1961 WCHA men's ice hockey tournament explained

Year:1961
Conference:WCHA
Gender:Men's
Dates:March 10–11, 1961
Teams:4
Finalarena:Williams Arena
Minneapolis, Minnesota
DU Arena
Finalcity:Denver, Colorado
Champions:Minnesota[1] (1st title)
Denver[2]
Titlecount:2nd
Coach:John Mariucci[3] (1st title)
Murray Armstrong[4]
Coachcount:2nd
Prevseason Year:1960
Prevseason Link:1960 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
Nextseason Year:1962
Nextseason Link:1962 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament

The 1961 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 2nd conference playoff in league history. The tournament was played between March 10 and March 11, 1961. All games were played at home team campus sites. By being declared as co-champions, both Minnesota and Denver were invited to participate in the 1961 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.

Though not official designations, Minnesota is considered as the East Regional Champion† and Denver as the West Regional Champion‡.

Format

The top four teams in the WCHA, based upon the conference regular season standings, were eligible for the tournament and were seeded No. 1 through No. 4. In the first round the first and fourth seeds and the second and third seeds were matched in two-game series where the team with the higher number of goals scored was declared the winner. Rather than decide upon a single tournament champion, the WCHA declared the winners of the two series as co-tournament champions.

Conference standings

Note: GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; PCT = Winning percentage; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against[5]

Bracket

[6] Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

Finals

(2) Minnesota vs. (3) Michigan

Tournament awards

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Michigan Tech Men's Team History. 2014-06-01.
  2. News: Denver Men's Team History. 2014-06-01.
  3. News: John Mariucci Year-by-Year Coaching Record. 2014-06-01.
  4. News: Murray Armstrong Year-by-Year Coaching Record. 2014-06-01.
  5. News: 2009-10 WCHA Yearbook 97-112. WCHA. 2014-06-01.
  6. News: 2009-10 WCHA Yearbook 129-144. WCHA. 2014-06-01.