On Sept. 24, ECAC Hockey confirmed a previous report from The Sun, that the conference’s women’s semifinals and championship game — collectively known as championship weekend — will be played inside Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, New York, rather than on campus sites.
“Lake Placid is a special place in the hockey community, and we are thrilled to bring the ECAC Hockey Women’s Championship to this historic venue,” said ECAC commissioner Doug Christiansen in a press release. “This move will provide an unforgettable championship atmosphere for our student-athletes and fans, while building on the league’s tradition of excellence.”
For members of the Cornell women’s hockey community, this move is bittersweet. On the one hand, the move ends a period of inequity in the conference. Previously, women’s championship weekend was held on member-schools’ campuses, while the men’s was held in Lake Placid.
“I think it’s a great step forward for women’s hockey and creating equality for both the mens and womens side, just making it the same,” said junior goaltender Annelies Bergmann.
Plus, getting to play in the same arena where “The Miracle on Ice” took place is always special.
“I'm excited about the idea of Lake Placid, which is so rich in hockey history,” said sophomore forward Lindzi Avar. “There's no bigger kind of pinnacle of the hockey world than the 1980 Miracle … to be able to play on that same ice [is special].”
However, leaving the traditional format of on-campus finals could cause attendance and fan-engagement to fall, and with it the power of home-ice advantage. Scenes like the one at Lynah Rink last spring — where a raucous crowd was credited by players with boosting Cornell in its 5-1 championship game win — will be difficult to recapture hours away from campuses.
“I think the crowd helped us immensely today, especially coming back from a three-overtime game,” said head coach Doug Derraugh ’91 after the championship win. “The crowd was just roaring today.”
“Obviously there’s a bit of sadness there, just cause we’re losing our hometown fans. … It was an unbelievable atmosphere to play in,” Bergmann said. “Hopefully we can recreate it there, we obviously know it’s harder cause it’s farther and it’s harder for students to get there.”
The Cornell’s men’s hockey program is a blueprint towards recreating that feeling of a home game at Lynah Rink while in Lake Placid. The team captured the conference title in each of the last two seasons, despite entering championship weekend as an underdog.
“You walk in and see all the ECAC banners, and you see the different teams, and on the men's side, [Cornell] had the most ECAC championships,” Avar said. “It was fun to see that, and it really makes you want to bring the woman's side to it there too, and like, hang up the same banners that the men do on the ECAC side.”
There may be no location worldwide more connected to hockey than Lake Placid. The small town located nearly five hours north of Ithaca hosted what is widely regarded as the greatest hockey game of all time: a thrilling 4-3 comeback win by the United States over the Soviet Union in the the 1980 Winter Olympic Games. The venue has since hosted both men’s and women’s hockey national championships, as well as 21 men’s ECAC title-deciders
“It’ll give a real championship feel to the event, it’s not just another game in another team's rink,” Derraugh said. “Lake Placid is a beautiful town and obviously the hockey history there … it will be a lot of fun.”
Jane McNally ’26 and Alexis Rogers ’28 contributed reporting.
Eli Fastiff is a senior editor on the 143rd editorial board and a member of the class of 2026 in the College of Arts and Sciences. You can follow him on X @Eli_Fastiff and reach him at efastiff@cornellsun.com.
