1991 WCHA men's ice hockey tournament explained

Year:1991
Conference:WCHA
Gender:Men's
Dates:March 1–11, 1991
Teams:8
Finalarena:Civic Center
Finalcity:St. Paul, Minnesota
Champions:Northern Michigan[1]
Titlecount:2nd
Coach:Rick Comley[2]
Coachcount:2nd
Mvp:Bill Pye[3]
Mvpteam:Northern Michigan
Attendance:44,287
Prevseason Year:1990
Prevseason Link:1990 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
Nextseason Year:1992
Nextseason Link:1992 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament

The 1991 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 32nd conference playoff in league history and 39th season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The tournament was played between March 1 and March 11, 1991. First round games were played at home team campus sites, while all "Final Four" matches were held at the Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. By winning the tournament, Northern Michigan was awarded the Broadmoor Trophy and received the WCHA's automatic bid to the 1991 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.

Format

The first round of the postseason tournament featured a best-of-three games format. The team that finished ninth in the conference was not eligible for tournament play. Teams were seeded No. 1 through No. 8 according to their final conference standing, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with an identical number of points accumulated. The top four seeded teams each earned home ice and hosted one of the lower seeded teams.

The winners of the first round series advanced to the semifinal and championship rounds held at the Civic Center. All Final Four games used a single-elimination format. Teams were re-seeded No. 1 through No. 4 according to the final regular season conference standings, with the top remaining seed matched against lowest remaining seed in one semifinal game while the two other semifinalists meeting with the winners advancing to the championship game and the losers competing in a Third Place contest. The Tournament Champion received an automatic bid to the 1991 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[4]

Bracket

Teams are reseeded after the first roundNote: * denotes overtime period(s)

First round

(4) North Dakota vs. (5) St. Cloud State

Semifinals

(2) Minnesota vs. (3) Wisconsin

Third Place

(3) Wisconsin vs. (4) North Dakota

Championship

(1) Northern Michigan vs. (2) Minnesota

Tournament awards

All-Tournament Team

[5]

MVP

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Northern Michigan Men's Team History. 2014-06-01.
  2. News: Rick Comley Year-by-Year Coaching Record. 2014-06-01.
  3. News: WCHA Awards. College Hockey Historical Archive. 2014-06-01.
  4. News: 2009-10 WCHA Yearbook 113-128. WCHA. 2014-06-01.
  5. News: 2009-10 WCHA Yearbook 129-144. WCHA. 2014-06-01.