| 1960 WCHA Men's ice hockey tournament | |
|---|---|
| Dates | March 11–12, 1960 |
| Teams | 4 |
| Finals site | Dee Stadium Houghton, Michigan DU Arena Denver, Colorado |
| Champions | Michigan Tech† [1] (1st title) Denver‡ [2] (1st title) |
| Winning coach | John MacInnes [3] (1st title) Murray Armstrong [4] (1st title) |
WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments | |
The 1960 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 1st conference playoff in league history. Additionally it is the first conference tournament ever held for an American college ice hockey conference. The tournament was played between March 11 and March 12, 1960. All games were played at home team campus sites. By being declared as co-champions, both Michigan Tech and Denver were invited to participate in the 1960 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.
Though not official designations, Michigan Tech is considered as the East Regional Champion† and Denver as the West Regional Champion‡.
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.
Note: GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; PCT = Winning percentage; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against
| Conference | Overall | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | W | L | T | PCT | GF | GA | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA | ||
| Denver†* | 22 | 17 | 4 | 1 | .795 | 128 | 55 | 34 | 27 | 4 | 3 | 204 | 88 | |
| Michigan Tech* | 22 | 15 | 6 | 1 | .705 | 107 | 72 | 32 | 21 | 10 | 1 | 152 | 107 | |
| North Dakota | 22 | 14 | 7 | 1 | .659 | 93 | 80 | 32 | 19 | 11 | 2 | 157 | 115 | |
| Colorado College | 20 | 8 | 12 | 0 | .400 | 72 | 101 | 26 | 8 | 17 | 1 | 87 | 146 | |
| Michigan | 18 | 7 | 11 | 0 | .389 | 63 | 71 | 24 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 97 | 81 | |
| Minnesota | 24 | 8 | 15 | 1 | .354 | 102 | 109 | 27 | 9 | 16 | 2 | 111 | 121 | |
| Michigan State | 24 | 4 | 18 | 2 | .208 | 54 | 130 | 24 | 4 | 18 | 2 | 54 | 130 | |
| Championship: Michigan Tech, Denver † indicates conference regular season champion * indicates conference tournament champion | ||||||||||||||
| Finals March 11–12 | |||||
| 1 | Denver | 9 | 3 | ||
| 4 | Colorado College | 2 | 1 | ||
| 2 | Michigan Tech | 4 | 5 | ||
| 3 | North Dakota | 3 | 4 | ||
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
| March 11 | Denver | 9 – 2 | Colorado College | DU Arena | ||||
| March 12 | Denver | 3 – 1 | Colorado College | DU Arena | ||||
| Denver won series 12–3 | |
| March 11 | Michigan Tech | 4 – 3 | North Dakota | Dee Stadium | ||||
| March 12 | Michigan Tech | 5 – 4 | North Dakota | Dee Stadium | ||||
| Michigan Tech won series 9–7 | |