2020–21 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season

The 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season began on November 14, 2020 and is intended to conclude with the Frozen Four on April 10th 2021. Due to the cancellation of the previous year's tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic, this will be the 73rd season in which an NCAA ice hockey championship was held, and will be US college hockey's 126th year overall.
Due to ongoing concerns related to the pandemic, the start of the season was delayed until what would have normally been the 8th week of play.
==Polls==
==Regular season==
Due to difficulties in scheduling, Arizona State entered into a scheduling alliance with the Big Ten while LIU did the same with Atlantic Hockey. Both teams remained independent programs and will not be considered for conference championships.
===Standings===
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==PairWise Rankings==
The PairWise Rankings (PWR) are a statistical tool designed to approximate the process by which the NCAA selection committee decides which teams get at-large bids to the 16-team NCAA tournament. Although the NCAA selection committee does not use the PWR as presented by USCHO, the PWR has been accurate in predicting which teams will make the tournament field.
	
For Division I men, all teams are included in comparisons starting in the 2013–14 season (formerly, only teams with a Ratings Percentage Index of .500 or above, or teams under consideration, were included). The PWR method compares each team with every other such team, with the winner of each “comparison” earning one PWR point. After all comparisons are made, the points are totaled up and rankings listed accordingly.
	
With 61 Division I men's teams, the greatest number of PWR points any team could earn is 60, winning the comparison with every other team. Meanwhile, a team that lost all of its comparisons would have no PWR points.
Teams are then ranked by PWR point total, with ties broken by the teams’ RPI ratings, which starting in 2013-14 is weighted for home and road games and includes a quality wins bonus (QWB) for beating teams in the top 20 of the RPI (it also is weighted for home and road).
	
When it comes to comparing teams, the PWR uses three criteria which are combined to make a comparison: RPI, record against common opponents and head-to-head competition. Starting in 2013–14, the comparison of record against teams under consideration was dropped because all teams are now under comparison.https://www.uscho.com/faq/pairwise-rankings-explanation/
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most teams played a very small selection of intraconference games, if any at all. As a result, the PairWise rankings would not be used as the primary measuring tool for determining which teams would receive at-large bids for the NCAA tournament. The ranking would only be used to differentiate between teams within their own conferences. The PWR will likely be used as the primary ranking system once a full NCAA season is played.
 NCAA Division I Men's Hockey Final PairWise Rankingshttps://www.uscho.com/rankings/pairwise-rankings/d-i-men/	
Rank 	Team 	PWR 	RPI 	Conference
1 	 	60 	.6037* 	WCHA
2 	 	59 	.5769 	NCHC
3 	 	57 	.5765* 	Atlantic Hockey
3 	 	57 	.5751 	Big Ten
5 	 	56 	.5672 	Hockey East
6 	 	55 	.5613* 	Hockey East
7 	 	54 	.5593 	WCHA
8 	 	53 	.5510 	Big Ten
9 	 	52 	.5476 	WCHA
10 	 	51 	.5463 	WCHA
11 	 	50 	.5430 	Atlantic Hockey
12 	 	49 	.5426 	Atlantic Hockey
12 	 	49 	.5413 	ECAC Hockey
14 	 	47 	.5391 	Hockey East
15 	 	46 	.5375 	NCHC
16 	 	45 	.5364 	ECAC Hockey
17 	 	44 	.5311 	Big Ten
18 	 	43 	.5303 	WCHA
19 	 	42 	.5233 	NCHC
20 	 	41 	.5137 	Atlantic Hockey
21 	 	40 	.5136 	Hockey East
22 	 	39 	.5123 	Hockey East
23 	 	38 	.5100 	NCHC
24 	 	37 	.5096 	Hockey East
25 	 	36 	.5092 	Big Ten
26 	 	35 	.5086 	NCHC
27 	 	34 	.5026 	Atlantic Hockey
28 	 	33 	.4976 	ECAC Hockey
29 	 	32 	.4934 	Hockey East
30 	 	30 	.4920 	Independent
30 	 	30 	.4914 	WCHA
32 	 	29 	.4825 	NCHC
33 	 	28 	.4814 	Atlantic Hockey
34 	 	27 	.4784 	Atlantic Hockey
35 	 	26 	.4782 	Atlantic Hockey
35 	 	26 	.4725 	Big Ten
37 	 	24 	.4701 	ECAC Hockey
38 	 	22 	.4669 	Hockey East
38 	 	22 	.4669 	Atlantic Hockey
40 	 	21 	.4513 	Hockey East
41 	 	20 	.4559 	Hockey East
42 	 	19 	.4495 	Big Ten
43 	 	18 	.4435 	NCHC
44 	 	17 	.4396 	Big Ten
45 	 	16 	.4375 	NCHC
46 	 	15 	.4331 	Independent
47 	 	14 	.4260 	Atlantic Hockey
48 	 	13 	.4198 	Atlantic Hockey
49 	 	12 	.4139 	WCHA
50 	 	11 	.4014 	Hockey East
51 	 	10 	.4007 	WCHA
52 	 	0 	.0000 	WCHA
52 	 	0 	.0000 	WCHA
52 	 	0 	.0000 	ECAC Hockey
52 	 	0 	.0000 	ECAC Hockey
52 	 	0 	.0000 	ECAC Hockey
52 	 	0 	.0000 	ECAC Hockey
52 	 	0 	.0000 	ECAC Hockey
52 	 	0 	.0000 	ECAC Hockey
52 	 	0 	.0000 	ECAC Hockey
52 	 	0 	.0000 	ECAC Hockey
*A team's RPI has been adjusted to remove negative effect from defeating a weak opponent Note: A team's record is based only on games against other Division I hockey schools which are eligible for the NCAA Tournament Final PairWise Rankings	*A team's RPI has been adjusted to remove negative effect from defeating a weak opponent Note: A team's record is based only on games against other Division I hockey schools which are eligible for the NCAA Tournament Final PairWise Rankings	*A team's RPI has been adjusted to remove negative effect from defeating a weak opponent Note: A team's record is based only on games against other Division I hockey schools which are eligible for the NCAA Tournament Final PairWise Rankings	*A team's RPI has been adjusted to remove negative effect from defeating a weak opponent Note: A team's record is based only on games against other Division I hockey schools which are eligible for the NCAA Tournament Final PairWise Rankings	*A team's RPI has been adjusted to remove negative effect from defeating a weak opponent Note: A team's record is based only on games against other Division I hockey schools which are eligible for the NCAA Tournament Final PairWise Rankings
==Player stats==
===Scoring leaders===
Updated as of games played on March 27, 2021.
GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes
Player	Class 	Team 	GP	G 	A 	Pts	PIM
 	Sophomore	Wisconsin 	31	30	22	52 	4
 	Senior 	Quinnipiac 	29	8 	39	47 	22
 	Senior 	Wisconsin 	31	12	29	41 	2
 	Senior 	North Dakota 	28	10	26	36 	24
 	Sophomore	Wisconsin 	23	11	24	35 	19
 	Senior 	North Dakota 	29	14	20	34 	10
 	Senior 	Bowling Green 	31	11	23	34 	26
 	Senior 	Northern Michigan	29	12	21	33 	0
 	Sophomore	North Dakota 	28	15	17	32 	4
 	Junior 	Notre Dame 	29	15	17	32 	8
===Leading goaltenders===
The following goaltenders lead the NCAA in goals against average, minimum 1/3 of team's minutes played.
GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average
Player	Class 	Team 	GP	Min 	W 	L	T	GA	SO	SV% 	GAA
 	Junior 	Massachusetts 	14	858:43 	9 	1	4	19	4 	.946	1.33
 	Junior 	Minnesota State 	24	1402:33	20	3	0	34	9 	.928	1.45
 	Junior 	North Dakota 	26	1590:38	20	4	1	46	4 	.931	1.74
 	Senior 	Minnesota 	28	1648:38	22	6	0	48	5 	.935	1.75
 	Sophomore	Michigan Tech 	24	1393:58	14	9	0	42	3 	.934	1.81
 	Junior 	Michigan 	21	1205:00	11	9	1	38	5 	.930	1.89
 	Senior 	Quinnipiac 	29	1715:45	17	8	4	54	5 	.926	1.89
 	Senior 	Army 	20	1253:29	14	4	1	40	2 	.922	1.91
 	Senior 	Lake Superior State	25	1380:55	14	6	3	45	2 	.930	1.96
 	Freshman 	Clarkson 	16	959:52 	7 	5	4	32	0 	.921	2.00
==See also==
* 2020–21 NCAA Division II men's ice hockey season
* 2020–21 NCAA Division III men's ice hockey season
==References==
 
NCAA