# 1961–62 NCAA men's ice hockey season

The 1961–62 NCAA men's ice hockey season began in November 1961 and concluded with the 1962 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament's championship game on March 17, 1962 at the Utica Memorial Auditorium in Utica, New York. This was the 15th season in which an NCAA ice hockey championship was held and is the 68th year overall where an NCAA school fielded a team.
This was the premier season for ECAC Hockey which began as a conglomerate of 28 eastern schools among which 8 teams were selected by a committee to participate in a postseason tournament that would determine which university(s) would receive bids to the NCAA tournament. Due to the sheer number of schools and the lack of any scheduling criteria the teams played a vastly unbalanced schedule. As a result, the regular season standings were effectively immaterial in determining the conference tournament participants and the committee based their selections on which teams they felt were the best representatives.
Despite already being in the Tri-State League Clarkson, Rensselaer and St. Lawrence were also founding members of ECAC Hockey and played concurrently in both conferences until the Tri-State League folded in 1972.
This was the first season for Minnesota–Duluth as a university sponsored program.

## Regular season
### Season tournaments

| Tournament | Dates | Teams | Champion |
| Brown Holiday Tournament | December 18–20 | 8 | |
| ECAC Holiday Hockey Festival | December 21–22 | 4 | Clarkson |
| Boston Arena Christmas Tournament | December 26–28 | 4 | Michigan State |
| Rensselaer Holiday Tournament | December 28–30 | 4 | Michigan |
| Beanpot | February 5, 12 | 4 | Harvard |

### Standings

1961–62 Big Ten standingsvte :
| | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall |
| | GP | W | L | T | Pct. | GF | GA | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA |
| Michigan† | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 24 | 8 | 27 | 22 | 5 | 0 | 150 | 76 |
| Michigan State | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | .438 | 24 | 33 | 25 | 13 | 11 | 1 | 98 | 94 |
| Minnesota | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | .125 | 9 | 16 | 21 | 9 | 10 | 2 | 95 | 73 |
| † indicates conference regular season champion |||||||||||||||
1961–62 ECAC Hockey standingsvte :
| | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall |
| | GP | W | L | T | Pct. | GF | GA | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA |
| Colby† | 19 | 17 | 1 | 1 | .921 | 124 | 30 | 27 | 19 | 6 | 2 | 147 | 62 |
| Harvard | 20 | 18 | 2 | 0 | .900 | 103 | 30 | 26 | 21 | 5 | 0 | 130 | 56 |
| Clarkson | 15 | 13 | 1 | 1 | .900 | 97 | 28 | 26 | 22 | 3 | 1 | 173 | 55 |
| Williams | 20 | 16 | 3 | 1 | .825 | 159 | 64 | 20 | 16 | 3 | 1 | 159 | 64 |
| Army | 19 | 14 | 4 | 1 | .763 | 81 | 40 | 24 | 17 | 6 | 1 | 111 | 52 |
| Colgate | 24 | 18 | 6 | 0 | .750 | 140 | 57 | 24 | 18 | 6 | 0 | 140 | 57 |
| Rensselaer | 16 | 12 | 4 | 0 | .750 | 99 | 56 | 23 | 16 | 7 | 0 | 142 | 93 |
| Cornell | 16 | 11 | 5 | 0 | .688 | 68 | 45 | 18 | 13 | 5 | 0 | 77 | 45 |
| MIT | 15 | 10 | 5 | 0 | .667 | 70 | 49 | 15 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 70 | 49 |
| St. Lawrence* | 15 | 9 | 5 | 1 | .633 | 83 | 47 | 27 | 17 | 9 | 1 | 135 | 78 |
| New Hampshire | 17 | 10 | 7 | 0 | .588 | 100 | 63 | 18 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 103 | 66 |
| Boston College | 25 | 13 | 11 | 1 | .540 | 84 | 75 | 28 | 15 | 12 | 1 | 96 | 86 |
| Merrimack | 13 | 7 | 6 | 0 | .539 | 71 | 52 | 13 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 71 | 52 |
| Providence | 17 | 8 | 7 | 2 | .529 | 74 | 65 | 21 | 11 | 8 | 2 | 110 | 77 |
| Middlebury | 17 | 8 | 8 | 1 | .500 | 83 | 81 | 22 | 11 | 9 | 2 | 107 | 98 |
| Bowdoin | 21 | 10 | 11 | 0 | .476 | 89 | 73 | 23 | 11 | 11 | 1 | 106 | 84 |
| Massachusetts | 18 | 8 | 10 | 0 | .444 | 84 | 94 | 18 | 8 | 10 | 0 | 84 | 94 |
| Norwich | 20 | 8 | 11 | 1 | .425 | 105 | 103 | 21 | 8 | 12 | 1 | 109 | 110 |
| Princeton | 21 | 8 | 12 | 1 | .405 | 60 | 88 | 21 | 8 | 12 | 1 | 60 | 88 |
| Dartmouth | 20 | 8 | 12 | 0 | .400 | 101 | 122 | 20 | 8 | 12 | 0 | 101 | 122 |
| Yale | 21 | 7 | 14 | 0 | .333 | 78 | 87 | 24 | 8 | 16 | 0 | 78 | 97 |
| Boston University | 24 | 7 | 16 | 1 | .313 | 71 | 119 | 25 | 7 | 17 | 1 | 74 | 123 |
| Northeastern | 23 | 7 | 16 | 0 | .304 | 83 | 136 | 24 | 7 | 17 | 0 | 85 | 149 |
| Brown | 24 | 7 | 17 | 0 | .292 | 82 | 122 | 24 | 7 | 17 | 0 | 81 | 119 |
| Connecticut | 9 | 2 | 6 | 1 | .278 | 30 | 86 | 12 | 2 | 9 | 1 | 30 | 86 |
| American International | 19 | 4 | 15 | 0 | .211 | 78 | 160 | 19 | 4 | 15 | 0 | 78 | 160 |
| Hamilton | 15 | 1 | 13 | 1 | .100 | 24 | 72 | 15 | 1 | 14 | 1 | 24 | 72 |
| Amherst | 15 | 1 | 14 | 0 | .067 | 20 | 143 | 15 | 1 | 14 | 0 | 20 | 143 |
| Championship: St. Lawrence † indicates conference regular season champion * indicates conference tournament champion |||||||||||||||
1961–62 NCAA Independent ice hockey standingsvte :
| | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall |
| | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA |
| Minnesota–Duluth | 22 | 6 | 14 | 2 | 69 | 109 |
| St. Olaf | 13 | 8 | 4 | 1 | – | – |
1961–62 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference ice hockey standingsvte :
| | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall |
| | GP | W | L | T | PTS | GF | GA | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA |
| Macalester † | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Augsburg | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | .857 | – | – | 12 | 9 | 3 | 0 | – | – |
| Concordia | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 6 | 1 | 5 | 0 | – | – |
| Gustavus Adolphus | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 9 | 1 | 8 | 0 | – | – |
| Hamline | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Saint John's | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 18 | 3 | 15 | 0 | – | – |
| Saint Mary's | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 16 | 12 | 4 | 0 | – | – |
| St. Thomas | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 13 | 6 | 7 | 0 | – | – |
| † indicates conference champion |||||||||||||||
1961–62 Tri-State League standingsvte :
| | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall |
| | GP | W | L | T | PTS | GF | GA | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA |
| Clarkson† | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 23 | 12 | 26 | 22 | 3 | 1 | 173 | 55 |
| St. Lawrence | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 20 | 21 | 27 | 17 | 9 | 1 | 135 | 78 |
| Rensselaer | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 14 | 25 | 23 | 16 | 7 | 0 | 142 | 93 |
| † indicates conference regular season champion |||||||||||||||
1961–62 Western Collegiate Hockey Association standingsvte :
| | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall |
| | GP | W | L | T | PCT | GF | GA | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA |
| Michigan Tech†* | 20 | 17 | 3 | 0 | .850 | 101 | 58 | 32 | 29 | 3 | 0 | 188 | 80 |
| Michigan | 18 | 15 | 3 | 0 | .833 | 95 | 48 | 27 | 22 | 5 | 0 | 150 | 76 |
| Denver | 18 | 11 | 7 | 0 | .611 | 83 | 71 | 30 | 17 | 11 | 2 | 144 | 111 |
| Michigan State | 16 | 6 | 9 | 1 | .406 | 57 | 71 | 25 | 13 | 11 | 1 | 98 | 94 |
| North Dakota | 18 | 7 | 11 | 0 | .389 | 62 | 71 | 26 | 9 | 17 | 0 | 96 | 123 |
| Minnesota | 16 | 5 | 10 | 1 | .344 | 69 | 61 | 21 | 9 | 10 | 2 | 95 | 73 |
| Colorado College | 18 | 0 | 18 | 0 | .000 | 56 | 143 | 23 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 74 | 181 |
| Championship: Michigan Tech † indicates conference regular season champion * indicates conference tournament champion |||||||||||||||

## 1962 NCAA Tournament

| Semifinals March 15–16 | Semifinals March 15–16 | Semifinals March 15–16 | National Championship March 17 | National Championship March 17 | National Championship March 17 |
| E1 | Clarkson | 5 | | | |
| W2 | Michigan | 4 | | | |
| W2 | Michigan | 4 | E1 | Clarkson | 1 |
| | | | W1 | Michigan Tech | 7 |
| W1 | Michigan Tech | 6 | W1 | Michigan Tech | 7 |
| E2 | St. Lawrence | 2 | Third Place Game | Third Place Game | Third Place Game |
| | | | W2 | Michigan | 6 |
| | | | E2 | St. Lawrence | 1 |
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

## Player stats
### Scoring leaders

The following players led the league in points at the conclusion of the season.
GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes
| Player | Class | Team | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM |
| Ron Ryan | Senior | Colby | – | 48 | 56 | 104 | - |
| Tom Roe | Junior | Williams | 20 | 49 | 33 | 82 | - |
| Bob Brinkworth | Sophomore | Rensselaer | 22 | 41 | 30 | 71 | 10 |
| Red Berenson | Senior | Michigan | 28 | 43 | 27 | 70 | 40 |
| Jim Josephson | Senior | Rensselaer | 23 | 25 | 39 | 64 | 66 |
| Jerry Sullivan | Senior | Michigan Tech | 32 | 30 | 29 | 59 | 6 |
| Ron Mason | Junior | St. Lawrence | 27 | 26 | 31 | 57 | – |
| Gordon Wilkie | Sophomore | Michigan | – | 19 | 36 | 55 | 15 |
| Dave Leighton | Junior | Dartmouth | – | 37 | 15 | 52 | – |
| Lou Lamoriello | Junior | Providence | – | 26 | 26 | 52 | – |

### Leading goaltenders

The following goaltenders led the league in goals against average at the end of the regular season while playing at least 33% of their team's total minutes.
GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; OT = Overtime/shootout losses; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average
| Player | Class | Team | GP | Min | W | L | OT | GA | SO | SV% | GAA |
| Godfrey Wood | Junior | Harvard | 17 | - | - | - | - | - | - | .926 | 1.75 |
| George Baland | Sophomore | North Dakota | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0 | .889 | 2.00 |
| Robert Bland | Senior | Harvard | 16 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2.06 |
| Wayne Gibbons | Junior | Clarkson | 21 | - | 18 | - | - | - | - | .914 | 2.10 |
| Ron Chisholm | Senior | Army | 24 | 1459 | 17 | 6 | 1 | 53 | 5 | .919 | 2.18 |
| Garry Bauman | Sophomore | Michigan Tech | 25 | 1500 | 23 | 2 | 0 | 61 | 0 | .907 | 2.44 |
| Laing Kennedy | Junior | Cornell | 18 | - | - | - | - | - | - | .918 | 2.50 |
| Richie Broadbelt | Junior | St. Lawrence | 22 | 1351 | - | - | - | 64 | 2 | .909 | 2.84 |
| Mike Larson | Junior | Minnesota | 22 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 3.23 |
| David Smith | Sophomore | Yale | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 3.50 |