The 1950–51 Michigan Wolverines men's ice hockey team represented the University of Michigan in intercollegiate college ice hockey during the 1950–51 NCAA men's ice hockey season. The head coach was Vic Heyliger and the team captain was Gil Burford. The team won the 1951 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament. The team's leading scorer was Neil Celley, who broke Michigan's single-season scoring record with 79 points (40 goals, 39 assists) and led the NCAA in scoring.
During the season Michigan compiled a 22–4–1 record, the fourth consecutive year that the team won at least 80% of their games. Their schedule was as follows.[1]
Dec. 8, 1950 | 8–6 | Win | Weinberg Coliseum | 1–0 | |||
Dec. 15, 1950 | 11–6 | Win | Weinberg Coliseum | 2–0 | |||
Dec. 16, 1950 | 10–2 | Win | Weinberg Coliseum | 3–0 | |||
Dec. 21, 1950 | Western Ontario | 8–2 | Win | Weinberg Coliseum | 4–0 | ||
Dec. 22, 1950 | Western Ontario | 14–1 | Win | Weinberg Coliseum | 5–0 | ||
Dec. 27, 1950 | 11–2 | Win | Boston Arena | 6–0 | |||
Dec. 29, 1950 | 3–2 | Win | Boston Arena | 7–0 | |||
Jan. 5, 1951 | 5–4* | Win | Williams Arena | 8–0 | |||
Jan. 6, 1951 | 6–4 | Win | Williams Arena | 9–0 | |||
Jan. 12, 1951 | 8–8* | Tie | Weinberg Coliseum | 9–0–1 | |||
Jan. 13, 1951 | 2–3 | Loss | Weinberg Coliseum | 9–1–1 | |||
Jan. 19, 1951 | 12–2 | Win | Weinberg Coliseum | 10–1–1 | |||
Jan. 20, 1951 | 8–0 | Win | Weinberg Coliseum | 11–1–1 | |||
Feb. 5, 1951 | 5–4 | Win | DU Arena | 12–1–1 | |||
Feb. 7, 1951 | 3–5 | Loss | DU Arena | 12–2–1 | |||
Feb. 9, 1951 | 6–4 | Win | Broadmoor Ice Palace | 13–2–1 | |||
Feb. 10, 1951 | 7–9 | Loss | Broadmoor Ice Palace | 13–3–1 | |||
Feb. 16, 1951 | 9–5 | Win | Weinberg Coliseum | 14–3–1 | |||
Feb. 17, 1951 | 4–6 | Loss | Weinberg Coliseum | 14–4–1 | |||
Feb. 21, 1951 | 10–1 | Win | Demonstration Hall | 15–4–1 | |||
Feb. 23, 1951 | 11–4 | Win | Weinberg Coliseum | 16–4–1 | |||
Feb. 24, 1951 | 12–4 | Win | Weinberg Coliseum | 17–4–1 | |||
Mar. 3, 1951 | 9–6 | Win | Weinberg Coliseum | 18–4–1 | |||
Mar. 9, 1951 | 8–3 | Win | Weinberg Coliseum | 19–4–1 | |||
Mar. 10, 1951 | 7–4 | Win | Weinberg Coliseum | 20–4–1 | |||
NCAA TOURNAMENT | |||||||
March 15, 1951 | Boston University | 8–2 | Win | Broadmoor World Arena | 21–4–1 | ||
March 17, 1951 | Brown | 7–1 | Win | Broadmoor World Arena | 22–4–1 | ||
212–100 | 22–4–1 |
No. | Name | Games | Minutes | Wins | Losses | Ties | Goals Against | Saves | Shut Outs | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | ||
7 | 2 | – | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 49 | 0 | .875 | 3.50 | ||
Total | 27 | – | 22 | 4 | 1 | 100 | – | 1 | – | – |
Scoring summary | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Period | Team | Goal | Assist(s) | Time | Score | |||
1st | align=center style=";" | UM | Eddie May | Naylor and Marmo | align=center | 03:49 | align=center | 1–0 UM |
align=center style=";" | UM | Gil Burford – GW | MacLellan | align=center | 15:24 | align=center | 2–0 UM | |
2nd | align=center style=";" | UM | Neil Celley | unassisted | align=center | 26:41 | align=center | 3–0 UM |
align=center style=";" | UM | John McKennell | unassisted | align=center | 30:56 | align=center | 4–0 UM | |
align=center style=";" | UM | Al Bassey | Keyes and MacLellan | align=center | 34:19 | align=center | 5–0 UM | |
3rd | align=center style=";" | BRN | Tony Malo | Wheeler | align=center | 47:54 | align=center | 5–1 UM |
align=center style=";" | UM | John McKennell | Burford and Keyes | align=center | 51:15 | align=center | 6–1 UM | |
align=center style=";" | UM | Neil Celley | Burford | align=center | 59:38 | align=center | 7–1 UM | |
Shots by period | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | T | ||||||
align=center style=";" | Michigan | align=center | 17 | align=center | 21 | align=center | 14 | align=center | 52 | |
align=center style=";" | Brown | align=center | 5 | align=center | 4 | align=center | 11 | align=center | 20 |
Goaltenders | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Team | Name | Saves | Goals against | Time on ice | |||||
align=center style=";" | UM | align=center | 19 | align=center | 1 | align=center | |||
align=center style=";" | BRN | align=center | 45 | align=center | 7 | align=center |
Bob Heathcott, Gil Burford, John Matchefts and Neil Celley were named to the All-Tournament Team[3]
Less than year after winning the tournament, Hal Downes was shot down in his B-26 over North Korea and was declared MIA. Though all living POWs were returned to the US in 1953 Downes remained listed as MIA until his remains were returned in 2018.[4]