The 2000 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the culmination of the 1999–00 season, the 17th such tournament in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

history. It concluded with

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

defeating St. Thomas in the championship game 2-1. All Quarterfinals matchups were held at home team venues, while all succeeding games were played in

Superior, Wisconsin Superior (; ) is a city in Douglas County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. The population was 26,751 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located at the western end of Lake Superior in northwestern Wisconsin, the city l ...

. The NCAA began offering automatic bids to conference tournament champions for the first time. Seven of the eight existing conferences received automatic bids with only the

MCHA Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association was a college athletic conference which operated in the midwestern United States. It participated in the NCAA's Division III as a hockey-only conference. The conference included only men's teams. History The ...

not included. This was because the MCHA had a Division II program who participated in their conference tournament; both

ECAC East New England Hockey Conference (formerly the ECAC East) is a college athletic conference which operates in the northeastern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division III as a hockey-only conference. __TOC__ History The New England ...

and ECAC Northeast had Division II members as well but none of those team participated in their respective conference tournaments. This allowed the results to be certified as

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Third ...

. With the

NESCAC The New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III comprising sports teams from eleven highly selective liberal a ...

now sponsoring ice hockey as a sport and holding an individual conference tournament, the conference rules limiting member schools to only one postseason tournament were dropped. Despite being in Division III since

1973 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...

, ECAC Northeast received its first entry into the national tournament.

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. No formal seeding was used while quarterfinal matches were arranged so that the road teams would have the shortest possible travel distances.

Format

The tournament featured three rounds of play. In the Quarterfinals, teams played a two-game series where the first team to reach 3 points was declared a winner (2 points for winning a game, 1 point each for tying). If both teams ended up with 2 points after the first two games a 20-minute mini-game used to determine a winner. Mini-game scores are in ''italics''. Beginning with the Semifinals all games became Single-game eliminations. The winning teams in the semifinals advanced to the National Championship Game with the losers playing in a Third Place game. The teams were seeded according to geographic proximity in the quarterfinals so the visiting team would have the shortest feasible distance to travel.

Bracket

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
Note: Mini-games in ''italics''

Record by conference

References

External links

Division III Men's Ice Hockey Record Book
{{DEFAULTSORT:2000 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament NCAA Division III men's ice hockey tournament