2010 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament

The 2010 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament involved 16 schools in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college ice hockey. The tournament began on March 26, 2010, and ended with the championship game on April 10, in which Boston College defeated Wisconsin 5–0 to win its fourth national championship.
Since the adoption of the 16-team playoff with the 2003 tournament, RIT became the first team to ever reach the Frozen Four in their first tournament appearance. As of 2025, they remain the only team to do so.

Procedure

The four regionals are officially named after their geographic areas. The following are the sites for the 2010 regionals:
;March 26 and 27
;March 27 and 28
Each regional winner will advance to the [NCAA Division I (NCAA)|Division I men's ice hockey tournament|Frozen Four]:
;April 8 and 10

Qualifying teams

The at-large bids and seeding for each team in the tournament were announced on March 21, 2010. The Central Collegiate Hockey Association and Western Collegiate Hockey Association each had four teams receive a berth in the tournament, Hockey East had three teams receive a berth, College Hockey America and ECAC Hockey had two berths each, and Atlantic Hockey had one team receive a berth.
Number in parentheses denotes overall seed in the tournament.
* Alaska has since been stripped of their tournament appearance due to NCAA violations found during a 2014 investigation.

Preliminary rounds

Note: * denotes overtime period

All times are local.

Midwest Regional – [Fort Wayne, Indiana]

Regional final

The regional final between Michigan and Miami was not without controversy. In the first overtime, Michigan appeared to score what would have been the game-winning goal when Kevin Lynch scored on a rebound in a scrum in front of the Miami net. However, after a video review, the goal was disallowed as the play had been whistled dead before the goal was scored to assess a Miami penalty. NCAA Director of Officials Steve Piotrowski clarified that officials blew the whistle as Lynch touched the puck, with a Miami player touching the puck in the crease and the puck briefly stopped underneath Miami goalie Connor Knapp, both occurring before the goal. The game continued until Miami sophomore Alden Hirschfeld scored 1:54 into double overtime, securing the 3-2 RedHawk victory.

Media

Television

ESPN had US television rights to all games during the tournament. For the sixth consecutive year ESPN aired every game, beginning with the regionals, on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU, and ESPN360.