The Princeton Tigers captured the 2008 Bank of America ECAC Hockey Championship title, defeating Harvard, 4-1, Saturday, March 22, at the Times Union Center in Albany, New York.

The ECAC Hockey Championship features three rounds of competition, featuring all 12 teams. The 2009 championship will mark the seventh year the league has utilized the 12-team format.  From 1998-02, the league conducted a 10-team tournament with five teams advancing to the championship round.

The 2009 championship will commence Friday, March 6 when the conference's Nos. 5-8 seeds, as determined by the final regular-season standings, host teams ranked Nos. 9-12 in first-round action. All series will be best-of-three games and will be played on the campuses of the higher-seeded teams.

The four first-round series winners will advance to quarterfinals action to face the conference's top four teams as determined by the final regular-season standings.  The best-of-three games series will be played on the campuses of the top four seeds March 13-15.

The conference's top four teams in 2008-09, as determined by the outcome of quarterfinals action, will gather at the Times Union Center to determine the conference tournament's 48th champion.

The 48th championship will comprise four games beginning Friday, March 20 and concluding Saturday, March 21.  On Friday, March 20, the No. 4-seeded team will face the No. 1 seed in the first semifinals contest, followed by the No. 3 seed versus the No. 2 seed in the second semifinals game.  On Saturday, March 21, the third-place and championship games will be played.  The 2009 ECAC Hockey champion receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.

As part of the championship, ECAC Hockey will conduct its annual awards banquet.

article courtesy of ECAC Hockey League