The first NCAA tournament game I saw was on TV.  In 1979 I saw the
University of Minnesota defeat North Dakota in the final in Detroit.  It was
broadcast on PBS.  That got me hooked on college hockey.

The next year I started attending the University of Minnesota and half-way
through the season started buying tickets for the hockey games.
Although severly depleted with so many players on the 1980 Olympic
team, they still managed to make the NCAA playoffs.  This was prior to
the two-game total goal series for the quarterfinals.  In the first round
game they lost a heartbreaker to Northern Michigan 4-3,  the heartbreak
at the hands of the officials.  A goal by I believe Aaron Broten was
disallowed.  The official didn't believe it went in as he found the puck
behind the net.  Later on the hole in the net was found confirming what the
TV replays seemed to show.  Northern lost to North Dakota in the final
that year.

The first tournament I attended in person was in Detroit, where I had
moved to.  In 1987 I was able to see the University of Minnesota in person
in a tournament for the first time.  The semi-final game against MSU didn't
turn out any better.  If this is the year I remember [Minnesota lost to MSU
the previous year, too] then there was a horrible board bounce which left
the goalie out of position heading to where he thought the puck was
supposed to be.  Instead it bounced back out to an MSU player who had a
wide-open net to score in.

In the consolation game that year, Minnesota went on to defeat Harvard.
Having suffered some defeats to Harvard in previous years including a
tournament loss, this brought some amount of satisfaction.  And, North
Dakota went on to beat MSU in the final.

Doug Peterson