| Year: | 1972 |
| Gender: | men's |
| Division: | University Division |
| Teams: | 4 |
| Frozenfourarena: | Boston Garden |
| Frozenfourcity: | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Champions: | Boston University Terriers |
| Titlecount: | 2nd |
| Champgamecount: | 4th |
| Champffcount: | 8th |
| Runnerup: | Cornell Big Red |
| Gamecount: | 4th |
| Runnerffcount: | 5th |
| Semifinal1: | Wisconsin Badgers |
| Frozenfourcount: | 2nd |
| Semifinal2: | Denver Pioneers |
| Frozenfourcount2: | 10th |
| Coach: | Jack Kelley |
| Coachcount: | 2nd |
| Mop: | Tim Regan |
| Mopteam: | Boston University |
| Attendance: | 30,566 |
The 1972 NCAA Men's University Division Ice Hockey Tournament was the culmination of the 1971–72 NCAA University Division men's ice hockey season, the 25th such tournament in NCAA history. It was held between March 16 and 18, 1972, and concluded with Boston University defeating Cornell 4–0. All games were played at the Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.
Four teams qualified for the tournament, two each from the eastern and western regions. The ECAC tournament champion and the two WCHA tournament co-champions received automatic bids into the tournament. An at-large bid was offered to a second eastern team based upon both their ECAC tournament finish as well as their regular season record.
| East | West | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | School | Conference | Record | Berth type | Appearance | Last bid | Seed | School | Conference | Record | Berth type | Appearance | Last bid |
| 1 | Boston University | ECAC Hockey | 24–4–1 | Tournament champion | 8th | 1971 | 1 | Denver | WCHA | 27–9–0 | Tournament co-champion | 10th | 1971 |
| 2 | Cornell | ECAC Hockey | 22–5–0 | At-Large | 5th | 1970 | 2 | Wisconsin | WCHA | 26–9–1 | Tournament co-champion | 2nd | 1970 |
The ECAC champion was seeded as the top eastern team while the WCHA co-champion with the better regular season record was given the top western seed. The second eastern seed was slotted to play the top western seed and vice versa. All games were played at the Boston Garden. 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=";" | BU | Ron Anderson - GW PP | Brown and Jordan | align=center | 10:42 | align=center | 1–0 BU |
| 2nd | align=center style=";" | BU | Ric Jordan - PP | Brown | align=center | 30:51 | align=center | 2–0 BU |
| 3rd | align=center style=";" | BU | Ron Anderson | Cahoon | align=center | 41:39 | align=center | 3–0 BU |
| align=center style=";" | BU | Ric Jordan | Cahoon and Anderson | align=center | 53:13 | align=center | 4–0 BU | |
| Penalty summary | ||||||||
| Period | Team | Player | Penalty | Time | PIM | |||
| 1st | align=center style= | Gordon McCormick | align=center | 8:52 | align=center | 2:00 | ||
| align=center style=";" | BU | Mike LaGarde | align=center | 18:13 | align=center | 2:00 | ||
| align=center style= | Larry Fullan | align=center | 18:13 | align=center | 2:00 | |||
| 2nd | align=center style= | Dave Elenbaas | align=center | 29:13 | align=center | 2:00 | ||
| align=center style=";" | BU | Ron Anderson | align=center | 29:44 | align=center | 2:00 | ||
| align=center style= | Larry Fullan | align=center | 29:44 | align=center | 2:00 | |||
| 3rd | align=center style=";" | BU | Peter Thornton | align=center | 43:24 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| Shots by period | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | T | ||||||
| align=center | 14 | align=center | 12 | align=center | 13 | align=center | 39 | |||
| align=center style=";" | Boston University | align=center | 8 | align=center | 11 | align=center | 13 | align=center | 32 | |
| Goaltenders | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Name | Saves | Goals against | Time on ice | |||||
| align=center | 28 | align=center | 4 | align=center | 60:00 | ||||
| align=center style=";" | BU | align=center | 39 | align=center | 0 | align=center | 60:00 | ||
* Most Outstanding Player(s)[3]