| 1968 WCHA Men's ice hockey tournament | |
|---|---|
| Dates | March 5–9, 1968 |
| Teams | 8 |
| Finals site | Dee Stadium Houghton, Michigan DU Arena Denver, Colorado |
| Champions | North Dakota† [1] (2nd title) Denver‡ [2] (6th title) |
| Winning coach | Bill Selman [3] (2nd title) Murray Armstrong [4] (6th title) |
WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments | |
The 1968 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 9th conference playoff in league history. The tournament was played between March 5 and March 9, 1968. All games were played at home team campus sites. By being declared as co-champions, both North Dakota and Denver were invited to participate in the 1968 NCAA University Division Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.
Though not official designations, North Dakota is considered as the East Regional Champion† and Denver as the West Regional Champion‡.
All eight teams in the WCHA were eligible for the tournament and were seeded No. 1 through No. 8 according to their final conference standings. In the first round the first and eighth seeds, the second and seventh seeds, the third and sixth seeds and the fourth and fifth seeds played a single game with the winners advancing to the second round. After the first round the remaining teams were reseeded No. 1 through No. 4 according to their final conference standings and advanced to the second round. In the second round the first and fourth seeds and the second and third seeds were matched in two-game series where the school that scored the higher number of goals was declared the winner. The victors of the second round series were declared as co-conference 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†* | 18 | 15 | 3 | 0 | .833 | 84 | 32 | 34 | 28 | 5 | 1 | 183 | 65 | |
| Michigan Tech | 20 | 15 | 5 | 0 | .750 | 76 | 47 | 32 | 22 | 9 | 1 | 131 | 82 | |
| North Dakota* | 22 | 13 | 8 | 1 | .614 | 78 | 57 | 33 | 20 | 10 | 3 | 113 | 80 | |
| Michigan | 18 | 11 | 7 | 0 | .611 | 83 | 60 | 27 | 18 | 9 | 0 | 152 | 84 | |
| Minnesota | 22 | 13 | 9 | 0 | .591 | 98 | 71 | 31 | 19 | 12 | 0 | 132 | 109 | |
| Michigan State | 20 | 6 | 13 | 1 | .325 | 57 | 82 | 29 | 11 | 16 | 2 | 92 | 111 | |
| Colorado College | 20 | 4 | 16 | 0 | .200 | 40 | 106 | 29 | 9 | 20 | 0 | 84 | 108 | |
| Minnesota-Duluth | 24 | 4 | 20 | 0 | .167 | 54 | 109 | 28 | 5 | 23 | 0 | 71 | 144 | |
| Championship: North Dakota, Denver † indicates conference regular season champion * indicates conference tournament champion | ||||||||||||||
Teams are reseeded after the first round
| First Round March 5 | Second Round March 8–9 | |||||||||
| 1 | Denver | 11 | ||||||||
| 8 | Minnesota-Duluth | 4 | ||||||||
| 1 | Denver | 9 | 7 | |||||||
| 5 | Minnesota | 0 | 3 | |||||||
| 2 | Michigan Tech | 5 | ||||||||
| 7 | Colorado College | 2 | ||||||||
| 3 | North Dakota | 5 | ||||||||
| 6 | Michigan State | 2 | ||||||||
| 2 | Michigan Tech | 0 | 2 | |||||||
| 3 | North Dakota | 0 | 3 | |||||||
| 4 | Michigan | 3 | ||||||||
| 5 | Minnesota | 5 | ||||||||
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
| March 5 | Denver | 11 – 4 | Minnesota-Duluth | DU Arena | ||||
| March 5 | Michigan Tech | 5 – 2 | Colorado College | Dee Stadium | ||||
| March 5 | North Dakota | 5 – 2 | Michigan State | Winter Sports Building | ||||
| March 5 | Michigan | 3 – 5 | Minnesota | Weinberg Coliseum | ||||
| March 8 | Denver | 9 – 0 | Minnesota | DU Arena | ||||
| March 9 | Denver | 7 – 3 | Minnesota | DU Arena | ||||
| Denver won series 16–3 | |
| March 8 | Michigan Tech | 0 – 0 | North Dakota | Dee Stadium | ||||
| March 9 | Michigan Tech | 2 – 3 | North Dakota | Dee Stadium | ||||
| North Dakota won series 2–3 | |
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