Collegiate ice hockey tournament
| Teams | 8 |
|---|---|
| Finals site | |
| Champions | Wisconsin–River Falls Falcons (2nd title) |
| Runner-up | Wisconsin–Superior (1st title game) |
| Semifinalists |
|
| Winning coach | Dean Talafous (1st title) |
| Attendance | 10,448 |
The 1994 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the culmination of the 1993–94 season, the 11th such tournament in NCAA history. It concluded with Wisconsin-River Falls defeating Wisconsin-Superior in the championship game 6-4. All Quarterfinals matchups were held at home team venues, while all succeeding games were played in Superior, Wisconsin.
The NESCAC allowed its teams to play in national tournament for the first time. However, as part of the conference rule changes, such teams could only play in one postseason tournament. As a result, Williams, who won the ECAC East championship, elected not to play in their conference tournament in the hope that they would receive a bid to the NCAA tournament. Williams would ultimately not be chosen for the tournament.
Qualifying teams
The following teams qualified for the tournament. There were no automatic bids, however, conference tournament champions were given preferential consideration. No formal seeding was used while quarterfinal matches were arranged so that the road teams would have the shortest possible travel distances.
| East | West | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| School | Conference | Record | Berth Type | Appearance | Last Bid | School | Conference | Record | Berth Type | Appearance | Last Bid |
| Elmira | ECAC West | 21–5–1 | At-Large | 7th | 1993 | St. Thomas | MIAC | 19–4–4 | Tournament Champion | 7th | 1992 |
| Fredonia State | SUNYAC | 23–0–3 | Tournament Champion | 1st | Never | Wisconsin–River Falls | NCHA | 17–8–4 | At-Large | 4th | 1993 |
| RIT | ECAC West | 20–7–1 | Tournament Champion | 5th | 1989 | Wisconsin–Stevens Point | NCHA | 17–7–3 | At-Large | 7th | 1993 |
| Salem State | ECAC East | 22–4–2 | Tournament Champion | 5th | 1993 | Wisconsin–Superior | NCHA | 21–5–3 | Tournament Champion | 3rd | 1993 |
Format
The tournament featured three 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 used to determine a winner. Mini-game scores are in italics. Beginning with the Semifinals all games became Single-game eliminations. The winning teams in the semifinals advanced to the National Championship Game with the losers playing in a Third Place game. The teams were seeded according to geographic proximity in the quarterfinals so the visiting team would have the shortest feasible distance to travel.
Bracket
| Quarterfinals March 11–12 | Semifinals March 18 | National Championship March 19 | ||||||||||||||
| Fredonia State | 3 | 7 | - | |||||||||||||
| RIT | 3 | 0 | - | |||||||||||||
| Fredonia State | 3 | |||||||||||||||
| Wisconsin–River Falls | 4 | |||||||||||||||
| Wisconsin–River Falls | 4 | 4 | - | |||||||||||||
| Wisconsin–Stevens Point | 2 | 3 | - | |||||||||||||
| Wisconsin–River Falls | 6 | |||||||||||||||
| Wisconsin–Superior | 4 | |||||||||||||||
| Salem State | 6 | 4 | - | |||||||||||||
| Elmira | 4 | 4 | - | |||||||||||||
| Salem State | 2 | Third Place Game | ||||||||||||||
| Wisconsin–Superior | 3* | |||||||||||||||
| Wisconsin–Superior | 3 | 5 | - | Fredonia State | 7 | |||||||||||
| St. Thomas | 3 | 1 | - | Salem State | 4 | |||||||||||
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
Note: Mini-games in italics
Record by conference
| Conference | # of Bids | Record | Win % | Frozen Four | Championship Game | Champions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NCHA | 3 | 6–3–1 | .650 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| ECAC East | 1 | 1–2–1 | .375 | 1 | - | - |
| ECAC West | 2 | 0–2–2 | .250 | - | - | - |
| SUNYAC | 1 | 2–1–1 | .625 | 1 | - | - |
| MIAC | 1 | 0–1–1 | .250 | - | - | - |
References
- "Division III Men's Ice Hockey Record Book" (PDF). NCAA. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 6, 2019. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
External links
| NCAA Division III men's ice hockey tournament | |
|---|---|
| Tournaments | |
| Records & achievements | |