1998 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament

The 1998 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the culmination of the 1997–98 season, the 15th such tournament in NCAA history. It concluded with Middlebury defeating Wisconsin-Stevens Point in the championship game 2-1. All Quarterfinals matchups were held at home team venues, while all succeeding games were played in Plattsburgh, New York.

1998 NCAA Men's Division III
Ice Hockey Tournament
Teams8
Finals site
ChampionsMiddlebury Panthers (4th title)
Runner-upWisconsin–Stevens Point Pointers (6th title game)
Semifinalists
  • Plattsburgh State Cardinals (5th Frozen Four)
  • Augsburg Auggies (2nd Frozen Four)
Winning coachBill Beaney (4th title)
MOP,
Attendance11,108

The championship marked the fourth in a row for Middlebury, a record for all levels of men's ice hockey.

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
Middlebury ECAC East 20–2–2 At-Large 4th 1997 Augsburg MIAC 19–6–4 Tournament Champion 2nd 1984
Oswego State SUNYAC 16–11–2 At-Large 6th 1991 St. Norbert NCHA 26–5–0 Tournament Champion 2nd 1997
Plattsburgh State SUNYAC 24–6–1 Tournament Champion 7th 1996 Wisconsin–River Falls NCHA 22–6–1 At-Large 7th 1996
RIT ECAC West 19–3–5 At-Large 8th 1997 Wisconsin–Stevens Point NCHA 21–9–0 At-Large 9th 1995

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 14–15		 Semifinals
March 21		 National Championship
March 22
                                 
Middlebury 5 6 -  
Oswego State 1 3 -  
  Middlebury 5  
  Augsburg 2  
Augsburg 3 4 -
Wisconsin–River Falls 2 3 -  
  Middlebury 2
  Wisconsin–Stevens Point 1
Plattsburgh State 6 2 2  
RIT 3 3 0  
  Plattsburgh State 2 Third Place Game
  Wisconsin–Stevens Point 8  
St. Norbert 3 1 0 Augsburg 5
Wisconsin–Stevens Point 1 2 2   Plattsburgh State 9

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

Record by conference
Conference # of Bids Record Win % Frozen Four Championship Game Champions
NCHA 3 3–5 .375 1 1 -
SUNYAC 2 2–4 .333 1 - -
ECAC East 1 4–0 1.000 1 1 1
MIAC 1 2–2 .333 1 - -
ECAC West 1 1–1 .500 - - -

References
    • "Division III Men's Ice Hockey Record Book" (PDF). NCAA. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.