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).
East West Seed School Conference Record Berth Type Appearance Last Bid Seed School Conference Record Berth Type Appearance Last Bid1 Plattsburgh State (1) SUNYAC 24–1–2 Tournament Champion 14th 20081 Wisconsin–Superior (2) NCHA 23–3–3 At–Large 12th 20062 Amherst (4) NESCAC 21–4–1 Tournament Champion 2nd 19992 Wisconsin–Stout (3) NCHA 22–5–2 Tournament Champion 2nd 20083 Hobart ECAC West 19–6–2 At–Large 4th 20083 St. Scholastica NCHA 20–6–2 At–Large 1st Never4 Elmira ECAC West 16–7–3 At–Large 12th 20084 Gustavus Adolphus MIAC 17–10–0 Tournament Champion 4th 19935 Neumann ECAC West 17–9–2 Tournament Champion 1st Never6 Nichols ECAC Northeast 25–3–0 Tournament Champion 1st Never7 Babson ECAC East 13–13–1 Tournament Champion 12th 2007
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)
Results
First round
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
National Championship
All-Tournament Team G: Ross MacKinnon* (Neumann) D: Andrew Brennan (Hobart) D: Charles Paterson (Neumann) F: Jesse Cole (Neumann) F: Patrick Dynan (Gustavus Adolphus) F: Matt Ward (Neumann) * Most Outstanding Player(s)
Record by conference Conference# of BidsRecordWin %Frozen FourChampionship GameChampions ECAC West 3 6–2 2 1 1 NCHA 3 1–3 1 - - MIAC 1 2–1 1 1 - NESCAC 1 1–1 - - - SUNYAC 1 0–1 - - - ECAC East 1 0–1 - - - ECAC Northeast 1 0–1 - - -
References