ECAC Hockey Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
| ECAC Hockey Tournament | |
|---|---|
| Conference Hockey Championship | |
| Sport | Ice hockey |
| Conference | ECAC Hockey |
| Format | Single-elimination, best two-of-three tournament |
| Current stadium | Herb Brooks Arena |
| Current location | Lake Placid, New York |
| Played | 1962–present |
| Last contest | 2016 ECAC Hockey Tournament |
| Current champion | Quinnipiac |
| Most championships | Cornell (12) |
| Official website | The Official Site of ECAC Hockey |
The ECAC Hockey Tournament is the conference tournament for ECAC Hockey. The winner of the tournament received an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament which has occurred every year the NCAA has allowed automatic berths into the tournament. The ECAC tournament champion has only once not received an invitation to the NCAA tournament, that coming in 1963 when Harvard won its first conference championship (the second year in existence for the ECAC).
The tournament was first held in 1962, the first year of conference play. It was held at Boston Arena in Boston from 1962–66. It then moved to the much larger Boston Garden From 1967–92 (capacity for ice hockey games was 14,000+ in the Garden as opposed to the ~4,000 at the Arena). Because of a schism that occurred in the ECAC in 1984 that saw most Boston-area schools break away and form the Hockey East conference in 1984, the championship rounds moved to the Olympic Arena in Lake Placid, New York for the next decade (1993–2002). From 2003–2010, along with a change to the tournament format, the semifinal and championship games were moved to the Pepsi Arena in Albany, New York which changed its name to the 'Times Union Center' in 2007. From 2011 thru 2013 the final four games were held at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey and afterwards it was announced that the 2014 championship would return to Lake Placid and play at the since renamed Herb Brooks Arena.
The ECAC Hockey Tournament format begins as a single-game elimination three-round format featuring the top eight teams in the standings.
The quarterfinal round is changed to a two-game format where if the two teams are tied afterwards a 'mini-game' is held to determine who advances. Overtime is not played in the quarterfinals outside the 'mini-games'
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