Nicole's NCAA Notebook: February 16, 2026

• The regular season is complete for the ECAC and AHA. Penn State won the regular season AHA title weeks ago, but the ECAC title came down to the very last moment. In the end, Yale and Princeton tied. It it Princeton's first-ever ECAC title. Yale wins the tie-breaker to earn the top seed in the conference tournament.
• It was a ridiculous ending to the ECAC regular season with Yale, Quinnipiac and Princeton all winning or losing points in overtime games.
• Hockey East, NEWHA and the WCHA each have one more week of regular season games. Northeastern has already wrapped up the Hockey East title, but the other two are still up for grabs. Franklin Pierce is in the drivers' seat in NEWHA with a three point lead over Assumption and a five point lead over Saint Anselm. FPU and STA do play each other in a home and home this weekend, just to make it interesting. Assumption has a home and home with Sacred Heart. Wisconsin has a two point lead on Ohio State heading into the final weekend. The Badgers host St. Cloud State while OSU plays at Bemidji State.
• With only two games on Sunday, I felt pretty secure in checking the NPI - but it moved a whole lot more than I thought it would. Saturday night Penn State had edged ahead of Minnesota into the 3rd spot
• It's a USA vs. Canada for the gold medal. All 46 of the women on the two rosters have played in the NCAA and seven Americans - Joy Dunne (Ohio State, Laila Edwards, KK Harvey (both Wisconsin), Tessa Janecke (Penn State), Ava McNaughton(UW) , Abbey Murphy (Minnesota) and Kirsten Simms (UW) - are currently playing in the NCAA.
• The Saturday game with Ohio State and Minnesota featured a challenge at the second intermission that led to a major penalty, so the teams were brought back from the locker rooms to replay the final 1:04 of the period. OSU scored in that time - which proved to be the game winner.
• Clarkson earned an OT win on Friday, but the Golden Knights ended the regular season losing four of five and find themselves in a must-win scenario in the ECAC Tournament if they don't want their season to be over.
• Holy Cross is also on a skid, going winless over their last six games with two ties and four losses.
• Goals of the week:

Vermont's Rose-Marie Brochu has been on a tear

Great puck movement from RIT's Cassie Barnes to take down Penn State in overtime

Stellar pass, stellar finish for St. Lawrence

Win the faceoff, find the lane and snipe from Sydney Bryant

Marianne Picard to Finley McCarthy for the finish for Wisconsin

Issy Wunder's overtime game-winner that also gave Princeton a share of their first-ever ECAC tigle

Great puck movement by the Hawks and a pretty finish by Saint Anselm's Lauren Waldo

BU alumna Marie-Philip Poulin set a new Olympic record, scoring her 19th and 20th career goal at the Games in the semifinals on Tuesday