoring among defensemen when he inked his entry-level contract with the Capitals.

He is already the 11th player from the 2025 NCAA Frozen Four – and the sixth from that BU team – to have reached the NHL.

Fries at the Bottom of the Bag:

Merrimack junior G Max Lundgren (Angelholm, Sweden) broke the school’s single-season saves record during Saturday’s 3-2 overtime win over Providence. Lundgren stopped 34 of 36 shots against the Friars, giving him a school-record 1,020 stops on the year … Sacred Heart set a single-season program record with its 22nd win Friday against Robert Morris in Game 1 of the AHA quarterfinals. The Pioneers went on to win the series in three games, running their record to 23-13-3 … Cornell freshman G Alexis Cournoyer (Trois-Rivières, Quebec) made 16 saves for his first NCAA shutout – and the first clean slate of the year by the Big Red – in Saturday’s 4-0 win over Harvard in Game 2 of the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals … Teammate Jonathan Castagna (Jr., Toronto, Ontario) won an NCAA season-high 23 faceoffs in the Game 3 win over the Crimson. Castagna was 23-6 (79.3%) on draws in that game and won 72.7 percent of his faceoffs in the series … Mike Cavanaugh (Bowdoin ’90) won his 200th game as UConn head coach on Saturday when the Huskies downed Boston University 5-3 in the Hockey East quarterfinals.

Longest Active Team Winning Streaks:

8 games, Denver (began Feb. 7 vs. Colorado College)
4 games, Bentley (began March 6 vs. Mercyhurst in 3OT)

Longest Active Point Streaks:

13 games, F James Hagens (Boston College)
- 12-10—22, began Jan. 30
10 games, F Rieger Lorenz (Denver)
- 6-7—13, began Jan. 31 vs. Minnesota Duluth
9 games, F Gavin McKenna (Penn State)
- 4-15—19, began Feb. 14 at Michigan
9 games, F Michael Mesic (Bentley)
- 10-7—17, began Jan. 3 at Holy Cross
8 games, F Hank Cleaves (Dartmouth)
- 8-3—11, began Feb. 13 at Yale
8 games, F Cole Reschny (North Dakota)
- 1-8—9, began Feb. 14 vs. Miami

Longest Active Goal Streaks:

8 games, F Michael Mesic (Bentley)
- 10-4—14, began Jan. 9 at Air Force
4 games, F Luigi Benincasa (Minnesota State)
- 4-1—5, began March 6 vs. Ferris State

Longest Active Goalie Winning Streaks:

8 games, Johnny Hicks (Denver)
- Began Feb. 7 vs. Colorado College
6 games, Stephen Peck (Michigan)
- Began Jan. 10 vs. Notre Dame
4 games, Lukas Swedin (Bentley)
- Began March 6 vs. Mercyhurst in 3OT)

Conference Websites

College Hockey Inc. Resources:

Did you know? 93% of NCAA Division I men’s hockey players earn their degree!