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2020–21 ECAC Hockey men's season

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The 2020–21 ECAC Hockey men's season was the 60th season of play for ECAC Hockey and took place during the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season. The regular was delayed until on November 22, 2020 and conclude on March 6, 2021.[1]

2020–21 ECAC Hockey men's season
Season2020–21
ConferenceECAC Hockey
DivisionDivision I
Sportmen's ice hockey
DurationNovember 22, 2020–
March 27, 2021
Number of teams4
Regular Season
Season championsQuinnipiac
Season MVPOdeen Tufto
Top scorerOdeen Tufto
ECAC Hockey tournament
Tournament championsSt. Lawrence
  Runners-upQuinnipiac
Tournament MVPDavid Jankowski
Top scorerDavid Jankowski
Luc Salem
NCAA tournament
Bids1
Record0–1
Best FinishRegional semifinal
Team(s)Quinnipiac
ECAC Hockey men's seasons
« 2019–20 2021–22 »

Season

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Following the early conclusion to the 2020 season, there was a great deal of uncertainty about college hockey under the cloud of COVID-19. At the beginning of July, Rensselaer was one of the first schools to announce that it would be suspending all of its athletic programs until January at the earliest.[2] Afterwards, most other ECAC programs prepared to begin the season at some unknown date. When the beginning of the season was tentatively set for November, many players began practicing in October. Yale ended up getting hit hard by the pandemic, having 18 players test positive just weeks before the first game was to be played.[3] Partly as a result, the Ivy League made the decision to cancel all athletics for the 2020-21 scholastic year.[4]

Six ECAC programs were members of the Ivy League and abided by the decision, which immediately cut the conference in half. Shortly afterwards, Rensselaer extended its suspensions to mirror those of the Ivies and were soon joined by Union.[5] The result was that ECAC Hockey had only 4 active teams for the 2021 season. Due to the pandemic, the NCAA selection committee decided not to stick to the letter of their bylaws, which required six participating programs for a conference to receive an automatic bid for its tournament champion, and would include the ECAC champion in the NCAA tournament.

With just 4 teams available, the active programs went outside the ECAC to schedule non-conference games early in the season. Most games were played against Atlantic Hockey teams and resulted in Quinnipiac being the top-ranked ECAC program. That trend continued throughout the season and the Bobcats were not adversely affected in the national ranking despite playing what was regarded as a weak schedule. As the teams prepared to begin the ECAC tournament, Clarkson abruptly ended its season when several players violated university protocols regarding COVID safety.[6] The tournament became a 3-team format as a result with Quinnipiac as the heavy favorite. St. Lawrence, however, pulled off a surprising upset and won their first league championship in 20 years.

With the Saints preparing for the national tournament, head coach Brent Brekke tested positive for COVID the very next day and the team was forced to withdraw.[7] Quinnipiac, the regular season champion, was chosen as the ECAC representative instead and placed opposite Minnesota State in the first round. The Bobcats scored twice in the first period and then exchanged goals with the Mavericks to hold a 3–1 lead with just over 11 minutes remaining. MSU scored twice in the final 5:06 to tie the match and sent the game into overtime. With the late scored, all of the momentum swung to Minnesota State and Quinnipiac was constantly on their heels in the extra session. They were outshout 7–2 in just over 11 minutes and a scramble around the net resulted in the MSU earning the goal, ending probably the strangest ECAC season.

Standings

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2020–21 ECAC Hockey Standings
Conference record Overall record
GP W L T OTW OTL 3/SW PTS PT% GF GA GP W L T GF GA
#11 Quinnipiac † 18 10 4 4 1 1 3 37 .685 54 34 29 17 8 4 100 59
#20 Clarkson 14 6 4 4 1 2 2 25 .595 29 25 22 11 7 4 62 52
St. Lawrence * 14 4 8 2 1 1 1 15 .357 30 37 17 6 8 3 40 45
Colgate 18 5 9 4 1 0 1 16 .352 34 51 22 6 11 5 48 66
Brown 0 - - - - - - - - - - 0 - - - - -
Cornell 0 - - - - - - - - - - 0 - - - - -
Dartmouth 0 - - - - - - - - - - 0 - - - - -
Harvard 0 - - - - - - - - - - 0 - - - - -
Princeton 0 - - - - - - - - - - 0 - - - - -
Rensselaer 0 - - - - - - - - - - 0 - - - - -
Union 0 - - - - - - - - - - 0 - - - - -
Yale 0 - - - - - - - - - - 0 - - - - -
Championship: March 20, 2021
† indicates conference regular season champion (Cleary Cup)
* indicates conference tournament champion (Whitelaw Cup)
Rankings: USCHO.com Top 20 Poll

Coaches

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Reid Cashman was hired on June 1, 2020, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic he did not coach this season.

Records

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Team Head coach Season at school Record at school ECAC Hockey record
Clarkson Casey Jones 10 168–137–41 83–69–24
Colgate Don Vaughan 28 429–459–109 259–260–73
Quinnipiac Rand Pecknold 27 532–318–93 173–111–46
St. Lawrence Brent Brekke 2 4–27–5 2–18–2

Statistics

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Leading scorers

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GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes[8]

Player Position Team GP G A Pts PIM
Odeen Tufto Senior Quinnipiac 18 4 21 25 16
Ethan de Jong Junior Quinnipiac 18 8 9 17 20
Zach Metsa Junior Quinnipiac 18 3 11 14 6
Cameron Buhl Sophomore St. Lawrence 14 3 9 12 19
Zach Tsekos Senior Clarkson 14 3 8 11 4
Josh McKechney Senior Colgate 18 6 5 11 10
Michael Lombardi Junior Quinnipiac 18 3 8 11 0

Leading goaltenders

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Minimum 1/3 of team's minutes played in conference games.
GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average[9]

Player Class Team GP Min W L T GA SO SV% GAA
Ethan Haider Freshman Clarkson 13 802 6 3 4 21 0 .938 1.57
Keith Petruzzelli Senior Quinnipiac 18 1080 10 4 4 3 32 .927 1.78
Emil Zetterquist Junior St. Lawrence 13 778 4 7 2 31 0 .927 2.39

ECAC tournament

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Main article: 2021 ECAC Hockey men's ice hockey tournament
Semifinals
March 18 		Championship
March 20
1 Quinnipiac 2
3 St. Lawrence 5* 3 St. Lawrence 3*
4 Colgate 4

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

NCAA tournament

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Main article: 2021 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament

Regional semifinal

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West

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March 27, 2021
2:00 PM		(2) Minnesota State4 – 3 (OT)
(0–2, 1–0, 2–1, 1–0)		(3) QuinnipiacBudweiser Events Center, Loveland, Colorado
Attendance: 101
Game reference
Dryden McKayGoaliesKeith PetruzzelliReferees:
Toni Czech
Brett Sheva
Linesmen:
Justin Cornell
Pat Richardson
0–103:00 – Odeen Tufto (8) (Räsänen)
0–215:35 – Peter DiLiberatore (5) (van Nes, Fillion)
(Napravnik) Jake Jaremko (4) – PP – 38:091–2
1–348:54 – C. J. McGee (1) (Miller, Harris)
(Gerads, Aamodt) Nathan Smith (6) – 54:542–3
(Livingstone) Cade Borchardt (9) – EA – 58:583–3
(Furry, Lutz) Ryan Sandelin (6) – GW – 71:134–3
6 minPenalties4 min
38Shots30

Ranking

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Main article: 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey rankings

USCHO

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Team Pre 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Final
Clarkson 8 8 9 9 7 7 8 10 10 13 14 12 13 14 13 15 14 14 18 20 N/A 20
Colgate NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR N/A NR
Quinnipiac 13 13 12 11 11 11 16 12 13 11 10 11 12 11 12 12 11 12 10 11 N/A 12
St. Lawrence NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR N/A NR

[10]

USA Today

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Team Pre 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Final
Clarkson 8 8 9 8 7 8 9 12 10 12 14 14 13 15 13 13 14 14 NR NR NR NR
Colgate NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR
Quinnipiac 14 14 11 11 10 11 NR 13 12 11 10 11 11 11 11 11 10 11 10 10 11 11
St. Lawrence NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR

[11]

Awards

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NCAA

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Award Recipient
Derek Hines Unsung Hero Award Josh Kosack, Union
AHCA All-American Teams[12]
East First Team Pos Team
Odeen Tufto F Quinnipiac

ECAC

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Award Recipient
Player of the Year Odeen Tufto, Quinnipiac
Best Defensive Forward Zach Tsekos, Clarkson
Best Defensive Defenseman Pierson Brandon, Colgate
Rookie of the Year Ethan Haider, Clarkson
Ken Dryden Award Keith Petruzelli, Quinnipiac
Student-Athlete of the Year Kyle Betts, Cornell
Tim Taylor Award Rand Pecknold, Quinnipiac
All-ECAC Hockey Teams[13][14]
First Team   Position   Rookie Team
Keith Petruzelli, Quinnipiac G Ethan Haider, Clarkson
Zach Metsa, Quinnipiac D Pierson Brandon, Colgate
Connor McCarthy, Clarkson D Luc Salem, St. Lawrence
Odeen Tufto, Quinnipiac F Ty Smilanic, Quinnipiac
Zach Tsekos, Clarkson F Alex Young, Colgate
Cameron Buhl, St. Lawrence F Greg Lapointe, St. Lawrence
Josh McKechney, Colgate F

Conference tournament

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Most Outstanding Player
David Jankowski St. Lawrence
All-Tournament team
None selected

2021 NHL Entry Draft

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Main article: 2021 NHL Entry Draft
Round Pick Player College NHL team
1 13 Matthew Coronato† Harvard Calgary Flames
3 73 Ayrton Martino† Clarkson Dallas Stars
3 79 Justin Ertel† Cornell Dallas Stars
5 137 Aku Koskenvuo† Harvard Vancouver Canucks
5 138 Jack Bar† Harvard Dallas Stars
7 208 Hank Kempf† Cornell New York Rangers
7 211 Robert Flinton† Dartmouth Tampa Bay Lightning
7 223 Samuel Lipkin† Quinnipiac Arizona Coyotes

† incoming freshman [15]

References

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  1. ^ "2021-22 Schedule". ECAC Hockey. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  2. ^ "Rensselaer cancels fall sports season, hockey teams' seasons to be determined". USCHO.com. July 1, 2020. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  3. ^ "18 members of Yale's men's ice hockey team test positive for Covid-19". CNN. October 16, 2020. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
  4. ^ "Ivy League cancels winter sports season, delays spring play". ESPN. November 12, 2020. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
  5. ^ "Union Releases Update on 2020-21 Ice Hockey Season". Union Dutchmen. November 17, 2020. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
  6. ^ "College men's hockey: Clarkson's season called off due to school COVID-19 violations by team members". NNY 360. March 11, 2021. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
  7. ^ "St. Lawrence withdraws from NCAA men's hockey tournament after coach tests positive for COVID-19". ESPN. March 21, 2021. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
  8. ^ "2020-2021 Men's Ice Hockey Conference Statistics". Atlantic Hockey. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  9. ^ "2020-2021 Men's Ice Hockey Conference Statistics". Atlantic Hockey. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  10. ^ "USCHO Division I Men's Poll". USCHO.com. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
  11. ^ "USA Today Men's Poll". USCHO.com. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
  12. ^ "Boston College, Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin lead way with three All-American college hockey players apiece for '20-21 season". USCHO.com. April 9, 2021. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
  13. ^ "ECAC Hockey Announces First Team All-League". ecachockey.com. March 17, 2021. Retrieved April 4, 2021.
  14. ^ "ECAC Hockey Announces 2021 All-Rookie Team". ecachockey.com. March 17, 2021. Retrieved April 4, 2021.
  15. ^ "NCAA player rankings, selections in 2021 NHL Draft". USCHO.com. Retrieved July 24, 2021.
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