1997 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament

The 1997 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 38th conference playoff in league history and 45th season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The tournament was played between March 7 and March 15, 1997. First round games were played at home team campus sites while all 'Final Five' matches were held at the Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. By winning the tournament, North Dakota was awarded the Broadmoor Trophy and received the WCHA's automatic bid to the 1997 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.

1997 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
DatesMarch 7–15, 1997
Teams10
Finals siteCivic Center
St. Paul, Minnesota
ChampionsNorth Dakota[1] (6th title)
Winning coachDean Blais[2] (1st title)
MVPDavid Hoogsteen[3] (North Dakota)
Attendance56,707
WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments

Format

The first round of the postseason tournament featured a best-of-three games format. All ten conference teams participated in the tournament and were seeded No. 1 through No. 10 according to their final conference standing, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with an identical number of points accumulated. The top five seeded teams each earned home ice and hosted one of the lower seeded teams.

The winners of the first round series advanced to the Civic Center for the WCHA Final Five, the collective name for the quarterfinal, semifinal, and championship rounds. The Final Five uses a single-elimination format. Teams were re-seeded No. 1 through No. 5 according to the final regular season conference standings, with the top three teams automatically advancing to the semifinals and the remaining two playing in a quarterfinal game. The semifinal pitted the top remaining seed against the winner of the quarterfinal game while the two other teams that received byes were matched against one another with the winners advancing to the championship game and the losers meeting in a Third Place contest. The Tournament Champion received an automatic bid to the 1997 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.

Conference Standings

Note: GP = Games Played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; PTS = Points; GF = Goals For; GA = Goals Against

1996–97 Western Collegiate Hockey Association standings
Conference Overall
GP W L T PTS GF GA GP W L T GF GA
North Dakota†*3221101431371054331102190130
Minnesota†322110143129944228131179128
St. Cloud State3218104401271054023134152130
Colorado College3217114381211074425154169141
Denver321711438127994124134163122
Minnesota-Duluth3215134341151113818164133131
Wisconsin3215152321151153815212132151
Northern Michigan32921220781274013243108152
Alaska-Anchorage327214187510936923486126
Michigan Tech325234148113339827498155
Championship: North Dakota
† indicates conference regular season champion
* indicates conference tournament champion
Final rankings: USA Today/American Hockey Magazine Coaches Poll Top 10 Poll

[4]

Bracket

Teams are reseeded after the first round

  First Round
March 7–8		 Quarterfinal
March 13		 Semifinals
March 14		 Championship
March 15
                                         
  1 North Dakota 4 3 —   1 North Dakota 5  
10 Michigan Tech 1 0 — 4 Colorado College 5     4 Colorado College 1  
  5 Denver 2  
  2 Minnesota 8 5 —
9 Alaska-Anchorage 2 1 —
  3 St. Cloud State 5 3 —     1 North Dakota 4*
8 Northern Michigan 2 2 —     2 Minnesota 3
  4 Colorado College 9 1**** —
7 Wisconsin 3 0 —
Third place
  5 Denver 4 7 — 2 Minnesota 5*
6 Minnesota-Duluth 1 3 — 3 St. Cloud State 4   3 St. Cloud State 0
4 Colorado College 6

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

(1) North Dakota vs. (10) Michigan Tech
North Dakota won series 2–0

(2) Minnesota vs. (9) Alaska-Anchorage
Minnesota won series 2–0

(3) St. Cloud State vs. (8) Northern Michigan
St. Cloud State won series 2–0

(4) Colorado College vs. (7) Wisconsin
Colorado College won series 2–0

(5) Denver vs. (6) Minnesota-Duluth
Denver won series 2–0

(4) Colorado College vs. (5) Denver

(1) North Dakota vs. (4) Colorado College

(2) Minnesota vs. (3) St. Cloud State

(3) St. Cloud State vs. (4) Colorado College

(1) North Dakota vs. (2) Minnesota

Tournament awards

All-Tournament Team
  • F Kevin Hoogsteen (North Dakota)
  • F Ryan Kraft (North Dakota)
  • F Toby Petersen (Colorado College)
  • D Curtis Murphy (North Dakota)
  • D Brian LaFleur (Minnesota)
  • G Aaron Schweitzer (North Dakota)

[5]

MVP
  • David Hoogsteen (North Dakota)

See also

References
  1. "North Dakota Men's Team History". Retrieved 2014-06-01.
  2. "Dean Blais Year-by-Year Coaching Record". Retrieved 2014-06-01.
  3. "WCHA Awards". College Hockey Historical Archive. Retrieved 2014-06-01.
  4. "2009-10 WCHA Yearbook 113-128" (PDF). WCHA. Retrieved 2014-06-01.
  5. "2009-10 WCHA Yearbook 129-144" (PDF). WCHA. Retrieved 2014-06-01.
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