Dartmouth clashes with Princeton for the ECAC Championship. Can the favored Big Green's offense and defense overcome the Tigers' determined underdog run?
Dartmouth has had an exceptional season representing the country and ECAC, as they’ll now have the home bench against Princeton in Lake Placid for an ECAC Championship on the line.
To start with the favorite Dartmouth, they’re coming off a 4-0 semifinal victory last night against the Cinderella story in Clarkson, and hold one of if not the best goal scorer in the nation in Hayden Stavroff.
Stavroff has 22 goals in 22 conference affairs in the ECAC, and recently has been noted on the nominee list of the Hobey Baker award.
Dartmouth has scored four goals in each of their three postseason contests and show no signs of slowing down. Their 3.7 goals per game average is good for eighth in the nation, but it has really been their defense carrying the main idea of the story.
2.09 goals allowed per game is the mean of the season for the Big Green, good for fourth in the entire country. Dartmouth held Colgate to just one goal each in the quarterfinal best of three series, while shutting out Clarkson in a single game semifinal. Emmett Croteau stopped every shot of 31 in a shutout effort.
For Princeton, they know the seat they’re in. An 18-12-3 team ranked 20th in the NPI know their chance at bid stealing and winning this conference championship is their only way into the tournament.
The fourth seed Tigers knocked off a sensational Cornell squadron in the semifinals yesterday, who had the three seed in the ECAC. They also held a nationally strong Union offense to just two goals in each game in a sweep of the ECAC quarterfinals.
Goaltender Arthur Smith deserves his flowers as well. A 0.914 save percentage in his last five games and a great statistical jump overall from his last two seasons at Princeton. He has been consistent and a key factor to the underdog run for the Tigers.
PREDICTION
With the last game between these two a 2-2 draw, expect nothing other than rock solid defenses butting heads. Princeton has the current play and overall confidence to beat Dartmouth, as they’re the ones who cut into season success from the Big Green, beating them to open the calendar year of 2026. There’s got to be a bid stealer in one of these conferences, and it might be the Tigers. I’ll take Princeton 2, Dartmouth 1.