2002 NCAA Division III men's ice hockey tournament

The 2002 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the culmination of the 2001–02 season, the 19th such tournament in NCAA history. It concluded with Wisconsin-Superior defeating Norwich in the championship game 3-2 in overtime. All First Round and Quarterfinal matchups were held at home team venues, while all succeeding games were played in Middlebury, Vermont.

2002 NCAA Division III men's
ice hockey tournament

Teams	9
Finals site	Kenyon Arena Middlebury, Vermont
Champions	Wisconsin–Superior Yellowjackets (1st title)
Runner-up	Norwich Cadets (2nd title game)
Semifinalists	Middlebury Panthers (6th Frozen Four) Plattsburgh State Cardinals (8th Frozen Four)
Winning coach	Dan Stauber (1st title)
Attendance	19,202
← 2001  NCAA Division III men's ice hockey tournaments 2003 →

Qualifying teams

The following teams qualified for the tournament. Automatic bids were offered to the conference tournament champion of seven different conferences with one at-large bid for the best remaining team from each region.

East							West
Seed	School	Conference	Record	Berth Type	Appearance	Last Bid	Seed	School	Conference	Record	Berth Type	Appearance	Last Bid
1	Middlebury (1)	NESCAC	24–1–1	Tournament Champion	8th	2001	1	St. Norbert (3)	NCHA	23–4–2	At-Large	4th	1999
2	RIT (2)	ECAC West	23–2–0	Tournament Champion	12th	2001	2	Wisconsin–Superior	NCHA	20–5–4	Tournament Champion	10th	2001
3	Norwich (4)	ECAC East	24–4–0	Tournament Champion	5th	2000	3	St. Thomas	MIAC	22–5–0	Tournament Champion	10th	2000
4	Bowdoin	ECAC East	18–4–3	At-Large	2nd	1996
5	Plattsburgh State	SUNYAC	20–8–2	Tournament Champion	11th	2001
6	Wentworth	ECAC Northeast	18–7–2	Tournament Champion	2nd	2000

Format

The tournament featured four 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 was played to determine a winner. Mini-game scores are in italics. All other rounds were Single-game elimination. For the three eastern Quarterfinals, the teams were seeded according to their rankings with the top three teams serving as hosts. For the western quarterfinal, the top-ranked team awaited the winner of a play-in game between the lower-ranked teams. The quarterfinal brackets were arranged so that were all higher-seeded teams to advance, the first overall seed would play the fourth overall seed in the semifinals.

The third place game ceased to be held with this tournament.

Tournament bracket

	First Round					Quarterfinals							Semifinals					National Championship
						W1	St. Norbert (3)	4*	2	-
	W2	Wisconsin–Superior	2			W2	Wisconsin–Superior	4	4	-
	W3	St. Thomas	1										W2	Wisconsin–Superior	5
													E5	Plattsburgh State	0
						E2	RIT (2)	4*	2*	0
						E5	Plattsburgh State	4	2	1
																		W2	Wisconsin–Superior	3*
																		E3	Norwich (4)	2
						E1	Middlebury (1)	6	9	-
						E6	Wentworth	0	0	-
													E1	Middlebury (1)	2
													E3	Norwich (4)	5
						E3	Norwich (4)	3	7	-
						E4	Bowdoin	0	0	-

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
Note: Mini-games in italics

Record by conference

Conference	# of Bids	Record	Win %	Frozen Four	Championship Game	Champions
NCHA	2	4–1–2	.714	1	1	1
ECAC East	2	3–3–0	.500	1	1	-
NESCAC	1	2–1–0	.667	1	-	-
ECAC West	1	0–0–2	.500	-	-	-
SUNYAC	1	0–1–2	.333	1	-	-
ECAC Northeast	1	0–2–0	.000	-	-	-
MIAC	1	0–1–0	.000	-	-	-

References

• "Division III Men's Ice Hockey Record Book" (PDF). NCAA. Retrieved March 4, 2019.

External links

• Division III Men's Ice Hockey Record Book