1991 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
The 1991 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the culmination of the 1990–91 season, the 8th such tournament in NCAA history. It concluded with Wisconsin-Stevens Point defeating Mankato State in the championship game 6-2. All Quarterfinals matchups were held at home team venues, while all succeeding games were played in Elmira, New York.
| Teams | 8 |
|---|---|
| Finals site |
|
| Champions | Wisconsin–Stevens Point Pointers (3rd title) |
| Runner-up | Mankato State (1st title game) |
| Semifinalists |
|
| Winning coach | Mark Mazzoleni (3rd title) |
| MOP | , |
| Attendance | 16,701 |
The NCAA stopped awarding the Tournament Most Outstanding Player with this tournament. The next tournament MOP would be awarded in 2009.
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 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| School | Conference | Record | Berth Type | Appearance | Last Bid | School | Conference | Record | Berth Type | Appearance | Last Bid |
| Babson | ECAC East | 17–7–0 | At-Large | 8th | 1990 | Gustavus Adolphus | MIAC | 17–5–2 | Tournament Champion | 2nd | 1990 |
| Elmira | ECAC West | 26–3–0 | Tournament Champion | 4th | 1990 | Lake Forest | Independent | 18–4–1 | At-Large | 1st | Never |
| Mercyhurst | ECAC West | 18–11–1 | At-Large | 1st | Never | Mankato State | NCHA | 21–5–6 | At-Large | 4th | 1990 |
| Oswego State | ECAC West | 14–11–1 | At-Large | 5th | 1989 | Wisconsin–Stevens Point | NCHA | 23–9–0 | Tournament Champion | 4th | 1990 |
Format
In 1991, the tournament returned to the format it had used from 1984-1987. The tournament featured three rounds of play. In the Quarterfinals, 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 8–10 |
Semifinals March 15 |
National Championship March 16 | ||||||||||||||
| Wisconsin–Stevens Point | 9 | 6 | - | |||||||||||||
| Lake Forest | 1 | 3 | - | |||||||||||||
| Wisconsin–Stevens Point | 5 | |||||||||||||||
| Babson | 2 | |||||||||||||||
| Babson | 4 | 10 | - | |||||||||||||
| Oswego State | 1 | 4 | - | |||||||||||||
| Wisconsin–Stevens Point | 6 | |||||||||||||||
| Mankato State | 2 | |||||||||||||||
| Mercyhurst | 5 | 6 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Elmira | 4 | 7 | 2* | |||||||||||||
| Elmira | 3 | Third Place Game | ||||||||||||||
| Mankato State | 7 | |||||||||||||||
| Mankato State | 4 | 7 | - | Babson | 3 | |||||||||||
| Gustavus Adolphus | 4 | 2 | - | Elmira | 2 | |||||||||||
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
Note: Mini-games in italics
Record by conference
| Conference | # of Bids | Record | Win % | Frozen Four | Championship Game | Champions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ECAC West | 3 | 2–6–0 | .250 | 1 | - | - |
| NCHA | 2 | 6–1–1 | .813 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| ECAC East | 1 | 3–1–0 | .750 | 1 | - | - |
| MIAC | 1 | 0–1–1 | .250 | - | - | - |
| Independent | 1 | 0–2–0 | .000 | - | - | - |