BC Bulletin

Two Dramatic Overtime Games Lead to Women's ECAC Co-Champions: Puck Drop

Your daily briefing on what's going on in college hockey, everything from the assists on the ice to the Zamboni.
Christopher Walsh|
Despite taking a dramatic overtime loss, Yale women's hockey celebrates clinching a share of the ECAC regular season title.
Despite taking a dramatic overtime loss, Yale women's hockey celebrates clinching a share of the ECAC regular season title. | Yale Athletics

Everyone thought it would be close, but no one expected how the women's regular-season title in the ECAC would be decided on Saturday. It ended up coming down to two overtime games with dramatic finishes, resulting in co-champions.

We'll set the stage for the surprising conclusion. Coming into the weekend, five teams were within six points of one another at the top of the standings led by No. 9 Princeton (44 points), No. 8 Yale (42), and No. 7 Quinnipiac (40), with No. 12 Clarkson and Brown tied for fourth (38). The Tigers had the lead, but Yale had the key matchups, at Princeton and at Quinnipiac.

On Friday, Yale won at Princeton, 2-0, and knew it had the title outright with a win against Quinnipiac, For a long time on Saturday it appeared that was likely to happen. Gracie Gilkyson scored midway through the first period, and roughly a minute later Naomi Boucher forced a turnover behind the Bobcats' net that turned into a solid 2-0 lead.

Yale was still up two goals, 3-1, with time running out, when Quinnipiac pulled its goaltender and didn't just score once, but twice to send the game into overtime. Kahlen Lamarche got the first with 1:02 remaining, and Aynsley D'Ottavio tied the score with 25 seconds to go.

Meanwhile, Princeton had just seen its game against Brown go to overtime when with 90 seconds remaining, and Brown having pulled its goaltender, India McDadi scored to tie things at 2 and send it to OT. Princeton needed just 48 seconds before Missy Wunder scored her second of the game.

The Tigers only had to wait a few minutes to learn their fate. Lamarche went off on a breakaway and scored her second goal of the game to give Quinnipiac the dramatic comeback win and snap Yale's 14-game winning streak. The Bulldogs still clinched a share of the ECAC Hockey regular season title 46 points with Princeton (one ahead of Quinnipiac), and top seeding in the upcoming ECAC Tournament.

It's the first regular-season ECAC title for Princeton, and second for Yale.

Puck Drop: Sunday, February 15, 2026

• Remember that whole thing about Cornell, Dartmouth and Quinnipiac being tied for atop the ECAC standings after Friday night's games? Just a day later the conference appears to have a clear frontrunner No. 5 Quinnipiac defeated Princeton 4-1. Ethan Wyttenbach had at least a point in his 11th straight game continues to lead the nation in scoring with 49 points. Aaron Schwartz and David Jacobs both scored power-play goals. Elliott Groenewold and Antonin Verreault also scored, while Matej Marinov made 21 shots. The teams head to Princeton for the back end of the home-and-home series.

• On night after the Cornell women's team won the Ivy League title by one point, the Big Red men's team clinched its sixth league title over the last eight seasons, and 27th Ivy League championship overall. Dartmouth's loss to Brown gave Cornell a six-point lead with one game remaining, and Princeton trails by 10 points with three games remaining.

• Did Oscar Hemming save Boston College's season?

Men's College Hockey Saturday Scores

AHA
Canisius 5, Holy Cross 3
Air Force 5, Mercyhurst 4
Bentley 5, Sacred Heart 1
Robert Morris 5, Niagara 1

Big Ten
No. 2 Michigan 6, No. 6 Penn State 3
Notre Dame 3, Minnesota 2
Ohio State 3, No. 13 Wisconsin 2

CCHA
Ferris State 6, Northern Michigan 0
No. 17 Michigan Tech 5, Lake Superior 4 (OT)  
Bemidji State 1, No. 16 Minnesota State 0 (OT) 
No. 18 Augustana 4, Bowling Green 2

ECAC
Brown 4, No. 12 Dartmouth 3
No. 5 Quinnipiac 4, Princeton 1
RPI 6, Colgate 1
Union 4. No. 9 Cornell 1
Yale 3, Harvard 2 (OT)

Hockey East
No. 7 Providence 4, Northeastern 1
Boston University 5, New Hampshire 3
UMass Lowell 5, Vermont 2  
No. 11 Connecticut 3, Maine 2 (SO, UConn wins shootout, 2-0)  
No. 14 Boston College 4, Merrimack 2

NCHC
Colorado College 4, St. Cloud State 1
No. 4 Western Michigan 7, Arizona State 2  
No. 3 North Dakota 4, No. 20 Miami 3 (OT) 
No. 8 Denver 3, at Omaha 1

Non-Conference
Long Island 5, Stonehill 3
Lindenwood 4, Alaska-Anchorage 2

Women's College Hockey Saturday Scores

AHA
No. 13 Mercyhurst 7, Syracuse 0
Lindenwood 8, Robert Morris 5
No. 4 Penn State 4, RIT 2 

ECAC
No. 11 Cornell 2, No. 12 Clarkson 1 
No. 8 Princeton 3, Brown 2 (OT)  
No. 7 Quinnipiac 4, No. 9 Yale 3  
Dartmouth 5, Rensselaer 3
No. 15 Colgate 4, St. Lawrence 2 
Harvard 2, Union 1  

Hockey East
New Hampshire 3, Maine 0  
Providence 3, No. 14 Holy Cross 2  
No. 6 Connecticut 2, Boston University 0

NEWHA
Post 3, Stonehill 2  
Assumption 4, Saint Anselm 2
Franklin Pierce 5, Saint Michael's 1
Long Island 1, Sacred Heart 0

WCHA
St. Cloud State 5, Bemidji State 0  
No. 1 Wisconsin 5, Minnesota State 1  
10 Minnesota Duluth 3, St. Thomas 0
No. 2 Ohio State 3, No. 3 Minnesota 1  

Games between ranked opponents are bolded. All times are local to where the game is being played.

Men's College Hockey Sunday Schedule

ECAC
No. 5 Quinnipiac at Princeton, 4 p.m. ET  

Women's College Hockey Sunday Schedule

Hockey East
Merrimack at Vermont, 2 p.m. ET  
Boston College at No. 5 Northeastern, 3:30 p.m. ET  

Olympics Hockey Update

• Six different American players scored for Team USA after Denmark struck first, and later had the lead early in the second period. The 6-3 victory had the Americans on the verge of winning Group C, and will earn a bye into the quarterfinals with anything other than a regulation loss to Germany on Sunday. Jack Eichel (former Boston University) was the only player to have more than a point as he had a goal and assist 57 seconds apart in the second period. Brady Tkachuk, Matt Boldy, Jake Guentzel, Noah Nanifin and Jack Hughes also scored for Team USA. For more see SI.com.

• The most likely scenario is that Team USA will be the second-seeded team for the playoff round. The first-place team in each group, plus the top team among the second-place teams, advance, while the rest of the field plays an elimination round. Both the U.S. and Canada are 2-0 with six points, and if they both win Sunday the first tiebreaker will be goal differential. Canada is +9 and will play France. The U.S. is +7 and will face Germany. The German team has nine players with NHL experience, while France has one.

• Jeremy Swayman’s Ugly Mistake Might Not Have Been His Fault

• Although Sweden defeated Slovakia 5-3 it lost the three-way tiebreaker (goal differential in the games involving those three teams), giving Slovakia first place in Group B. The tiebreaker difference over Finland was a goal by Slovakian forward Dalibor Dvorsky with 39 seconds remaining. Elias Pettersson scored twice for Sweden, while Lucas Raymond had a goal and two assists, and Jacob Markstrom made 29 saves.

• Team captain Marie-Philip Poulin (former Boston University player) returned after missing two games and helped lead Canada to a 5-1 victory in the quarterbacks against Germany. Poulin scored to tie fellow Canadian Hayley Wickenheiser for the women's Olympic goals record (18). Brianne Jenner (Cornell), Claire Thompson (Princeton), Sarah Fillier (Princeton, and Blayre Turnbull (Wisconsin) also scored for Canada, which will play Switzerland in the semifinals. Alina Muller (Northeastern) scored the lone goal as the Swiss eliminated Finland.

Olympics Hockey Scores, Schedule

Saturday's Schedule
MEN
Group B
Sweden 5, Slovakia 3
Finland 11, Italy 0

Group C
Latvia 4, Germany 3
United States 6, Denmark 3

WOMEN
Quarterfinals
Canada 5, Germany 1
Switzerland 1, Finland 0

Sunday's Schedule
MEN
Group A
Switzerland vs. Czechia, 6:10 a.m. ET
Canada vs. France, 10:40 a.m.

Group C
Denmark vs. Latvia, 1:10 p.m.
United States vs. Germany, 3:10 p.m.

Monday's Schedule
WOMEN
Semifinals
United States vs. Sweden, at PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan, 10:40 a.m. ET
Canada vs. Switzerland, at PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan, 3:10 p.m.

Hockey Quote of the Day

“It was Rod Langway. How can you not win when your best players are also your hardest workers? The other guys see that and wonder, 'How can we not try?' "
Dave Poile

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We'll Leave You With This ...

Published
Christopher Walsh
CHRISTOPHER WALSH

Christopher Walsh is the founder and publisher of Alabama Crimson Tide On SI, which first published as BamaCentral in 2018, and is also the publisher of the Boston College, Missouri and Vanderbilt sites . He's covered the Crimson Tide since 2004 and is the author of 27 books including “100 Things Crimson Tide Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die” and “Nick Saban vs. College Football.” He's an eight-time honoree of Football Writers Association of America awards and three-time winner of the Herby Kirby Memorial Award, the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s highest writing honor for story of the year. In 2022, he was named one of the 50 Legends of the ASWA. Previous beats include the Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, along with Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks. Originally from Minnesota and a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, he currently resides in Tuscaloosa.

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