1981 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament explained

Year:1981
Gender:men's
Division:Division I
Teams:8
Frozenfourarena:Duluth Arena
Frozenfourcity:Duluth, Minnesota
Champions:Wisconsin Badgers
Titlecount:3rd
Champgamecount:3rd
Champffcount:6th
Runnerup:Minnesota Golden Gophers
Gamecount:8th
Runnerffcount:9th
Semifinal1:Michigan Tech Huskies
Frozenfourcount:10th
Semifinal2:Northern Michigan Wildcats
Frozenfourcount2:2nd
Coach:Bob Johnson
Coachcount:3rd
Mop:Marc Behrend
Mopteam:Wisconsin

The 1981 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament was the culmination of the 1980–81 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, the 34th such tournament in NCAA history. It was held between March 19 and 27, 1981, and concluded with Wisconsin defeating Minnesota 6-3. All Quarterfinals matchups were held at home team venues while all succeeding games were played at the Duluth Arena in Duluth, Minnesota.

1981 was the first year that the tournament guaranteed 8 teams to be selected for the championship as opposed the policy put in place in 1977 that gave the selection committee the ability to choose up to 4 additional teams at its discretion (two was the maximum the committee ever choose).

Qualifying teams

The NCAA permitted 8 teams to qualify for the tournament, four from each region (East and West). From the east the ECAC tournament champion and the regular season champions from the two ECAC divisions that did not contain the ECAC champion received automatic bids into the tournament with a fourth at-large bid going to one eastern team. From the west the two WCHA tournament co-champions and the CCHA tournament champion received automatic bids with a fourth at-large bid going to one western team.

East West
SeedSchoolConference RecordBerth typeAppearanceLast bidSeedSchoolConference RecordBerth type AppearanceLast bid
1ClarksonECAC Hockey26–6–3Division champion7th19701MinnesotaWCHA30–11–0Tournament co-champion10th1980
2ProvidenceECAC Hockey17–13–1Tournament champion3rd19782Northern MichiganCCHA26–11–3Tournament champion2nd1980
3CornellECAC Hockey18–10–1Division champion8th19803Michigan TechWCHA26–13–1Tournament co-champion10th1976
4ColgateECAC Hockey21–10–2At-large bid1stNever4WisconsinWCHA24–14–0At-large bid6th1978
[1]

Format

The tournament featured three rounds of play. The two odd-number ranked teams from one region were placed into a bracket with the two even-number ranked teams of the other region. The teams were then seeded according to their ranking. In the Quarterfinals the first and fourth seeds and the second and third seeds played two-game aggregate series to determine which school advanced to the Semifinals. Beginning with the Semifinals all games were played at the Duluth Arena and all series 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.

Tournament bracket

[2] Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

Quarterfinals

(W2) Northern Michigan vs. (E3) Cornell

Semifinal

(W2) Northern Michigan vs. (W4) Wisconsin

Third-place game

(W2) Northern Michigan vs. (W3) Michigan Tech

National Championship

(W1) Minnesota vs. (W4) Wisconsin

Scoring summary
PeriodTeamGoalAssist(s)TimeScore
1stalign=center style=";" WISDan GorowskyNewberry and Vincentalign=center 9:24align=center 1–0 WIS
align=center style=";" WISJohn Newberry – PPVincent and Welshalign=center 14:49align=center 2–0 WIS
align=center style=";" WISEd LeblerEthieralign=center 19:49align=center 3–0 WIS
2ndalign=center style=";" WISTed Pearson – GWLebler and Newberryalign=center 29:23align=center 4–0 WIS
align=center style="color:white; background:#862334; " MINButsy EricksonUlseth and Knokealign=center 32:37align=center 4–1 WIS
align=center style=";" WISJohn Newberry – PPS. Lecy and Vincentalign=center 34:27align=center 5–1 WIS
3rdalign=center style="color:white; background:#862334; " MINMike Knoke – PPJensen and A. Brotenalign=center 40:10align=center 5–2 WIS
align=center style="color:white; background:#862334; " MINButsy Erickson – PPHartzell and A. Brotenalign=center 56:09align=center 5–3 WIS
align=center style=";" WISEd Lebler – ENDriveralign=center 58:40align=center 6–3 WIS
Penalty summary
PeriodTeamPlayerPenaltyTimePIM
1stalign=center style=";" WISJohn NewberryRoughingalign=center 0:28align=center 2:00
align=center style="color:white; background:#862334; " MINDave JensenRoughingalign=center 0:28align=center 2:00
align=center style=";" WISBruce DriverHookingalign=center 4:14align=center 2:00
align=center style=";" WISPat EthierInterferencealign=center 9:35align=center 2:00
align=center style=";" WISBrian MullenChargingalign=center 10:11align=center 2:00
align=center style="color:white; background:#862334; " MINNeal BrotenCross–Checkingalign=center 10:11align=center 2:00
align=center style=";" WISJay McFarlaneChargingalign=center 11:58align=center 2:00
align=center style="color:white; background:#862334; " MINPaul ButtersInterferencealign=center 14:15align=center 2:00
2ndalign=center style=";" WISTheran WelshHoldingalign=center 25:48align=center 2:00
align=center style=";" WISPete JohnsonHookingalign=center 30:31align=center 2:00
align=center style="color:white; background:#862334; " MINScott BjugstadHigh Stickingalign=center 32:51align=center 2:00
align=center style="color:white; background:#862334; " MINMike MeadowsRoughingalign=center 35:28align=center 2:00
align=center style="color:white; background:#862334; " MINBob BergloffRoughingalign=center 36:00align=center 2:00
align=center style=";" WISPat EthierElbowingalign=center 38:15align=center 2:00
3rdalign=center style=";" WISTed PearsonHookingalign=center 45:21align=center 2:00
align=center style=";" WISTodd LecyInterferencealign=center 55:06align=center 2:00
Shots by period
Team123T
align=center style=";" Wisconsin align=center 11 align=center 14 align=center 17 align=center 42
align=center style="color:white; background:#862334; " Minnesota align=center 8 align=center 10 align=center 15 align=center 33
Goaltenders
TeamNameSavesGoals againstTime on ice
align=center style=";" WIS align=center 30 align=center 3 align=center
align=center style="color:white; background:#862334; " MIN align=center 33 align=center 5 align=center
align=center style="color:white; background:#862334; " MIN align=center 3 align=center 0 align=center

All-Tournament Team

* Most Outstanding Player(s)[3]

[4]

References

Notes and References

  1. News: NCAA Division 1 Tournament . College Hockey Historical Archives . 2013-06-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090704232018/http://www.augenblick.org/chha/ncaa_trn.html . 2009-07-04 . live .
  2. News: NCAA Tournament. College Hockey Historical Archives. May 19, 2013.
  3. News: NCAA Division I Awards . College Hockey Historical Archives. 2013-07-17.
  4. News: NCAA Frozen Four Records . NCAA.org . 2013-06-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120516074208/http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/frozen_4/2009/f4recs.pdf . 2012-05-16 . live .

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