The 1977 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament was the culmination of the 1976–77 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, the 30th such tournament in NCAA history. It was held between March 20 and 26, 1977, and concluded with Wisconsin defeating Michigan 6–5 in overtime. The first-round game were held at the home team venue while all succeeding games were played at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit, Michigan.
| Teams | 5 |
|---|---|
| Finals site | |
| Champions | Wisconsin Badgers (2nd title) |
| Runner-up | Michigan Wolverines (9th title game) |
| Semifinalists |
|
| Winning coach | Bob Johnson (2nd title) |
| MOP | Julian Baretta (Wisconsin) |
| Attendance | 25,694 |
For the first time the tournament was expanded beyond 4 teams. The NCAA selection committee granted themselves the ability to add an additional 4 teams to the tournament beyond the two tournament finalists from both the ECAC and WCHA.[1]
Qualifying teams
The NCAA gave four teams automatic bids into the tournament. The two ECAC teams that reached the ECAC tournament final received bids as did the two WCHA teams that reached their tournament championship. The NCAA also had the ability to add up to 4 additional teams as it saw fit and chose to include the CCHA tournament champion as well.
| East | West | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | School | Conference | Record | Berth type | Appearance | Last bid | Seed | School | Conference | Record | Berth type | Appearance | Last bid |
| 1 | Boston University | ECAC Hockey | 21–10–1 | Tournament champion | 12th | 1976 | 1 | Wisconsin | WCHA | 35–7–1 | Tournament champion | 4th | 1973 |
| 2 | New Hampshire | ECAC Hockey | 27–10–0 | Tournament finalist | 1st | Never | 2 | Michigan | WCHA | 26–16–0 | Tournament finalist | 13th | 1964 |
| At-Large | |||||||||||||
| Seed | School | Conference | Record | Berth type | Appearance | Last bid | |||||||
| A | Bowling Green | CCHA | 28–10–0 | Tournament champion | 1st | Never | |||||||
Format
The four automatic qualifiers were seeded according to pre-tournament finish. The ECAC champion was seeded as the top eastern team while the WCHA champion was given the top western seed. The second eastern seed was slotted to play the top western seed and vice versa. Because an at-large bid was offered to a western school they were placed in a first-round game with the second western seed to determine the final semifinalist. The first-round game was played at the home venue of the second seed while all succeeding games were played at the Olympia in Detroit, Michigan. All matches were Single-game eliminations with the semifinal winners advancing to the national championship game and the losers playing in a consolation game.
Tournament bracket
| First round March 20 | Semifinals March 24–25 | National championship March 26 | ||||||||||||
| E1 | Boston University | 4 | ||||||||||||
| W2 | Michigan | 6 | ||||||||||||
| W2 | Michigan | 7 | ||||||||||||
| A | Bowling Green | 5 | ||||||||||||
| W2 | Michigan | 5 | ||||||||||||
| W1 | Wisconsin | 6* | ||||||||||||
| W1 | Wisconsin | 4* | Third-place game | |||||||||||
| E2 | New Hampshire | 3 | ||||||||||||
| E1 | Boston University | 6 | ||||||||||||
| E2 | New Hampshire | 5 | ||||||||||||
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
First round
(W2) Michigan vs. (A) Bowling Green
| March 20 | Michigan | 7 – 5 | Bowling Green | Yost Ice Arena | ||||
Semifinal
(E1) Boston University vs. (W2) Michigan
| March 24 | Boston University | 4 – 6 | Michigan | Olympia Stadium | Recap | |||
| (Silk, Marden) Rick Meagher - 04:04 | First period | 05:31 - Dave Debol (R. Palmer, Manery) 14:26 - John Waymann (Mauer, Manery) | ||||||
| (R. Meagher, Marden) Dave Silk - 07:10 | Second period | 09:30 - Doug Todd (Miller) 09:52 - Zbigniew Kawa (Hoene, Lerg) | ||||||
| (Eruzione, Lamby) Dave Silk - 13:44 (R. Meagher, Marden) Dave Silk - 17:49 | Third period | 06:46 - GW - William Thayer (Debol, Mauer) 19:22 - EN - Dan Lerg (unassisted) | ||||||
| Jim Craig (25 shots / 20 saves) | Goalie stats | Rick Palmer (29 shots / 25 saves) | ||||||
(W1) Wisconsin vs. (E2) New Hampshire
| March 25 | Wisconsin | 4 – 3 | OT | New Hampshire | Olympia Stadium | |||
Third-place game
(E1) Boston University vs. (E2) New Hampshire
| March 26 | Boston University | 6 – 5 | New Hampshire | Olympia Stadium | ||||
National Championship
(W1) Wisconsin vs. (W2) Michigan
| March 26[4] | Wisconsin | 6 – 5 | OT | Michigan | Olympia Stadium | |||
| Scoring summary | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period | Team | Goal | Assist(s) | Time | Score |
| 1st | WIS | Steve Alley – PP | Norwich and Eaves | 2:29 | 1–0 WIS |
| WIS | Dave Herbst | Norwich and Lundeen | 9:27 | 2–0 WIS | |
| WIS | Mark Johnson – PP | Eaves and Alley | 15:12 | 3–0 WIS | |
| UM | Kip Maurer – PP | Manery and Palmer | 16:13 | 3–1 WIS | |
| 2nd | UM | Dave Debol – PP | Maurer and Palmer | 21:33 | 3–2 WIS |
| WIS | Mike Meeker | Johnson and Suter | 22:54 | 4–2 WIS | |
| 3rd | WIS | Mark Johnson | Grauer and Meeker | 41:10 | 5–2 WIS |
| UM | Mark Miller | Debol and Todd | 41:36 | 5–3 WIS | |
| UM | Dave Debol | Thayer | 42:14 | 5–4 WIS | |
| UM | John Wayman | Maurer | 54:22 | 5–5 | |
| 1st Overtime | WIS | Steve Alley – GW | Eaves and Ulseth | 60:23 | 6–5 WIS |
| Penalty summary | |||||
| Period | Team | Player | Penalty | Time | PIM |
| 1st | UM | Kris Manery | Hooking | 1:12 | 2:00 |
| WIS | Dave Herbst | Hooking | 5:48 | 2:00 | |
| UM | Dane Hoene | Tripping | 15:01 | 2:00 | |
| WIS | Murray Johnson | Elbowing | 15:21 | 2:00 | |
| WIS | Craig Norwich | High–Sticking | 19:20 | 2:00 | |
| UM | John Wayman | High–Sticking | 19:20 | 2:00 | |
| 2nd | WIS | Steve Alley | Hooking | 20:30 | 2:00 |
| WIS | Dave Herbst | Tripping | 22:54 | 2:00 | |
| UM | Dean Turner | Interference | 28:44 | 2:00 | |
| WIS | Bob Suter | Roughing | 34:44 | 2:00 | |
| WIS | Craig Norwich | Roughing | 37:13 | 2:00 | |
| 3rd | WIS | Craig Norwich | High–Sticking | 41:55 | 2:00 |
| UM | Dane Hoene | High–Sticking | 41:55 | 2:00 | |
| UM | John McCahill | Hooking | 45:03 | 2:00 | |
| WIS | John Taft | Tripping | 48:41 | 2:00 | |
| Goaltenders | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Name | Saves | Goals against | Time on ice |
| UM | Rick Palmer | 24 | 6 | |
| WIS | Julian Baretta | 34 | 5 | |
- G: Julian Baretta* (Wisconsin)
- D: Craig Norwich (Wisconsin)
- D: John Taft (Wisconsin)
- F: Dave Debol (Michigan)
- F: Rick Meagher (Boston University)
- F: Dave Silk (Boston University)