| Year: | 1961 |
| Gender: | men's |
| Teams: | 4 |
| Frozenfourarena: | University of Denver Arena |
| Frozenfourcity: | Denver, Colorado |
| Champions: | Denver Pioneers |
| Titlecount: | 3rd |
| Champgamecount: | 3rd |
| Champffcount: | 3rd |
| Runnerup: | St. Lawrence Saints |
| Gamecount: | 1st |
| Runnerffcount: | 6th |
| Semifinal1: | Minnesota Golden Gophers |
| Frozenfourcount: | 3rd |
| Semifinal2: | Rensselaer Engineers |
| Frozenfourcount2: | 3rd |
| Coach: | Murray Armstrong |
| Coachcount: | 3rd |
| Mop: | Bill Masterton |
| Mopteam: | Denver |
| Attendance: | 19,826 |
The 1961 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the culmination of the 1960–61 NCAA men's ice hockey season, the 14th such tournament in NCAA history. It was held between March 16 and 18, 1961, and concluded with Denver defeating St. Lawrence 12–2. All games were played at the University of Denver Arena in Denver, Colorado.
This was the first time in the history of the tournament that teams from the same conference would play each other in the opening round. The next occurrence would not happen until 2008.
Denver's 10-point margin of victory is the largest ever for a title game and the second most for one team in the championship match, behind only Colorado College in both 1950 and 1957. (as of 2016)
Four teams qualified for the tournament, two each from the eastern and western regions. The WCHA tournament co-champions received automatic bids into the tournament. Two at-large bids were offered to eastern teams based upon both their regular season record and strength of competition.
| East | West | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | School | Conference | Record | Berth type | Appearance | Last bid | Seed | School | Conference | Record | Berth type | Appearance | Last bid |
| 1 | St. Lawrence | Tri-State League | 15–4–0 | At-Large | 6th | 1960 | 1 | Denver | WCHA | 28–1–1 | Tournament co-champion | 3rd | 1960 |
| 2 | Rensselaer | Tri-State League | 16–3–1 | At-Large | 3rd | 1954 | 2 | Minnesota | WCHA | 16–10–1 | Tournament co-champion | 3rd | 1954 |
The higher-ranked eastern team was seeded as the top eastern team while the WCHA champion with the better conference record was given the top western seed. Because Minnesota refused to schedule Denver beginning this season as a result of a disagreement over recruiting practices, the two western participants had not yet played each other during the season. As a result, the NCAA broke with tradition and pitted the two against one another in the semifinals, leaving the two eastern teams to face one another in the other semifinal game. All games were played at the University of Denver Arena. All matches were Single-game eliminations with the semifinal winners advancing to the national championship game and the losers playing in a consolation game.
[2] Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
| Scoring summary | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period | Team | Goal | Assist(s) | Time | Score | |||
| 1st | align=center style=";" | SLU | John Mason | R. Mason and Corby | align=center | 1:22 | align=center | 1–0 SLU |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Bill Masterton | Beatty and Walker | align=center | 3:19 | align=center | 1–1 | |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Trent Beatty | Masterton and Munro | align=center | 7:21 | align=center | 2–1 DEN | |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Jerry Walker – GW | Beatty | align=center | 12:09 | align=center | 3–1 DEN | |
| align=center style=";" | SLU | Buster Dower | Slater | align=center | 13:14 | align=center | 3–2 DEN | |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Jerry Duffus | Williamson and Art | align=center | 14:51 | align=center | 4–2 DEN | |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Bill Masterton | Walker and Munro | align=center | 15:49 | align=center | 5–2 DEN | |
| 2nd | align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Trent Beatty | Masterton and Walker | align=center | 25:33 | align=center | 6–2 DEN |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Grant Munro | Lomnes | align=center | 26:57 | align=center | 7–2 DEN | |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | George Konik – PP | Josephson and Wilson | align=center | 31:31 | align=center | 8–2 DEN | |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Ken Williamson – PP | Art and Wilson | align=center | 37:47 | align=center | 9–2 DEN | |
| 3rd | align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Bill Masterton – PP | Konik | align=center | 50:46 | align=center | 10–2 DEN |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Grant Munro – PP | Josephson | align=center | 52:15 | align=center | 11–2 DEN | |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Terry Lomnes | unassisted | align=center | 56:57 | align=center | 12–2 DEN | |
| Shots by period | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | T | ||||||
| align=center style=";" | St. Lawrence | align=center | 6 | align=center | 8 | align=center | 5 | align=center | 19 | |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | Denver | align=center | 20 | align=center | 17 | align=center | 13 | align=center | 50 | |
| Goaltenders | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Name | Saves | Goals against | Time on ice | |||||
| align=center style=";" | SLU | align=center | 38 | align=center | 12 | align=center | |||
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | align=center | 17 | align=center | 2 | align=center | |||
* Most Outstanding Player(s)[4]