2003 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
The 2003 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the culmination of the 2002–03 season, the 20th such tournament in NCAA history. It concluded with Norwich defeating Oswego State in the championship game 2-1. All First Round and Quarterfinal matchups were held at home team venues, while all succeeding games were played in Norwich, Vermont.
| Teams | 9 |
|---|---|
| Finals site |
|
| Champions | Norwich Cadets (2nd title) |
| Runner-up | Oswego State Lakers (2nd title game) |
| Semifinalists |
|
| Winning coach | Mike McShane (2nd title) |
| MOP | , |
| Attendance | 12,609 |
Qualifying teams
The following teams qualified for the tournament. Automatic bids were offered to the conference tournament champion of seven different conferences with one at-large bid for the best remaining team from each region.
| East | West | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| School | Conference | Record | Berth Type | Appearance | Last Bid | School | Conference | Record | Berth Type | Appearance | Last Bid |
| Elmira | ECAC West | 18–7–2 | Tournament Champion | 9th | 1997 | Saint John's | MIAC | 20–6–1 | Tournament Champion | 4th | 2001 |
| Middlebury | NESCAC | 21–4–2 | At–Large | 9th | 2002 | St. Norbert | NCHA | 26–1–2 | Tournament Champion | 5th | 2002 |
| Norwich | ECAC East | 24–3–0 | Tournament Champion | 6th | 2002 | Wisconsin–River Falls | NCHA | 22–6–1 | At–Large | 9th | 2001 |
| Oswego State | SUNYAC | 23–6–1 | Tournament Champion | 7th | 1998 | ||||||
| Trinity | NESCAC | 19–5–2 | Tournament Champion | 1st | Never | ||||||
| Wentworth | ECAC Northeast | 21–4–3 | Tournament Champion | 3rd | 2002 | ||||||
Format
The tournament featured four rounds of play. All rounds were Single-game elimination. For the three eastern Quarterfinals the teams were seeded according to their rankings with the top three teams serving as hosts. For the western quarterfinal, the top-ranked team awaited the winner of a play-in game between the lower-ranked teams.
Tournament Bracket
| First Round March 12 |
Quarterfinals March 15 |
Semifinals March 21 |
National Championship March 22 | |||||||||||||||
| W1 | St. Norbert | 5 | ||||||||||||||||
| W2 | Wisconsin–River Falls | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| W2 | Wisconsin–River Falls | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| W3 | Saint John's | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
| St. Norbert | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| Norwich | 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| Norwich | 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| Trinity | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| Norwich | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| Oswego State | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| Middlebury | 5 | |||||||||||||||||
| Elmira | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| Middlebury | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| Oswego State | 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| Oswego State | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| Wentworth | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
Record by conference
| Conference | # of Bids | Record | Win % | Frozen Four | Championship Game | Champions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NCHA | 2 | 2–2 | .500 | 1 | - | - |
| NESCAC | 2 | 1–2 | .333 | 1 | - | - |
| ECAC East | 1 | 3–0 | 1.000 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| SUNYAC | 1 | 2–1 | .667 | 1 | 1 | - |
| ECAC West | 1 | 0–1 | .000 | - | - | - |
| ECAC Northeast | 1 | 0–1 | .000 | - | - | - |
| MIAC | 1 | 0–1 | .000 | - | - | - |