NHL News

Home

Teams

Quizzes

Newsletter

Preview: All Conference Tournament Championship Games: Puck Drop

Originally posted on Boston College Eagles on SI
By Christopher Walsh | Last updated Mar 20, 2026 6:00 AM ET

Back on November 1, St. Thomas and Minnesota State played one of the wildest games of the 2025-26 college hockey season, a 4-3 overtime game at the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center in Mankato.

It went back and forth in the third period, with Minnesota State's Luigi Benincasa wristing in a shot off a deflection 31 seconds in for a 2-1 lead, only to be answered at 4:54 by Ryan O'Neill, and Harvard transfer Alex Gaffney giving St. Thomas the lead at 9:57. However, the Mavericks tied the game two seconds after pulling their goalie, at 18:47, on a Jack Smith one-timer.

In overtime, Lucas Van Vliet won a board battle to create a 2-on-1 break for St. Thomas, with fellow freshman Nathan Pilling getting the win in dramatic fashion. At the time, it was just the Tommies' fifth nationally-ranked victory in program history.

Friday evening, the teams will play again and no one would be surprised to see a similar result in terms of a close contest. Overall, the Tommies won both games at Mayo Clinic HSEC this season, but lost the other meeting, and a year ago — 364 days ago to be exact — came up on the short end of the Mason Cup final, 4-2.

There are a lot of similar storylines among this weekend's six conference championship games, with the winner of each landing an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

Puck Drop: Friday, March 20, 2026

• The Women’s Hockey Commissioners Association announced that Connecticut graduate Tia Chan is the Women’s College Hockey Goalie of the Year. Chan led Hockey East in nearly every overall category in 2025-26, including minutes played (2252:25), wins (27), shutouts (five), goals against average (1.55), and save percentage (.951) and was second with 1,122 saves. Nationally, she was second in wins, save percentage, and minutes played, third in saves, fourth in goals against average, and eighth in shutouts. The other finalists were Quinnipiac sophomore Felicia Frank and Minnesota Duluth sophomore Ève Gascon.

• Ohio State's Hilda Svensson is this year's recipient of the Julie Chu Women’s National Rookie of the Year award. Penn State's Jeff Kampersal was named the 2026 CCM/AHCA University Division Women’s Coach of the Year.

• Minnesota Duluth sophomore forward Max Plante was named the 2025-2026 NCHC Player of the Year. Plante finished second in the NCHC in the regular season with 45 points (22 goals and 23 assists) in 34 games, and has scored six game-winning goals including the Frozen Faceoff semifinal win at North Dakota.

• Hayden Stavroff become the first Dartmouth player to be named ECAC Player of the Year. Meanwhile, Reid Cashman was named ECAC's Tim Taylor Coach of the Year for the second time in three seasons. The Big Green is poised to make its first NCAA tournament appearance in 46 years. Quinnipiac forward Ethan Wyttenbach was named the 2026 ECAC Rookie of the Year. Colgate's Johnathan Castagna was named Best Defensive Forward, with Quinnipiac's Elliott Groenewold named best defensive defenseman.

• The Hockey East Association announced that Massachusetts junior goaltender Michael Hrabal is the 2025-26 Hockey East Player of the Year. Providence's Nate Leaman has been named Hockey East Coach of the Year. Friars forward Roger McQueen was named the league's Rookie of the Year.

• One day after Minnesota decided to move on from women's head coach Brad Frost, Ohio State signed Nadine Muzerall to a five-year extension. Muzerall, a former Gophers player, has led the Buckeyes to two national championships in (2022 and 2024) and has OSU back in the Frozen Four.

• Per Breakaway On SI, StubHub cites 252 percent increase in the Professional Women's Hockey League demand since the U.S. women's gold medal win the Olympics.

• The ECAC announced the passing of former official Dave Brown. He was part of the league's officiating staff from 2004-2016, during which he worked seven straight championship weekends and five straight NCAA tournaments.

All times are local to where the game is being played.

Hockey Quote of the Day

“I am going to be better. I’ve studied goaltending extremely hard. I’ve probably studied it the most out of anyone in this world. So I know what to do, and how to get my best game.”Connor Hellebuyck after a playoff loss