2021 NCHC Tournament
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| 2021 NCHC Men's ice hockey tournament | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Dates | March 12–16, 2021 |
| Teams | 8 |
| Finals site | Ralph Engelstad Arena Grand Forks, North Dakota |
| Champions | North Dakota (1st title) |
| Winning coach | Brad Berry (1st title) |
| MVP | Riese Gaber (North Dakota) |
NCHC Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments | |
The 2021 NCHC Tournament was the seventh tournament in league history. Typically the tournament is scheduled across two separate weekends in mid-march with quarterfinal games hosted on campus locations, while the final four games are played at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota. However, on February 8, 2021, NCHC announced that the tournament would be played entirely in Grand Forks.[1] By winning the tournament, North Dakota earned NCHC's automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.
Standings
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, changes to the traditional tournament format were made for this season. All games will be single-elimination as opposed to a best-of-three games quarterfinals, and no third-place game will occur. All eight conference teams participate in the tournament. Teams are seeded No. 1 through No. 8 according to their final conference standing, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with an identical number of points accumulated. The top four seeded teams each earn home ice and host one of the lower seeded teams.
The winners of the quarterfinals round series will advance to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff. Teams are re-seeded No. 1 through No. 4 according to the final regular season conference standings.[2]
| Conference record | Overall record | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | W | L | T | OTW | OTL | 3/SW | PTS | PT% | GF | GA | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA | ||
| #5 North Dakota †* | 24 | 18 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 54 | .750 | 94 | 47 | 29 | 22 | 6 | 1 | 114 | 57 | |
| #2 St. Cloud State | 24 | 15 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 45 | .625 | 78 | 64 | 31 | 20 | 11 | 0 | 101 | 84 | |
| #3 Minnesota Duluth | 24 | 13 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 43 | .597 | 72 | 54 | 28 | 15 | 11 | 2 | 84 | 66 | |
| #13 Omaha | 24 | 14 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 40 | .556 | 79 | 69 | 26 | 14 | 11 | 1 | 85 | 81 | |
| Denver | 22 | 9 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 31 | .470 | 61 | 60 | 24 | 11 | 13 | 1 | 67 | 66 | |
| Western Michigan | 24 | 10 | 11 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 33 | .458 | 73 | 84 | 25 | 10 | 12 | 3 | 77 | 89 | |
| Colorado College | 22 | 4 | 16 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 18 | .273 | 35 | 77 | 23 | 4 | 17 | 2 | 36 | 79 | |
| Miami | 24 | 5 | 17 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 18 | .250 | 46 | 83 | 25 | 5 | 18 | 2 | 48 | 89 | |
| Championship: March 16, 2021 † indicates conference regular season champion (Penrose Cup) * indicates conference tournament champion (Frozen Faceoff Championship Trophy) Rankings: USCHO.com Top 20 Poll | ||||||||||||||||||
Bracket
Teams are reseeded for the Semifinals
| Quarterfinals March 12–13 | Semifinals March 15 | Championship March 16 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | North Dakota | 6 | ||||||||||||
| 8 | Miami | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | North Dakota | 2* | ||||||||||||
| 5 | Denver | 1 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | St. Cloud State | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 7 | Colorado College | 1 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | North Dakota | 5 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | St. Cloud State | 3 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Minnesota-Duluth | 5* | ||||||||||||
| 6 | Western Michigan | 4 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | St. Cloud State | 3 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Minnesota-Duluth | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Omaha | 4 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | Denver | 5 | ||||||||||||
* denotes overtime periods