1990 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament


The 1990 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the culmination of the 1989–90 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, the 43rd such tournament in NCAA history. It was held between March 16 and April 1, 1990, and concluded with Wisconsin defeating Colgate 7-3. All First Round and Quarterfinals matchups were held at home team venues with the 'Frozen Four' games being played at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan.
This was the first year in which the consolation game was not played since the tournaments premier in 1948.
Boston University's 30 goals scored during the tournament is the highest ever for a single team. The Terriers also played the most NCAA tournament games in one year.

Qualifying teams

The NCAA permitted 12 teams to qualify for the tournament and divided its qualifiers into two regions. Each of the tournament champions from the four Division I conferences 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 placed it in the East Regional with the intent to insert an additional independent in the West Regional the following season. As a result, the two western conferences would split four open spots as opposed to the East's three.

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 Joe Louis Arena 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

First Round

(E3) Maine vs. (W6) Bowling Green

(E4) Boston University vs. (W5) North Dakota

(W3) Lake Superior State vs. (E6) Alaska-Anchorage

(W4) Minnesota vs. (E5) Clarkson

Quarterfinals

(E1) Boston College vs. (W4) Minnesota

(E2) Colgate vs. (W3) Lake Superior State

(W1) Michigan State vs. (E4) Boston University

(W2) Wisconsin vs. (E3) Maine

Frozen Four

National Semifinal

(E1) Boston College vs. (W2) Wisconsin

(E2) Colgate vs. (E4) Boston University

National Championship

(W2) Wisconsin vs. (E2) Colgate

[List of [NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey All-Tournament Teams|All-Tournament Team]]

* Most Outstanding Player