The 2021 NCHC Tournament was the eighth tournament in league history. Typically the tournament is scheduled across two separate weekends in mid-march with quarterfinal games hosted on campus locations, while the final four games are played at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota. However, on February 8, 2021, NCHC announced that the tournament would be played entirely in Grand Forks. By winning the tournament, North Dakota earned NCHC's automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.

The 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season began on November 14, 2020, and concluded with the Frozen Four on April 10, 2021. Due to the cancellation of the previous year's tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic, this was the 73rd season in which an NCAA ice hockey championship was held, and was US college hockey's 127th year overall.