1996 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament

The 1996 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the culmination of the 1995–96 season, the 13th such tournament in NCAA history. It concluded with Middlebury defeating RIT in the championship game 3-2. All Quarterfinals matchups were held at home team venues, while all succeeding games were played in River Falls, Wisconsin.

1996 NCAA Men's Division III
Ice Hockey Tournament
Teams8
Finals site
ChampionsMiddlebury Panthers (2nd title)
Runner-upRIT Tigers (4th title game)
Semifinalists
Winning coachBill Beaney (2nd title)
MOP,
Attendance11,876

Qualifying teams

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
SchoolConferenceRecordBerth TypeAppearanceLast BidSchoolConferenceRecordBerth TypeAppearanceLast Bid
Bowdoin ECAC East 18–5–1 At-Large 1st Never Saint John's MIAC 17–8–4 Tournament Champion 1st Never
Colby ECAC East 19–4–0 At-Large 1st Never Wisconsin–River Falls NCHA 23–4–2 Tournament Champion 6th 1995
Middlebury ECAC East 22–2–2 At-Large 2nd 1995 Wisconsin–Superior NCHA 18–9–4 At-Large 5th 1995
Potsdam State SUNYAC 18–8–2 Tournament Champion 1st Never
RIT ECAC West 22–5–1 Tournament Champion 6th 1994

Format

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.

Tournament Bracket

  Quarterfinals
March 8–9
Semifinals
March 15
National Championship
March 16
                                 
Middlebury 2 5 -  
Colby 1 1 -  
  Middlebury 4  
  Wisconsin–Superior 3  
Wisconsin–Superior 6 7 -
Saint John's 5 2 -  
  Middlebury 3
  RIT 2
Wisconsin–River Falls 7 7 -  
Bowdoin 1 3 -  
  Wisconsin–River Falls 1 Third Place Game
  RIT 2  
RIT 6 5 - Wisconsin–Superior 2
Potsdam State 3 3 -   Wisconsin–River Falls 8

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

Record by conference

Conference # of Bids Record Win % Frozen Four Championship Game Champions
ECAC East 3 4–4 .500 1 1 1
NCHA 2 5–3 .625 2 - -
ECAC West 1 3–1 .750 1 1 -
SUNYAC 1 0–2 .000 - - -
MIAC 1 0–2 .000 - - -

References

    • "Division III Men's Ice Hockey Record Book" (PDF). NCAA. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
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