1977–78 NCAA Division II men's ice hockey season

1977–78 NCAA Division II men's ice hockey season
1977–78 NCAA Division II men's ice hockey season
Duration	November 1977–; March 18, 1978
NCAA tournament	1978
National championship	Springfield, Massachusetts
NCAA champion	Merrimack
List of NCAA Division II men's ice hockey seasons
← 1976–77	1978–79 →

The 1977–78 NCAA Division II men's ice hockey season began in November 1977 and concluded on March 18 of the following year. This was the 14th season of second-tier college ice hockey.

The NCAA instituted a Division II national championship beginning with this season. Bowdoin was one of the two ECAC 2 tournament champions, however, because Bowdoin College barred its teams from participating in national tournaments at the time^[1] runner-up Merrimack was selected instead.

Due to the number of independent programs and the lack of any conference tournament for western teams, the NCAA also began holding a playoff series for western teams to help determine which schools would receive bids.

Despite already being part of ECAC 2, all SUNYAC schools, as well as a few other upstate New York schools formed the New York Collegiate Hockey Association (NYCHA). Because all teams were still members of ECAC 2 and the larger conference began holding two tournaments, doubled the number of participants beginning with this season, no NYCHA tournament was ever held.^[2]

Regular season[edit]

Season tournaments[edit]

Tournament	Dates	Teams	Champion
Merrimack Thanksgiving Tournament	November 25–26	4	Merrimack
Codfish Bowl	December 28–29	4	Salem State
Williams Tournament	December 29–30	4	Oswego State
Salem State Tournament	January 4–5	4	Lowell
Merrimack Christmas Tournament	January 6–7	4	Merrimack

Standings[edit]

1977–78 ECAC 2 standings v t e
	Conference							Overall
	GP	W	L	T	Pct.	GF	GA	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA
East Region
Bowdoin †*	17	13	3	1	.794	116	61	26	19	6	1
Merrimack	21	16	4	1	.786	120	71	32	21	9	2	173	114
Lowell	22	16	5	1	.750	120	76	24	17	6	1	130	84
Salem State	24	17	7	0	.708	108	84	29	21	8	0
Holy Cross	21	14	7	0	.667	99	75	26	16	9	1	132	93
American International	21	13	7	1	.643	113	102	23	15	7	1
Maine	19	10	9	0	.526	99	64	25	13	12	0	129	99
Saint Anselm	21	10	10	1	.500	113	98	25	12	12	1	130	124
Colby	22	9	12	1	.432	79	77
Connecticut	18	7	10	1	.417	94	99	23	12	10	1	109	100
Bryant	19	6	12	1	.342	99	129	25	12	13	0
New Haven	22	7	14	1	.341	79	115	26	10	15	1
Babson	20	4	15	1	.225	67	100	22	6	15	1
Boston State	18	4	14	0	.222	74	127	23	7	16	0
New England College	16	3	12	1	.219	64	99	22	7	13	2
Bridgewater State	18	3	15	0	.167	61	113	27	7	20	0
West Region
Plattsburgh State †	19	16	3	0	.842	129	60	22	18	4	0	157	79
Elmira *	22	18	4	0	.818	165	76	32	26	6	0	235	102
Middlebury	14	11	3	0	.786	83	55	22	16	6	0	112	73
Oswego State	24	16	8	0	.667	143	90	27	18	9	0	163	105
Norwich	22	13	9	0	.591	114	95	25	14	11	0	121	106
Hamilton	19	11	8	0	.579	95	81	23	13	10	0
Army	19	10	8	1	.553	96	90	26	13	12	1	130	129
Buffalo	22	12	10	0	.545	110	93	27	14	13	0
Geneseo State	23	12	11	0	.522	140	137	26	15	11	0
Massachusetts	20	8	11	1	.425	75	86	20	8	11	1	75	86
Williams	17	7	10	0	.412	76	85	21	10	11	0
North Adams State	15	6	9	0	.400	65	63	23	13	10	0
Potsdam State	15	4	11	0	.267	60	95	21	9	12	0
Cortland State	18	4	14	0	.222	69	139
Union	8	1	7	0	.125	22	87	19	4	14	1
Brockport State	15	1	14	0	.071	42	124	20	3	17	0	65	166
Championships: March 16, 1978 † indicates division regular season champions * indicates conference tournament champions

1977–78 NCAA Division II Independent ice hockey standings v t e
	Overall record
	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA
Alaska–Fairbanks	18	14	3	1	-	-
Chicago State
Hillsdale
Illinois-Chicago	24	14	10	0
Lake Forest	28	23	5	0	207	98
Mankato State	34	17	16	1	170	154
Oberlin
St. Cloud State	24	12	12	0	137	126

1977–78 NYCHA standings v t e
	Conference							Overall
	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA
Plattsburgh State †	14	13	1	0	26	104	46	22	18	4	0	157	79
Elmira	14	12	2	0	24	109	38	32	26	6	0	235	102
Oswego State	14	9	5	0	18	91	48	27	18	9	0	163	105
Brockport State	14	1	13	0	2	42	124	20	3	17	0	65	166
Buffalo								27	14	13	0
Cortland State
Geneseo State								26	15	11	0
Potsdam State								21	9	12	0
As of 2/22: 1. Plattsburgh 11-1-0-22 91:40, 2. Elmira 10-2-0-20 85:33, 3. Oswego 9-3-0-18 85:38, 4. Buffalo 7-5-0-14 55:54, 5. Cortland 4-7-0-8 55:83, 6. Geneseo 4-7-0-8 44:57, 7. Potsdam 1-10-0-2 38:77, 8. Brockport 1-12-0-2 40:111 † indicates conference regular season champion

1977–78 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference ice hockey standings v t e
	Conference							Overall
	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA
Augsburg †	14	13	1	0	26			28	22	6	0
Gustavus Adolphus	14	11	3	0	22			27	17	11	0
Saint John's	14	9	5	0	18			22	15	7	0
St. Thomas	14	7	7	0	14			27	14	12	1
Hamline	14	7	7	0	14			25	11	14	0
Concordia (MN)	14	6	8	0	12			27	11	16	0
Saint Mary's	14	2	12	0	4			25	4	21	0
St. Olaf	14	1	13	0	2			26	3	23	0
† indicates conference regular season champion

1978 NCAA tournament[edit]

Semifinals March 16–17			National championship March 18

W1	Mankato State	1

E2	Merrimack	6
			E2	Merrimack	12

			W2	Lake Forest	2
E1	Elmira	1

W2	Lake Forest	4	Third-place game


			W1	Mankato State	5

			E1	Elmira	3

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

^[3]

1978 NHL Amateur Draft[edit]

Round	Pick	Player	College	Conference	NHL team
9	153	Craig MacTavish	Lowell	ECAC 2	Boston Bruins
18	230	Bob Magnuson	Merrimack	ECAC 2	Montreal Canadiens

† incoming freshman
^[4]

References[edit]

^ "Bowdoin College Men's Hockey History" (PDF). Bowdoin Polar Bears. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 29, 2018. Retrieved November 28, 2018.
^ "Plattsburgh Ice Hockey Year-by-Year Results" (PDF). Plattsburgh Cardinals. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
^ "NCAA Record Book" (PDF). NCAA. Retrieved April 13, 2016.
^ "1978 NHL Amateur Draft". Hockey DB. Retrieved October 25, 2023.

External links[edit]

[1] "Bowdoin College Men's Hockey History" (PDF). Bowdoin Polar Bears. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 29, 2018. Retrieved November 28, 2018.

[2] "Plattsburgh Ice Hockey Year-by-Year Results" (PDF). Plattsburgh Cardinals. Retrieved September 7, 2019.

[3] "NCAA Record Book" (PDF). NCAA. Retrieved April 13, 2016.

[4] "1978 NHL Amateur Draft". Hockey DB. Retrieved October 25, 2023.

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v t e NCAA Division II men's ice hockey seasons
NCAA seasons	1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1986–87 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23
Division II Conferences	Northeast-10 Currently a Division III conference: NCHA MIAC
Defunct Conferences	ECAC 2 ECAC 3 NYCHA WCHL
NCAA awards	Edward Jeremiah Award NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player