2002 NCAA Division III men's ice hockey tournament

2002 NCAA Division III men's
ice hockey tournament
Teams9
Finals site
ChampionsWisconsin–Superior Yellowjackets (1st title)
Runner-upNorwich Cadets (2nd title game)
Semifinalists
Winning coachDan Stauber (1st title)
Attendance19,202

The 2002 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the culmination of the 2001–02 season, the 19th such tournament in NCAA history. It concluded with Wisconsin-Superior defeating Norwich in the championship game 3-2 in overtime. All First Round and Quarterfinal matchups were held at home team venues, while all succeeding games were played in Middlebury, Vermont.

Qualifying teams

The following teams qualified for the tournament. Automatic bids were offered to the conference tournament champion of seven different conferences with one at-large bid for the best remaining team from each region.

East West
Seed School Conference Record Berth Type Appearance Last Bid Seed School Conference Record Berth Type Appearance Last Bid
1 Middlebury (1) NESCAC 24–1–1 Tournament Champion 8th 2001 1 St. Norbert (3) NCHA 23–4–2 At-Large 4th 1999
2 RIT (2) ECAC West 23–2–0 Tournament Champion 12th 2001 2 Wisconsin–Superior NCHA 20–5–4 Tournament Champion 10th 2001
3 Norwich (4) ECAC East 24–4–0 Tournament Champion 5th 2000 3 St. Thomas MIAC 22–5–0 Tournament Champion 10th 2000
4 Bowdoin ECAC East 18–4–3 At-Large 2nd 1996
5 Plattsburgh State SUNYAC 20–8–2 Tournament Champion 11th 2001
6 Wentworth ECAC Northeast 18–7–2 Tournament Champion 2nd 2000

Format

The tournament featured four rounds of play. In the Quarterfinals, teams played a two-game series where the first team to reach 3 points was declared a winner (2 points for winning a game, 1 point each for tying). If both teams ended up with 2 points after the first two games a 20-minute mini-game was played to determine a winner. Mini-game scores are in italics. All other rounds were Single-game elimination. For the three eastern Quarterfinals, the teams were seeded according to their rankings with the top three teams serving as hosts. For the western quarterfinal, the top-ranked team awaited the winner of a play-in game between the lower-ranked teams. The quarterfinal brackets were arranged so that were all higher-seeded teams to advance, the first overall seed would play the fourth overall seed in the semifinals.

The third place game ceased to be held with this tournament.

Tournament bracket

First Round Quarterfinals Semifinals National Championship
W1 St. Norbert (3) 4* 2 -
W2 Wisconsin–Superior 2 W2 Wisconsin–Superior 4 4 -
W3 St. Thomas 1 W2 Wisconsin–Superior 5
E5 Plattsburgh State 0
E2 RIT (2) 4* 2* 0
E5 Plattsburgh State 4 2 1
W2 Wisconsin–Superior 3*
E3 Norwich (4) 2
E1 Middlebury (1) 6 9 -
E6 Wentworth 0 0 -
E1 Middlebury (1) 2
E3 Norwich (4) 5
E3 Norwich (4) 3 7 -
E4 Bowdoin 0 0 -

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
Note: Mini-games in italics

Record by conference

Conference # of Bids Record Win % Frozen Four Championship Game Champions
NCHA 2 4–1–2 .714 1 1 1
ECAC East 2 3–3–0 .500 1 1 -
NESCAC 1 2–1–0 .667 1 - -
ECAC West 1 0–0–2 .500 - - -
SUNYAC 1 0–1–2 .333 1 - -
ECAC Northeast 1 0–2–0 .000 - - -
MIAC 1 0–1–0 .000 - - -

References

  • "Division III Men's Ice Hockey Record Book" (PDF). NCAA. Retrieved March 4, 2019.