1991 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament
Introduction The '''1991 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament''' was the culmination of the 1990–91 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, the 44th such tournament in NCAA history. It was held between March 15 and March 30, 1991, and concluded with Northern Michigan defeating Boston University 8-7 in overtime. All First Round and Quarterfinals matchups were held at home team venues with the 'Frozen Four' games being played at the Saint Paul Civic Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Qualifying teams The NCAA permitted 12 teams to qualify for the tournament and divided its qualifiers into two regions (East and West). Each of the tournament champions from the four Division I conferences (CCHA, ECAC, Hockey East and WCHA) received automatic invitations into the tournament with At-large bids making up the remaining 8 teams. The NCAA permitted one Independent team to participate in the tournament and because the previous year the independent qualifier was placed in the East pool the two western conferences (CCHA and WCHA) would split only three open spots as opposed to the East's four open spots. The top four remaining eastern teams and the top three remaining western teams received invitations and were seeded with the automatic qualifiers according to their ranking. East  West SeedSchoolConference RecordBerth typeAppearanceLast bidSeedSchoolConference RecordBerth type AppearanceLast bid1 Maine Hockey East 30–8–2 At-large bid 5th 19901 Lake Superior State CCHA 35–3–4 Tournament champion 5th 19902 Boston University Hockey East 25–10–2 Tournament champion 17th 19902 Northern Michigan WCHA 34–5–4 Tournament champion 4th 19893 Boston College Hockey East 27–10–0 At-large bid 18th 19903 Michigan CCHA 32–7–3 At-large bid 14th 19774 Clarkson ECAC 25–7–2 Tournament champion 11th 19904 Minnesota WCHA 28–7–5 At-large bid 18th 19905 Providence Hockey East 23–10–8 At-large bid 7th 19895 Wisconsin WCHA 26–13–3 At-large bid 12th 19906 Cornell ECAC 17–9–3 At-large bid 10th 19866 Alaska-Anchorage Independent 20–15–4 At-large bid 2nd 1990
Format The tournament featured four rounds of play. The three odd-number ranked teams from one region were placed into a bracket with the three even-number ranked teams of the other region. The teams were then seeded according to their ranking with the top two teams in each bracket receiving byes into the quarterfinals. In the first round the third and sixth seeds and the fourth and fifth seeds played best-of-three series to determine which school advanced to the Quarterfinals with the winners of the 4 vs. 5 series playing the first seed and the winner of the 3 vs. 6 series playing the second seed. In the Quarterfinals the matches were best-of-three series once more with the victors advancing to the National Semifinals. Beginning with the Semifinals all games were played at the Saint Paul Civic Center and all series became Single-game eliminations. The winning teams in the semifinals advanced to the National Championship Game.
Tournament Bracket Note: * denotes overtime period(s)===First round=======(E3) Boston College vs. (W6) Alaska-Anchorage========(E4) Clarkson vs. (W5) Wisconsin========(W3) Michigan vs. (E6) Cornell========(W4) Minnesota vs. (E5) Providence=======Quarterfinals=======(E1) Maine vs. (W4) Minnesota========(E2) Boston University vs. (W3) Michigan========(W1) Lake Superior State vs. (E4) Clarkson========(W2) Northern Michigan vs. (W6) Alaska-Anchorage====
Frozen Four ===National Semifinal=======(E1) Maine vs. (W2) Northern Michigan========(E2) Boston University vs. (E4) Clarkson=======National Championship=======(W2) Northern Michigan vs. (E2) Boston University==== Scoring summary Period Team Goal Assist(s) Time Score '''1st''' '''BU'''Ed Ronan  1–0 BU '''BU'''David Sacco  2–0 BU '''BU'''Ed Ronan  3–0 BU '''2nd''' '''NMU'''Dean AntosWerenka and Beattie  3–1 BU '''NMU'''Mark BeaufaitMelone and Soukoroff  3–2 BU '''NMU'''Scott BeattieMelone and Scott  3–3 '''NMU'''Darryl PlandowskiFrederick  4–3 NMU '''NMU'''Scott Beattieunassisted  5–3 NMU '''3rd''' '''NMU'''Scott Beattieunassisted 43:08 6–3 NMU '''BU'''Dave Tomlinson 45:59 6–4 NMU '''NMU'''Darryl PlandowskiSoukoroff 48:24 7–4 NMU '''BU'''Tony AmonteMcEachern 52:24 7–5 NMU '''BU'''Shawn McEachernAmonte 54:51 7–6 NMU '''BU'''David SaccoTomlinson 59:21 7–7 '''3rd Overtime''' '''NMU'''Darryl PlandowskiBeaufait and Antos 81:57 8–7 NMU Goaltenders Team Name Saves Goals against Time on ice '''NMU'''  Bill Pye    7   '''BU'''  John Bradley    5   '''BU'''  Scott Cashman    3
[[List of NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey All-Tournament Teams|All-Tournament Team]] *G: Bill Pye (Northern Michigan)*D: Lou Melone (Northern Michigan)*D: Brad Werenka (Northern Michigan)*F: Tony Amonte (Boston University)*F: Scott Beattie* (Northern Michigan)*F: Jean-Yves Roy (Maine) Most Outstanding Player(s)
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