The 2002–03 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season began on October 4, 2002, and concluded with the 2003 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament's championship game on April 12, 2003, at the

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. This was the 56th

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 axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

in which an NCAA ice hockey championship was held and is the 109th year overall where an NCAA school fielded a team. The 2002–03 season was the final year for the MAAC hockey conference when

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and Fairfield ended their programs at the conclusion of the season. The NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament expanded to 16 teams for the first time in 2003. As a result, two regional sites were added for the new Northeast and Midwest brackets.

Season Outlook

Pre-season polls

The top teams in the nation as ranked before the start of the season. The U.S. College Hockey Online poll was voted on by coaches, media, and

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

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. The

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/American Hockey Magazine poll was voted on by coaches and media.

Regular season

Season tournaments

Standings

Final regular season polls

The top 15 teams ranked before the NCAA tournament.

2003 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 (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 spo ...

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 (sports), goal-scoring sports that track Save (goaltender), saves as a statistic. In ice hockey and lacrosse and association football, it is a sta ...

; GAA = Goals against average''

Awards

NCAA

CCHA

CHA

ECAC

Hockey East

MAAC

WCHA

2003 NHL Entry Draft

† incoming freshman

References

External links

USCHO.com

College Hockey Historical ArchivesCollege Hockey Stats.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Season, 2002-03 2002–03 in American ice hockey by league