Cornell tops ECAC Hockey preseason polls

Goaltender Matthew Galajda gives Cornell a massive boost. (Photo by John Kavouris/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Cornell has been picked to win ECAC Hockey in a vote of league coaches and league media, as announced Wednesday morning.

The Big Red, the defending regular season champion, earned eight of 12 first-place votes in the coaches poll and 16 of 20 in the media poll. Head coach Mike Schafer’s team returns top goaltender Matthew Galajda and key defensemen Alex Green, Yanni Kaldis, Alec McCrea and Matt Cairns.

Princeton, the surprise winner of the Whitelaw Cup in 2018 as winner of the ECAC Hockey Tournament, was picked second in both polls. The Tigers were the seventh seed entering the tournament, but pulled off upsets over Union, Cornell and Clarkson en route to the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.