2021 NCHC Tournament

The 2021 NCHC Tournament was the seventh tournament in league history. Typically the tournament is scheduled across two separate weekends in mid-march with quarterfinal games hosted on campus locations, while the final four games are played at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota. However, on February 8, 2021, NCHC announced that the tournament would be played entirely in Grand Forks.^[1] By winning the tournament, North Dakota earned NCHC's automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.

2021 NCHC Men's ice hockey tournament
Dates	March 12–16, 2021
Teams	8
Finals site	Ralph Engelstad Arena Grand Forks, North Dakota
Champions	North Dakota (1st title)
Winning coach	Brad Berry (1st title)
MVP	Riese Gaber (North Dakota)
NCHC Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments ← 2020 2022 →

Format

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, changes to the traditional tournament format were made for this season. All games will be single-elimination as opposed to a best-of-three games quarterfinals, and no third-place game will occur. All eight conference teams participate in the tournament. Teams are seeded No. 1 through No. 8 according to their final conference standing, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with an identical number of points accumulated. The top four seeded teams each earn home ice and host one of the lower seeded teams.

The winners of the quarterfinals round series will advance to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff. Teams are re-seeded No. 1 through No. 4 according to the final regular season conference standings.^[2]

Standings

2020–21 National Collegiate Hockey Conference Standings v t e
	Conference record												Overall record
	GP	W	L	T	OTW	OTL	3/SW	PTS	PT%	GF	GA		GP	W	L	T	GF	GA
#5 North Dakota †*	24	18	5	1	2	1	0	54	.750	94	47		29	22	6	1	114	57
#2 St. Cloud State	24	15	9	0	3	3	0	45	.625	78	64		31	20	11	0	101	84
#3 Minnesota Duluth	24	13	9	2	1	2	1	43	.597	72	54		28	15	11	2	84	66
#13 Omaha	24	14	9	1	4	0	1	40	.556	79	69		26	14	11	1	85	81
Denver	22	9	12	1	0	2	1	31	.470	61	60		24	11	13	1	67	66
Western Michigan	24	10	11	3	1	0	1	33	.458	73	84		25	10	12	3	77	89
Colorado College	22	4	16	2	0	2	2	18	.273	35	77		23	4	17	2	36	79
Miami	24	5	17	2	0	1	0	18	.250	46	83		25	5	18	2	48	89
Championship: March 16, 2021 † indicates conference regular season champion (Penrose Cup) * indicates conference tournament champion (Frozen Faceoff Championship Trophy) Rankings: USCHO.com Top 20 Poll

Bracket

Teams are reseeded for the Semifinals

	Quarterfinals March 12–13					Semifinals March 15					Championship March 16
	1	North Dakota	6
	8	Miami	2
						1	North Dakota	2*
						5	Denver	1
	2	St. Cloud State	2
	7	Colorado College	1
											1	North Dakota	5
											2	St. Cloud State	3
	3	Minnesota-Duluth	5*
	6	Western Michigan	4
						2	St. Cloud State	3
						3	Minnesota-Duluth	2
	4	Omaha	4
	5	Denver	5

* denotes overtime periods

Results

Quarterfinals

(1) North Dakota vs. (8) Miami

March 12, 2021 7:30 PM

North Dakota

6 – 2 (4–1, 1–1, 1–0)

Miami

Ralph Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks, North Dakota Attendance: 2,763

Game reference
	Adam Scheel	Goalies	Ludvig Persson	Referees: Dan Dreger Nick Krebsbach Linesmen: Tony Aronson Dan Cohen
	(Kawaguchi, Bernard-Docker) Collin Adams (10) – 00:14 1–0 (Senden, Hain) Louis Jamernik (1) – 05:27 2–0 (Kawaguchi, Frisch) Collin Adams (11) – GW – 05:36 3–0 3–1 11:14 – Phil Knies (3) (Gilling, Russell) (Adams, Kawaguchi) Riese Gaber (9) – 14:24 4–1 (Sanderson, Adams) Jacob Bernard-Docker (3) – 29:50 5–1 5–2 37:02 – Rourke Russell (7) (Cassetti) (Adams, Kawaguchi) Brendan Budy (4) – 45:10 6–2
	6 min	Penalties	20 min
	46	Shots	28

(2) St. Cloud State vs. (7) Colorado College

March 12, 2021 2:30 PM

St. Cloud State

2 – 1 (0–0, 1–1, 1–0)

Colorado College

Ralph Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks, North Dakota Attendance: 1,923

Game reference
	Dávid Hrenák	Goalies	Matt Vernon	Referees: Joe Sullivan Ryan Hersey Linesmen: Justin Hills Dana Penkivech
	0–1 22:08 – McKay Flanagan (1) (Berzolla) (Kupka, Fitzgerald) Zach Okabe (5) – 38:59 1–1 (Fitzgerald, Donohue) Nick Perbix (6) – GW – 56:05 2–1
	4 min	Penalties	17 min
	44	Shots	7

(3) Minnesota Duluth vs. (6) Western Michigan

March 13, 2021 7:30 PM

Minnesota Duluth

5 – 4 (OT) (1–1, 1–2, 2–1, 1–0)

Western Michigan

Ralph Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks, North Dakota Attendance: 2,167

Game reference
	Ryan Fanti	Goalies	Brandon Bussi	Referees: Nick Krebsbach Joe Sullivan Linesmen: Dan Cohen Dana Penkivech
	(Roth, Anderson) Koby Bender (5) – 02:21 1–0 1–1 09:59 – Jason Polin (6) (Glover, Washe) 1–2 29:46 – PP – Ethen Frank (13) (Worrad, Joyaux) (Laderoute, Koepke) Koby Bender (6) – PP – 05:27 2–2 2–3 39:22 – Cole Gallant (5) (Frank, Fulp) (N. Cates, J. Cates) Kobe Roth (12) – PP – 44:27 3–3 (J. Cates) Cole Koepke (13) – 47:32 4–3 4–4 59:38 – EA – Jason Polin (7) (Passolt, Washe) (unassisted) Connor Kelley (3) – GW – 66:24 5–4
	8 min	Penalties	8 min
	37	Shots	36

(4) Omaha vs. (5) Denver

March 13, 2021 2:30 PM

Omaha

4 – 5 (2–1, 1–1, 1–3)

Denver

Ralph Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks, North Dakota Attendance: 1,864

Game reference
	Isaiah Saville	Goalies	Magnus Chrona	Referees: Ryan Hersey Tom Sterns Linesmen: Justin Hills Tyler Liffrig
	0–1 08:25 – Hank Crone (5) (Heikkinen, Olischefski) (Sullivan) Jason Smallidge (2) – 14:51 1–1 (Abate, Randl) Matt Miller (8) – 15:49 2–1 (Ward, Saville) Tyler Weiss (7) – 34:47 3–1 3–2 36:57 – PP – Bobby Brink (2) (Demin, Guttman) 3–3 40:42 – Mike Benning (2) (Guttman, Crone) 3–4 51:52 – PP – Mike Benning (3) (Brink, Guttman) (Conley, Glynn) Nate Knoepke (4) – 53:10 4–4 4–5 54:57 – GW – Bo Hanson (1) (Caponi, Olischefski)
	29 min	Penalties	25 min
	28	Shots	38

Semifinals

(1) North Dakota vs. (5) Denver

March 15, 2021 8:00 PM

North Dakota

2 – 1 (OT) (0–0, 0–1, 1–0, 1–0)

Denver

Ralph Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks, North Dakota Attendance: 2,509

Game reference
	Adam Scheel	Goalies	Magnus Chrona	Referees: Tom Sterns Joe Sullivan Linesmen: Dana Penkivech Justin Hills
	0–1 25:52 – PP – Carter Savoie (13) (Brink, Benning) (Pinto, Kiersted) Jasper Weatherby (12) – EA – 58:33 1–1 (Weatherby, Sanderson) Gavin Hain (5) – GW – 68:37 2–1
	4 min	Penalties	4 min
	32	Shots	18

(2) St. Cloud State vs. (3) Minnesota Duluth

March 15, 2021 3:00 PM

St. Cloud State

3 – 2 (2–1, 1–1, 0–0)

Minnesota Duluth

Ralph Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks, North Dakota Attendance: 1,957

Game reference
	Dávid Hrenák	Goalies	Ryan Fanti	Referees: Nick Krebsbach Dan Dreger Linesmen: Tyler Liffrig Tony Aronson
	(Okabe, Donohue) Jami Krannila (10) – 07:02 1–0 1–1 12:44 – PP – Kobe Roth (6) (J. Cates, Kaiser) (Krannila, Meier) Kevin Fitzgerald (9) – PP – 17:52 2–1 2–2 32:54 – Koby Bender (13) (Roth) (Hammer, Jaycox) Chase Brand (4) – SH GW – 37:08 3–2
	10 min	Penalties	12 min
	34	Shots	26

Championship

(1) North Dakota vs. (2) St. Cloud State

March 16, 2021 7:30 PM

North Dakota

5 – 3 (1–2, 0–0, 4–1)

St. Cloud State

Ralph Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks, North Dakota Attendance: 3,000

Game reference
	Adam Scheel	Goalies	Dávid Hrenák	Referees: Nick Krebsbach Ryan Hersey Linesmen: Tyler Liffrig Justin Hills
	0–1 02:06 – PP – Zach Okabe (6) (Trejbal, Krannila) (Kawaguchi, Adams) Riese Gaber (10) – 12:40 1–1 1–2 16:46 – Seamus Donohue (1) (Meier, Kupka) (Caulfield, Sanderson) Gavin Hain (6) – PP – 43:20 2–2 (Gaber, Adams) Jordan Kawaguchi (8) – 44:54 3–2 (Pinto, Kiersted) Riese Gaber (11) – PP GW – 45:22 4–2 4–3 47:10 – Sam Hentges (8) (Fitzgerald, Trejbal) (Frisch, Scheel) Jordan Kawaguchi (9) – EN – 59:51 5–3
	6 min	Penalties	10 min
	35	Shots	33

Tournament awards

Frozen Faceoff All-Tournament Team

• F: Collin Adams (North Dakota)
• F: Gavin Hain (North Dakota)
• F: Riese Gaber* (North Dakota)
• D: Nick Perbix (St. Cloud State)
• D: Jake Sanderson (North Dakota)
• G: Adam Scheel (North Dakota)

* Most Valuable Player(s)

^[3]