Year: | 1994 |
Gender: | men's |
Division: | Division III |
Teams: | 8 |
Frozenfourarena: | Wessman Arena |
Frozenfourcity: | Superior, Wisconsin |
Champions: | Wisconsin–River Falls Falcons |
Titlecount: | 2nd |
Champgamecount: | 3rd |
Champffcount: | 3rd |
Runnerup: | Wisconsin–Superior |
Gamecount: | 1st |
Runnerffcount: | 2nd |
Semifinal1: | Salem State Vikings |
Frozenfourcount: | 2nd |
Semifinal2: | Fredonia State Blue Devils |
Frozenfourcount2: | 1st |
Coach: | Dean Talafous |
Coachcount: | 1st |
Mopteam: | not awarded |
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.
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 |
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.
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
Note: Mini-games in italics
Conference |
| Record | Win % | Frozen Four | Championship Game | Champions | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
NCHA | 3 | 6–3–1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||
ECAC East | 1 | 1–2–1 | 1 | - | - | ||
ECAC West | 2 | 0–2–2 | - | - | - | ||
SUNYAC | 1 | 2–1–1 | 1 | - | - | ||
MIAC | 1 | 0–1–1 | - | - | - |