2008 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
The 2008 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the culmination of the 2007–08 season, the 25th such tournament in NCAA history. It concluded with St. Norbert defeating Plattsburgh State in the championship game 2-0. All First Round and Quarterfinal matchups were held at home team venues, while all succeeding games were played at the Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, New York.
| Teams | 10 |
|---|---|
| Finals site | |
| Champions | St. Norbert Green Knights (1st title) |
| Runner-up | Plattsburgh State Cardinals (4th title game) |
| Semifinalists |
|
| Winning coach | Tim Coghlin (1st title) |
| MOP | , |
| Attendance | 15,842 |
Qualifying teams
The following teams qualified for the tournament. Automatic bids were offered to the conference tournament champion of seven different conferences. One at-large bid was available for the best non-conference champion for each region with one additional at-large bid for the best remaining team regardless of region.
| East | West | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | School | Conference | Record | Berth Type | Appearance | Last Bid | Seed | School | Conference | Record | Berth Type | Appearance | Last Bid |
| 1 | Elmira | ECAC West | 19–3–5 | Tournament Champion | 11th | 2006 | 1 | St. Norbert | NCHA | 24–1–4 | Tournament Champion | 10th | 2007 |
| 2 | Plattsburgh State | SUNYAC | 23–4–0 | Tournament Champion | 13th | 2004 | 2 | St. Thomas | MIAC | 19–6–2 | Tournament Champion | 13th | 2005 |
| 3 | Norwich | ECAC East | 22–6–0 | Tournament Champion | 10th | 2007 | 3 | Wisconsin–Stout | NCHA | 18–8–3 | At–Large | 1st | Never |
| 4 | Manhattanville | ECAC West | 18–6–3 | At–Large | 4th | 2007 | |||||||
| 5 | Hobart | ECAC West | 18–7–2 | At–Large | 3rd | 2006 | |||||||
| 6 | Massachusetts–Dartmouth | ECAC Northeast | 18–8–1 | Tournament Champion | 3rd | 2007 | |||||||
| 7 | Trinity | NESCAC | 15–10–2 | Tournament Champion | 3rd | 2005 | |||||||
Format
The tournament featured four rounds of play. All rounds were Single-game elimination. For the three eastern Quarterfinals the teams were seeded according to their rankings. The two lowest-seeded eastern teams played a first round game while the remaining five teams received byes into Quarterfinal round. The top-seeded eastern team played the winner of the eastern first round game. For the western quarterfinal, the top-ranked team awaited the winner of a first round game between the lower-ranked teams. The higher-seeded team served as host for each game of the first round and quarterfinals.
Tournament Bracket
| First Round March 12 |
Quarterfinals March 15 |
Semifinals March 22 |
National Championship March 23 | |||||||||||||||
| W1 | St. Norbert | 2* | ||||||||||||||||
| W2 | St. Thomas | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| W2 | St. Thomas | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
| W3 | Wisconsin–Stout | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| W1 | St. Norbert | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| E3 | Norwich | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
| E3 | Norwich | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| E4 | Manhattanville | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
| W1 | St. Norbert | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| E2 | Plattsburgh State | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
| E2 | Plattsburgh State | 5 | ||||||||||||||||
| E5 | Hobart | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| E2 | Plattsburgh State | 6 | ||||||||||||||||
| E1 | Elmira | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| E6 | Massachusetts–Dartmouth | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| E7 | Trinity | 7 | ||||||||||||||||
| E1 | Elmira | 6 | ||||||||||||||||
| E7 | Trinity | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
Record by conference
| Conference | # of Bids | Record | Win % | Frozen Four | Championship Game | Champions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ECAC West | 3 | 1–3 | .250 | 1 | - | - |
| NCHA | 2 | 3–1 | .750 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| SUNYAC | 1 | 2–1 | .667 | 1 | 1 | - |
| ECAC East | 1 | 1–1 | .500 | 1 | - | - |
| NESCAC | 1 | 1–1 | .500 | - | - | - |
| MIAC | 1 | 1–1 | .500 | - | - | - |
| ECAC Northeast | 1 | 0–1 | .000 | - | - | - |