The 2021 NCAA Division III Women’s Ice Hockey Tournament was a scheduled tournament to determine the Division III national champion in women’s ice hockey. This was scheduled to be the twenty-second (twenty-first completed) time a national championship tournament at the Division III level had been held and was scheduled to be the twentieth (19th completed) one sanctioned by the NCAA. The tournament ended up being cancelled due to the fallout of COVID-19.

Tournament Cancellation

On February 3rd, 2021, the NCAA announced the cancellation of the 2021 NCAA Division III Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament and the 2021 NCAA Division III Women’s Ice Hockey Tournament as a result of many teams cancelling their playing seasons, with less than half of the institutions that sponsored men’s and women’s ice hockey not playing for the 2020-21 season, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Format

Ten teams were to qualify for the single elimination tournament. The conference tournament champions of the CCC, MIAC, NCHA, NEHC, NESCAC, NEWHL, and UCHC were to receive automatic bids to the tournament. Three at-large bids were also scheduled to be selected, one guaranteed to a school from a non-automatic-qualifier conference. This was scheduled to be the first year in which the CCC was eligible for its own automatic bid. The CCC had previously sponsored men’s hockey, and in 2020, added women’s hockey, assuming operations of the departing Colonial Hockey Conference.