1997 WCHA 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

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.

Format

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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

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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†* 32 21 10 1 43 137 105 43 31 10 2 190 130
Minnesota† 32 21 10 1 43 129 94 42 28 13 1 179 128
St. Cloud State 32 18 10 4 40 127 105 40 23 13 4 152 130
Colorado College 32 17 11 4 38 121 107 44 25 15 4 169 141
Denver 32 17 11 4 38 127 99 41 24 13 4 163 122
Minnesota-Duluth 32 15 13 4 34 115 111 38 18 16 4 133 131
Wisconsin 32 15 15 2 32 115 115 38 15 21 2 132 151
Northern Michigan 32 9 21 2 20 78 127 40 13 24 3 108 152
Alaska-Anchorage 32 7 21 4 18 75 109 36 9 23 4 86 126
Michigan Tech 32 5 23 4 14 81 133 39 8 27 4 98 155
Championship: North Dakota
† indicates conference regular season champion
* indicates conference tournament champion
Final rankings: USA Today/American Hockey Magazine Coaches Poll Top 10 Poll

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Bracket

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Teams are reseeded after the first round

First Round
March 7–8		Quarterfinal
March 13		Semifinals
March 14		Championship
March 15
1North Dakota43—
10Michigan Tech10—
1North Dakota5
2Minnesota85—4Colorado College54Colorado College1
9Alaska-Anchorage21—5Denver2
3St. Cloud State53—1North Dakota4*
8Northern Michigan22—2Minnesota3
4Colorado College91****—
7Wisconsin30—2Minnesota5*
3St. Cloud State4
5Denver47—
6Minnesota-Duluth13—

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

Quarterfinals

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(1) North Dakota vs. (10) Michigan Tech

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March 7 North Dakota 4 – 1 Michigan Tech Ralph Engelstad Arena
March 8 North Dakota 3 – 0 Michigan Tech Ralph Engelstad Arena
North Dakota won series 2–0


(2) Minnesota vs. (9) Alaska-Anchorage

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March 7 Minnesota 8 – 2 Alaska-Anchorage Mariucci Arena
March 8 Minnesota 5 – 1 Alaska-Anchorage Mariucci Arena
Minnesota won series 2–0


(3) St. Cloud State vs. (8) Northern Michigan

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March 7 St. Cloud State 5 – 2 Northern Michigan National Hockey Center
March 8 St. Cloud State 3 – 2 Northern Michigan National Hockey Center
St. Cloud State won series 2–0


(4) Colorado College vs. (7) Wisconsin

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March 7 Colorado College 9 – 3 Wisconsin Cadet Ice Arena
March 8 Colorado College 1 – 0 4OT Wisconsin Cadet Ice Arena
Colorado College won series 2–0


(5) Denver vs. (6) Minnesota-Duluth

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March 7 Denver 4 – 1 Minnesota-Duluth DU Arena
March 8 Denver 7 – 3 Minnesota-Duluth DU Arena
Denver won series 2–0


Quarterfinal

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(4) Colorado College vs. (5) Denver

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March 13 Colorado College 5 – 2 Denver Civic Center


Semifinals

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

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March 14 North Dakota 5 – 1 Colorado College Civic Center


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

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March 14 Minnesota 5 – 4 OT St. Cloud State Civic Center


Third Place

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

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March 15 St. Cloud State 0 – 6 Colorado College Civic Center


Championship

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(1) North Dakota vs. (2) Minnesota

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March 15 North Dakota 4 – 3 OT Minnesota Civic Center


Tournament awards

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All-Tournament Team

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[5]

MVP

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See also

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References

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