The 1980–81 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season began in October 1980 and concluded with the 1981 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament's championship game on March 28, 1981 at the Duluth Arena in

Duluth, Minnesota , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

. This was the 34th

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

in which an NCAA ice hockey championship was held and is the 87th year overall where an NCAA school fielded a team. For the first time the

Hobey Baker Award The Hobey Baker Award is an annual award given to the top National Collegiate Athletic Association men's ice hockey player. It has been awarded 41 times. It is named for Hall of Famer Hobey Baker, who played college hockey at Princeton University ...

was conferred after the conclusion of the regular season. After the season four teams from the

WCHA The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...

left to join the CCHA. As a result of dividing the four

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

schools that had previously been in the WCHA the Big Ten stopped declaring a conference ice hockey champion until the formation of a separate conference in 2013–14.

Regular season

Season tournaments

Standings

1981 NCAA Tournament

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

Player stats

Scoring leaders

The following players led the league in points at the conclusion of the season. ''GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes''

Leading goaltenders

The following goaltenders led the league in

goals against average Goals against average (GAA) also known as "average goals against" or "AGA" is a statistic used in field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and water polo that is the mean of goals allowed per game by a goaltender or goalkeeper (depending on s ...

at the end of the regular season while playing at least 33% of their team's total minutes. ''GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; OT = Overtime/shootout losses; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV% =

Save percentage Save percentage (often known by such symbols as SV%, SVS%, SVP, PCT) is a statistic in various goal-scoring sports that track saves as a statistic. In ice hockey and lacrosse, it is a statistic that represents the percentage of shots on goal ...

; GAA = Goals against average''

Awards

NCAA

CCHA

ECAC

WCHA

References

External links

College Hockey Historical Archives1980–81 NCAA Standings
{{DEFAULTSORT:1980-81 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...