2002 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
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.
Teams | 9 |
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Finals site |
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Champions | Wisconsin–Superior Yellowjackets (1st title) |
Runner-up | Norwich Cadets (2nd title game) |
Semifinalists |
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Winning coach | Dan Stauber (1st title) |
MOP | , |
Attendance | 19,202 |
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 | ||||||||||
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School | Conference | Record | Berth Type | Appearance | Last Bid | School | Conference | Record | Berth Type | Appearance | Last Bid |
Bowdoin | ECAC East | 18–4–3 | At-Large | 2nd | 1996 | St. Norbert | NCHA | 23–4–2 | At-Large | 4th | 1999 |
Middlebury | NESCAC | 24–1–1 | Tournament Champion | 8th | 2001 | St. Thomas | MIAC | 22–5–0 | Tournament Champion | 10th | 2000 |
Norwich | ECAC East | 24–4–0 | Tournament Champion | 5th | 2000 | Wisconsin–Superior | NCHA | 20–5–4 | Tournament Champion | 10th | 2001 |
Plattsburgh State | SUNYAC | 20–8–2 | Tournament Champion | 11th | 2001 | ||||||
RIT | ECAC West | 23–2–0 | Tournament Champion | 12th | 2001 | ||||||
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. The teams were seeded according to geographic proximity for the eastern quarterfinals so the visiting team would have the shortest feasible distance to travel. for the western quarterfinal, the top-ranked team awaited the winner of a play-in game between the lower-ranked teams.
The third place game ceased to be held with this tournament.
Tournament Bracket
First Round | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | National Championship | |||||||||||||||||
W1 | St. Norbert | 4* | 2 | - | ||||||||||||||||
W2 | Wisconsin–Superior | 4 | 4 | - | ||||||||||||||||
W2 | Wisconsin–Superior | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
W3 | St. Thomas | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
Wisconsin–Superior | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||
Plattsburgh State | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||
RIT | 4* | 2* | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
Plattsburgh State | 4 | 2 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
Wisconsin–Superior | 3* | |||||||||||||||||||
Norwich | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||
Middlebury | 6 | 9 | - | |||||||||||||||||
Wentworth | 0 | 0 | - | |||||||||||||||||
Middlebury | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||
Norwich | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||
Norwich | 3 | 7 | - | |||||||||||||||||
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 | - | - | - |