A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
 2002 Frozen Four logo | |
| Teams | 12 |
|---|---|
| Finals site | |
| Champions | Minnesota Golden Gophers (4th title) |
| Runner-up | Maine Black Bears (4th title game) |
| Semifinalists |
|
| Winning coach | Don Lucia (1st title) |
| MOP | Grant Potulny (Minnesota) |
| Attendance | 91,931 |
The 2002 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament involved 12 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college ice hockey.
The final event was played at Xcel Energy Center, Saint Paul, Minnesota. The University of Minnesota, coached by Don Lucia, won its first NCAA title since 1979 by defeating the University of Maine, coached by Tim Whitehead, 4-3, in overtime on April 6. Matt Koalska tied the game with 53 seconds remaining in regulation with Minnesota goaltender Adam Hauser pulled for an extra attacker. Grant Potulny then won it on his power-play goal at 16:58 of the extra session, giving the Golden Gophers their fourth NCAA championship (6th overall). Minnesota senior forward John Pohl assisted on both the tying and winning goals in his final game in a Gophers uniform.
Minnesota advanced to the finals with a 3-2 semifinal win over Michigan on April 4, after Maine had bested Hockey East rival New Hampshire by a 7-2 score in the other semifinal.
Game locations
The NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey Championship is a single-elimination tournament featuring 12 teams representing five Division I conferences in the nation. The Championship Committee seeds the entire field from 1 to 12 within two regionals of 6 teams. The winners of five Division I conference championships receive automatic bids to participate in the NCAA Championship. The top regional placements are given to the best teams from each of the two regions (East and West) while the remaining 10 teams are seeded based upon their rankings regardless of region.
Regional Sites
- East Regional – Centrum Centre, Worcester, Massachusetts
- West Regional – Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Championship Site
Qualifying teams
The at-large bids and seeding for each team in the tournament were announced after the conference tournaments concluded on March 17, 2002. The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) had four teams receive a berth in the tournament, Hockey East had three teams receive a berth in the tournament, the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA), and the ECAC each had two berths, while the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) received a single bid for its tournament champion.
| East Regional – Worcester | West Regional – Ann Arbor | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | School | Conference | Record | Berth type | Appearance | Last bid | Seed | School | Conference | Record | Berth type | Appearance | Last bid |
| 1 | New Hampshire (1) | Hockey East | 29–6–3 | Tournament champion | 12th | 2000 | 1 | Denver (2) | WCHA | 32–7–1 | Tournament champion | 16th | 1999 |
| 2 | Boston University | Hockey East | 25–9–3 | At-large bid | 26th | 2000 | 2 | Minnesota | WCHA | 29–8–4 | At-large bid | 26th | 2001 |
| 3 | Maine | Hockey East | 23–10–7 | At-large bid | 12th | 2001 | 3 | Michigan State | CCHA | 27–8–5 | At-large bid | 22nd | 2001 |
| 4 | Cornell | ECAC | 24–7–2 | At-large bid | 13th | 1997 | 4 | Michigan | CCHA | 26–10–5 | Tournament champion | 25th | 2001 |
| 5 | Quinnipiac | MAAC | 20–12–5 | Tournament champion | 1st | Never | 5 | St. Cloud State | WCHA | 29–10–2 | At-large bid | 4th | 2001 |
| 6 | Harvard | ECAC | 15–14–4 | Tournament champion | 17th | 1994 | 6 | Colorado College | WCHA | 26–12–3 | At-large bid | 15th | 2001 |
Number in parentheses denotes overall seed in the tournament.
Bracket
East Regional
|
West Regional
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frozen Four
| National semifinals April 4 | National championship April 6 | ||||||||
| E1 | New Hampshire | 2 | |||||||
| E3 | Maine | 7 | |||||||
| E3 | Maine | 3 | |||||||
| W2 | Minnesota | 4* | |||||||
| W4 | Michigan | 2 | |||||||
| W2 | Minnesota | 3 | |||||||
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
Regional Quarterfinals
East Regional
(3) Maine vs. (6) Harvard
| March 23[3] | Maine | 4 – 3 | OT | Harvard | Centrum Centre | Recap | ||
| (Kariya, Reimann) Niko Dimitrakos – PP – 10:27 | First period | 07:55 – Tim Pettit (Cavanaugh) | ||||||
| (Reimann) Chris Heisten – 12:08 (Liscak, Jackson) Michael Schutte – 14:22 |
Second period | 03:43 – Dave McCulloch (Nowak, Kolarik) | ||||||
| No scoring | Third period | 06:15 – PP – Tom Cavanagh (Pettit, Welch) | ||||||
| (Falco) John Ronan – GW – 02:02 | First overtime period | No scoring | ||||||
| Mike Morrison ( 19 saves / 22 shots ) | Goalie stats | Dov Grumet-Morris ( 33 saves / 37 shots ) | ||||||
(4) Cornell vs. (5) Quinnipiac
| March 23[4] | Cornell | 6 – 1 | Quinnipiac | Centrum Centre | Recap | |||
| (Knoepfli) Krzysztof Wieckowski – 01:29 Sam Paolini – GW – 03:30 (McRae, Vesce) Douglas Murray – PP – 08:57 (McRae) Kelly Hughes – 14:24 |
First period | No scoring | ||||||
| (Bâby, McRae) Ryan Vesce – PP – 07:56 | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| (Knoepfli) Stephen Bâby – SH – 03:28 | Third period | 15:23 – Ryan Morton | ||||||
| Matt Underhill ( 13 saves / 14 shots ) | Goalie stats | Jamie Holden ( 1 saves / 3 shots ) / Justin Eddy ( 28 saves / 32 shots ) | ||||||