2009 NCAA Division III men's ice hockey tournament explained

Year:2009
Gender:men's
Division:Division III
Teams:11
Frozenfourarena:Herb Brooks Arena
Frozenfourcity:Lake Placid, New York
Champions:Neumann Knights
Titlecount:1st
Champgamecount:1st
Champffcount:1st
Runnerup:Gustavus Adolphus Golden Gusties
Gamecount:1st
Runnerffcount:1st
Semifinal1:Hobart Statesmen
Frozenfourcount:2nd
Semifinal2:Wisconsin–Stout Blue Devils
Frozenfourcount2:1st
Coach:Dominick Dawes
Coachcount:1st
Mop:Ross MacKinnon
Mopteam:Neumann
Attendance:10,102

The 2009 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the culmination of the 2008–09 season, the 26th such tournament in NCAA history. It concluded with Neumann defeating Gustavus Adolphus in the championship game 4-1. All First Round and Quarterfinal matchups were held at home team venues, while all succeeding games were played at the Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, New York.

Neumann became the first team to win the tournament by playing in four different rounds.

Qualifying teams

The following teams qualified for the tournament. Automatic bids were offered to the conference tournament champion of seven different conferences. Four at-large bids were available for the highest-ranked non-conference tournament champions (overall seed in parentheses).

EastWest
Seed School Conference Record Berth Type Appearance Last Bid Seed School Conference Record Berth Type Appearance Last Bid
1Plattsburgh State (1)SUNYAC24–1–2Tournament Champion14th20081Wisconsin–Superior (2)NCHA23–3–3At–Large12th2006
2Amherst (4)NESCAC21–4–1Tournament Champion2nd19992Wisconsin–Stout (3)NCHA22–5–2Tournament Champion2nd2008
3HobartECAC West19–6–2At–Large4th20083St. ScholasticaNCHA20–6–2At–Large1stNever
4ElmiraECAC West16–7–3At–Large12th20084Gustavus AdolphusMIAC17–10–0Tournament Champion4th1993
5NeumannECAC West17–9–2Tournament Champion1stNever
6NicholsECAC Northeast25–3–0Tournament Champion1stNever
7BabsonECAC East13–13–1Tournament Champion12th2007

Format

The tournament featured four rounds of play. All rounds were Single-game elimination. The top four teams were arranged so that were they all to reach the national semifinal, the first overall seed would play the fourth seed while the second seed would play the third seed. Because two western teams were among the top four overall seeds, the other two western teams were advanced to the quarterfinal round in order to prevent lower-seeded teams from having to travel long-distances in the first two rounds.

In the First Round, because each team was from the same region, the teams were seeded according to their ranking with the second seed playing the seventh seed, the third seed playing the sixth seed and the fourth seed playing the fifth seed. The Quarterfinal round was arranged so that the top eastern seed would play the winner between the fourth- and fifth-seeded eastern team while the winners of the other two first round matches would meet for the other eastern quarterfinal. In the western quarterfinals, the top western seed played the fourth western seed and the second western seed played the third western seed. The higher-ranked team served as host for all first round and quarterfinal meetings.

Tournament Bracket

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

All-Tournament Team

* Most Outstanding Player(s)

Record by conference

Conference
  1. of Bids
RecordWin %Frozen FourChampionship GameChampions
ECAC West36–2211
NCHA31–31--
MIAC12–111-
NESCAC11–1---
SUNYAC10–1---
ECAC East10–1---
ECAC Northeast10–1---

References

External links