| Year: | 1973 |
| Gender: | men's |
| Division: | University Division |
| Teams: | 4 |
| Frozenfourarena: | Boston Garden |
| Frozenfourcity: | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Champions: | Wisconsin Badgers |
| Titlecount: | 1st |
| Champgamecount: | 1st |
| Champffcount: | 3rd |
| Runnerup: | none (Denver Pioneers vacated)[1] |
| Gamecount: | - |
| Runnerffcount: | - |
| Semifinal1: | Boston College Eagles |
| Frozenfourcount: | 10th |
| Semifinal2: | Cornell Big Red |
| Frozenfourcount2: | 6th |
| Coach: | Bob Johnson |
| Coachcount: | 1st |
| Mop: | Dean Talafous |
| Mopteam: | Wisconsin |
| Attendance: | 23,368 |
The 1973 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament was the culmination of the 1972–73 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, the 26th such tournament in NCAA history. It was held between March 15 and 17, 1973, and concluded with Wisconsin defeating Denver 4–2. All games were played at the Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.
After the tournament Denver's participation was vacated as a result of NCAA recruiting violations.[2]
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 | Cornell | ECAC Hockey | 23–3–1 | Tournament champion | 6th | 1972 | 1 | Denver | WCHA | 28–8–1 | Tournament co-champion | 11th (vacated) | 1972 |
| 2 | Boston College | ECAC Hockey | 21–6–1 | At-Large | 10th | 1968 | 2 | Wisconsin | WCHA | 27–9–2 | Tournament co-champion | 3rd | 1972 |
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.
[4] Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
Note: † Denver's participation was later vacated due to NCAA violations
| Scoring summary | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period | Team | Goal | Assist(s) | Time | Score | |||
| 1st | align=center style=";" | WIS | Dave Pay | Johnston and Eaves | align=center | 3:05 | align=center | 1–0 WIS |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Jim Miller | McNab and Pearson | align=center | 3:55 | align=center | 1–1 | |
| 2nd | align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | John Pearson – PP | McNab | align=center | 54 | align=center | 2–1 DEN |
| align=center style=";" | WIS | Tim Dool – PP | Cherrey and Bentley | align=center | 4:17 | align=center | 2–2 | |
| align=center style=";" | WIS | Dean Talafous – GW | Lundeen and Deprez | align=center | 8:30 | align=center | 3–2 WIS | |
| 3rd | align=center style=";" | WIS | Jim Johnston | Winchester and Pay | align=center | 2:34 | align=center | 4–2 WIS |
| Penalty summary | ||||||||
| Period | Team | Player | Penalty | Time | PIM | |||
| 1st | align=center style=";" | WIS | Jim Johnston | Tripping | align=center | 19:32 | align=center | 2:00 |
| 2nd | align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Bob Young | Interference | align=center | 4:01 | align=center | 2:00 |
| align=center style=";" | WIS | Peter McNab | High–Sticking | align=center | 13:07 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| align=center style=";" | WIS | Dave Pay | Tripping | align=center | 17:59 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| 3rd | align=center style=";" | WIS | Dave Pay | High–Sticking | align=center | 14:18 | align=center | 2:00 |
| Shots by period | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | T | ||||||
| align=center style=";" | Wisconsin | align=center | 12 | align=center | 9 | align=center | 8 | align=center | 29 | |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | Denver | align=center | 14 | align=center | 11 | align=center | 9 | align=center | 34 | |
| Goaltenders | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Name | Saves | Goals against | Time on ice | |||||
| align=center style=";" | WIS | align=center | 32 | align=center | 2 | align=center | |||
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | align=center | 25 | align=center | 4 | align=center | |||
* Most Outstanding Player(s)[5]
† Recognition of Denver's D: Bruce Affleck and F: Peter McNab was vacated when Denver's participation in the tournament was vacated[1]