1996 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament

The 1996 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 37th conference playoff in league history and 44th season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The tournament was played between March 1 and March 9, 1996. First round games were played at home team campus sites while all 'Final Five' matches were held at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. By winning the tournament, Minnesota was awarded the Broadmoor Trophy and received the WCHA's automatic bid to the 1996 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.

1996 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
DatesMarch 1-9, 1996
Teams10
Finals siteBradley Center
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
ChampionsMinnesota[1] (10th title)
Winning coachDoug Woog[2] (3rd title)
MVPBrian Bonin[3] (Minnesota)
Attendance47,304
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. Teams were seeded No. 1 through No. 9 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 Bradley 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 1996 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

Conference Overall
GP W L T PTS GF GA GP W L T GF GA
Colorado College†3226245617878423354225104
Minnesota*32219244155954230102204121
Denver3217123371201123922143149131
Minnesota-Duluth3216151331161093820171139125
North Dakota3216151331271263819181162155
Wisconsin3214153311101234017203145160
Michigan Tech3212146301081184218186145159
St. Cloud State3210184241061323913224135153
Alaska-Anchorage3282052086130379235103153
Northern Michigan325252126414739730283174
Championship: Minnesota
† indicates conference regular season champion
* indicates conference tournament champion
Final rankings: USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Top 10 Poll

[4]

Bracket

Teams are reseeded after the first round

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

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

Quarterfinals

(1) Colorado College vs. (10) Northern Michigan
Colorado College won series 2–0

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

(3) Denver vs. (8) St. Cloud State
St. Cloud State won series 2–1

(4) Minnesota-Duluth vs. (7) Michigan Tech
Michigan Tech won series 2–0

(5) North Dakota vs. (6) Wisconsin
Wisconsin won series 2–0

Quarterfinal

(7) Michigan Tech vs. (8) St. Cloud State

Semifinals

(1) Colorado College vs. (7) Michigan Tech

(2) Minnesota vs. (6) Wisconsin

Third Place

(1) Colorado College vs. (6) Wisconsin

Championship

(2) Minnesota vs. (7) Michigan Tech

Tournament awards

All-Tournament Team
  • F Brian Bonin* (Minnesota)
  • F Bret Meyers (Michigan Tech)
  • F Jeff Mikesch (Michigan Tech)
  • D Mike Crowley (Minnesota)
  • D Scott Swanson (Colorado College)
  • G Kirk Daubenspeck (Wisconsin)

* Most Valuable Player(s)

[5]

See also

References
  1. "Minnesota Men's Team History". Retrieved 2014-06-01.
  2. "Doug Woog 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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