NCAA women's ice hockey tournament

The annual NCAA women's ice hockey tournament, officially called the National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Championship, is a college ice hockey event held in the United States. It is organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to find the best women's team in the NCAA.

Unlike many other NCAA sports, this tournament mixes Division I and Division II teams, so they all compete together to decide the champion.

The biggest games of the tournament—the semifinals and the final—are called the women's "Frozen Four". This name is inspired by the NCAA's famous "Final Four" in basketball.

Origins

The NCAA championship for women's ice hockey started in 2001, even though some universities had women's teams since the early 1970s.

The first women's ice hockey team in the United States was at Brown University in 1965. They played their first game in February 1966. Other universities like Cornell University, Yale University, the University of Minnesota Duluth, and the University of New Hampshire also started teams around this time.

In 1976, Brown University hosted the first Ivy League women's ice hockey tournament. The Providence Friars won the first ECAC women's ice hockey championship in 1984. Later, in the 1997–98 season, the American Women's College Hockey Alliance (AWCHA) began, leading to the first national women's ice hockey championship, won by New Hampshire. The Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs won the first NCAA tournament in the 2000–01 season.

NCAA Division I women's ice hockey

Main article: NCAA Division I women's hockey conferences and teams

In the United States, 44 schools from the Midwest to the East Coast have women's ice hockey teams that compete at the National Collegiate level, which includes both Division I and Division II. The NCAA recognizes five main conferences for this sport: Atlantic Hockey America, ECAC Hockey, Hockey East, New England Women's Hockey Alliance, and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.

Format

Under NCAA rules, Division II schools can join Division I teams in sports that do not have their own championship. Since there is no Division II championship for women's ice hockey, this rule lets Division II teams compete in the same tournament as Division I teams. The official name of this tournament is the National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Championship.

The tournament is a single elimination competition with eleven teams. The semi-finals and final are called the "Women's Frozen Four," which is similar to the "Final Four" name used in other NCAA sports. The Patty Kazmaier Award ceremony happens every year during the Women's Frozen Four weekend.

History

The first 13 NCAA women's ice hockey tournaments were all won by just three teams from the same conference: Minnesota Duluth, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. In 2014, a new team named Clarkson broke this pattern by winning the championship. Then, in 2022, Ohio State became the fourth team from that conference to win. Another conference, the ECAC, has been very strong too, with many trips to the championship game. Teams from Hockey East and Atlantic Hockey America have also appeared in the final matches. Sadly, the 2020 tournament could not happen because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Team titles

Some schools have won the NCAA Championship for women's ice hockey. Here are the top teams:

• Minnesota
• Wisconsin
• Minnesota Duluth
• Clarkson
• Ohio State

The number of times each school has won is shown: 9, 6, 5, 3, 2.

Result by school and year

Many teams have joined the NCAA women's ice hockey tournament since it began in 2001. You can see how they did in each year in the table below.

The table shows if a team became the national champion, the runner-up, made it to the Frozen Four (the semifinals), or reached the quarterfinals. Some years had different numbers of teams, like in 2020 when the tournament was stopped before it could finish.

The teams are listed with their seeds, which show how high they were ranked when the tournament started. From 2001 to 2021, the top four teams were seeded, but sometimes there were changes. Since 2022, the top five teams are seeded.

Broadcasting

In February 2017, the NCAA made an agreement with the Big Ten Network to show the Women's national championship game starting that year, and the Frozen Four semi-finals starting in 2018.

In 2021, ESPN got the rights for several years. ESPNU will show one semi-final and the national championship each year. The other semi-final will be shown online.

Records and statistics

• NCAA Division I women's ice hockey tournament Most Outstanding Player
• NCAA National Collegiate women's ice hockey tournament all-time team records