1981 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament

The 1981 NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey Tournament was the culmination of the 1980–81 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, the 34th such tournament in NCAA history. It was held between March 19 and 27, 1981, and concluded with Wisconsin defeating Minnesota 6-3. All Quarterfinals matchups were held at home team venues while all succeeding games were played at the Duluth Arena in Duluth, Minnesota.
1981 was the first year that the tournament guaranteed 8 teams to be selected for the championship as opposed the policy put in place in 1977 that gave the selection committee the ability to choose up to 4 additional teams at its discretion (two was the maximum the committee ever choose).
==Qualifying teams==
The NCAA permitted 8 teams to qualify for the tournament, four from each region (East and West). From the east the ECAC tournament champion and the regular season champions from the two ECAC divisions that did not contain the ECAC champion received automatic bids into the tournament with a fourth at-large bid going to one eastern team. From the west the two WCHA tournament co-champions and the CCHA tournament champion received automatic bids with a fourth at-large bid going to one western team.
East	East 	East 	East 	East 	East 	East 	West	West 	West 	West 	West 	West 	West
Seed	School 	Conference 	Record 	Berth type 	Appearance	Last bid	Seed	School 	Conference	Record 	Berth type 	Appearance	Last bid
1 	Clarkson 	ECAC Hockey	26–6–3 	Division champion 	7th 	1970 	1 	Minnesota 	WCHA 	30–11–0	Tournament co-champion	10th 	1980
2 	Providence	ECAC Hockey	17–13–1	Tournament champion	3rd 	1978 	2 	Northern Michigan	CCHA 	26–11–3	Tournament champion 	2nd 	1980
3 	Cornell 	ECAC Hockey	18–10–1	Division champion 	8th 	1980 	3 	Michigan Tech 	WCHA 	26–13–1	Tournament co-champion	10th 	1976
4 	Colgate 	ECAC Hockey	21–10–2	At-large bid 	1st 	Never 	4 	Wisconsin 	WCHA 	24–14–0	At-large bid 	6th 	1978
==Format==
The tournament featured three rounds of play. The two odd-number ranked teams from one region were placed into a bracket with the two even-number ranked teams of the other region. The teams were then seeded according to their ranking. In the Quarterfinals the first and fourth seeds and the second and third seeds played two-game aggregate series to determine which school advanced to the Semifinals. Beginning with the Semifinals all games were played at the Duluth Arena and all series 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.
==Tournament Bracket==
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
===Quarterfinals===
====(E1) Clarkson vs. (W4) Wisconsin====
====(E2) Providence vs. (W3) Michigan Tech====
====(W1) Minnesota vs. (E4) Colgate====
====(W2) Northern Michigan vs. (E3) Cornell====
===Semifinal===
====(W1) Minnesota vs. (W3) Michigan Tech====
====(W2) Northern Michigan vs. (W4) Wisconsin====
===Third Place Game===
====(W2) Northern Michigan vs. (W3) Michigan Tech====
===National Championship===
====(W1) Minnesota vs. (W4) Wisconsin====
==All-Tournament Team==
*G: Marc Behrend* (Wisconsin)
*D: Mike Knoke (Minnesota)
*D: Tim Watters (Michigan Tech)
*F: Steve Bozek (Northern Michigan)
*F: Aaron Broten (Minnesota)
*F: John Newbery (Wisconsin)
* Most Outstanding Player(s)
==See also==
*1981 Frozen Four
==References==
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Category:1981 in hockey
Category:NCAA Division I Tournaments