After appearing in the first five national tournaments Colorado College had made the championship once in the next four years. CC's fortunes turned the year before when
Bill Hay, a standout junior player from
Saskatchewan hitchhiked down to
Colorado Springs and was able to talk both himself and his fried
Bob McCusker into athletic scholarships. Both players made their varsity debut in
1956–57, as did much of the team, and the Tigers quickly jumped to the top of the standings. After opening the regular season against two
junior teams from
Canada, CC welcomed four different collegiate opponents into their building and won every single game. With the Tigers sporting a 12-0 record they hit the road for the first time but didn't have to leave the state when they travelled to
Denver to face the
Pioneers. Colorado College's perfect record was spoiled with a 3–6 defeat but the returned the favor the next night at home, beating their in-state rival 8–7 in overtime. The Tigers hosted another pair of Canadian junior teams before heading north to face an improving
Fighting Sioux team and lost both matches. Two days later CC finally won its first road game of the season, beating
Minnesota twice before returning to Colorado to take the second home-and-home series against Denver. After redeeming themselves against North Dakota in two home wins the Tigers split a road series with
Michigan Tech to close out their season. Despite CC's struggles on the road the team was able to win the
WIHL title handily and, with a superb 19–1 home record, post the best season in team history (As of 2018). Colorado College was led back to the NCAA tournament by Hay and McCusker who finished first (tied) and third in scoring in the nation. Both players earned their way onto one of the two
All-American Teams as did team captain
Don Wishart and all three players were first-team
All-WIHL. Befitting the western champion, Colorado College was selected as the #1 seed in the west and opened the tournament against
Clarkson who had compiled an undefeated season the year before and followed that up with a stellar 18–2 mark. Despite the two teams' success the Golden Knights were completely outmatched by older and larger CC team. While the final score was relatively close, 5–3 with a
hat-trick from
Bob McCusker, the Tigers nearly tripled the number of shots from Clarkson (60–21) and the Green and Gold couldn't score enough to reward the valiant effort from the goaltender
Eddie MacDonald. In the title tilt CC found itself pitted against two-time defending champion
Michigan who had won five of the six national titles since CC earned its first championship in
1950. The Wolverines had utterly dominated the series between the two teams over the previous decade and won all three games the pair played in the NCAA Tournament despite every game being played at the
Broadmoor World Arena. None of those losses, however, had come with Hay and McCusker on the team and the two sophomores combined to score the first three goals of the contest. Showing the championship mettle, Michigan responded with three of their own before the first period was over and erased the CC advantage. CC goalie
Bob Southwood settled down in the second period and when the Tigers scored three more times the Wolverines could only muster one in response. Even with a two-goal lead the Tigers didn't pull back in the third and after McCusker opened the scoring with his third of the game the rest of the team followed suit and score five more times before Michigan got its fifth but by then it was far too late and the Tigers eventually cruised to a 13–6 victory, winning their second National Title.
Bob McCusker tied the NCAA records for goals (4) and points (6) in a championship game and was the logical choice for
Most Outstanding Player. McCusker was accompanied by
Bill Hay and
Don Wishart on the
All-Tournament First Team while
Dick McGhee and
John Andrews made the Second Team. ==Standings==