2011 ECAC West Tournament The 2011 ECAC West Tournaments took place in February and March 2011 . = Men = = Women = The regular season co - champions were the RIT Tigers and the Plattsburgh Cardinals . RIT , winning their first regular - season title since moving to the ECAC West in 2007 , won the top seed by winning the common - opponents tiebreaker over Plattsburgh . The seeds for the tournament are : The Buffalo State Bengals , Chatham Cougars , Potsdam Bears , and Cortland Red Dragons failed to qualify for the tournament . Quarterfinals . RIT and Plattsburgh received byes into the semifinals , leaving # 3 to host # 6 and # 4 to host # 5 on Saturday , February 26 . Utica at Elmira . Despite pouring 53 shots on goal , including 21 in the third period , Elmira only beat Utica netminder Marissa Hotaling once , and that wasn ' t enough as Utica scored twice . Utica advances to play RIT . Elmira , who won the last three ECAC West tournaments , instead exits early and falls out of contention for the national tournament . Oswego at Neumann . In the first period , Neumann ' s Jessica Schroeder scored a shorthanded goal , one of 17 shots in that period for the Knights . The Lakers managed only three shots , a number they repeated in the second period ; the difference is that one of those second - period shots went in , on the power play . In the third , Oswego — the only team to have beaten league leader RIT this season — woke up and got 11 shots on net , but none went in , sending the game to overtime . Both teams had chances in overtime , but no one scored until Neumann ' s Mariah Fairgrieve ended it in the 14th minute of the second overtime . Neumann advances to play Plattsburgh . Semi - finals . The teams were reseeded for this round . The championship weekend was March 5 and 6 at RIT . Utica at RIT . Like Elmira , RIT had trouble solving Utica ' s netminder , pouring 42 shots onto net . Only one snuck past Hotaling , however . The goal was scored by freshman Kourtney Kunichika in the first . Utica ' s attempt to equalize was stymied in the third by a holding call with 2 : 19 to play . Despite being on the penalty kill , Hotaling was pulled with 1 : 08 remaining ; Sarah Dagg scored into the empty net 29 seconds later . RIT advances to its first ECAC West championship game . Neumann vs . Plattsburgh . Despite outshooting Neumann 41 – 18 for the game , Plattsburgh still found themselves tied with the Knights late in the third . Fortunately for them , Neumann ' s Stephanie Nakamura took a tripping penalty with 2 : 52 remaining ; Steph Moon netted the power play goal for the Cardinals to send them to the championship game . Plattsburgh advances to face RIT in the final . Final . Plattsburgh at RIT . Previously this season , the Tigers and the Cardinals had battled to 0 – 0 and 2 – 2 ties , both at Ritter Arena . This game was shaping up to be another epic goaltender duel until Plattsburgh ' s Brittany Mead finally scored at the 5 - minute mark of the third period . RIT ' s Tenecia Hiller equalized the score on the power play at 13 : 36 . The game - winning goal was also scored with the man - advantage , as freshman Kourtney Kunichika got the game winner past Mandy Mackrell at 17 : 34 . Plattsburgh pulled Mackrell with 48 seconds remaining but couldn ' t muster a shot on goal with the extra attacker . RIT wins its first ECAC West championship and earns the league ' s autobid to the NCAA tournament . Despite being ranked third in the Eastern region by the NCAA , Plattsburgh will miss the national tournament for the first time since 2003 . The Pool C at - large bids went to West # 1 Wisconsin - River Falls and East # 2 Norwich , both of whom lost their conference championship games ; had either won , Plattsburgh likely would have been in . All - Tournament Team . Kourtney Kunichika is the Tournament MVP .