| 1989 WCHA Men's ice hockey tournament | |
|---|---|
| Dates | February 24-March 6, 1989 |
| Teams | 8 |
| Finals site | Civic Center St. Paul, Minnesota |
| Champions | Northern Michigan [1] (1st title) |
| Winning coach | Rick Comley [2] (1st title) |
| MVP | Bill Pye [3] (Northern Michigan) |
| Attendance | 50,232 |
WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments | |
The 1989 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 30th conference playoff in league history and 37th season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The tournament was played between February 24 and March 6, 1989. 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 1989 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.
The first round of the postseason tournament featured a best-of-three games format. 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 1989 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.
Note: GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; PTS = Points; GF = Goals For; GA = Goals Against
| Conference | Overall | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | W | L | T | PTS | GF | GA | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA | ||
| Minnesota† | 35 | 27 | 6 | 2 | 56 | 157 | 91 | 48 | 34 | 11 | 3 | 209 | 134 | |
| Northern Michigan* | 35 | 20 | 13 | 2 | 42 | 163 | 110 | 45 | 26 | 17 | 2 | 212 | 144 | |
| Wisconsin | 35 | 17 | 13 | 5 | 39 | 126 | 108 | 46 | 25 | 16 | 5 | 168 | 134 | |
| North Dakota | 35 | 19 | 15 | 1 | 39 | 131 | 119 | 41 | 22 | 18 | 1 | 164 | 138 | |
| Denver | 35 | 16 | 17 | 2 | 34 | 143 | 144 | 43 | 22 | 19 | 2 | 179 | 178 | |
| Michigan Tech | 35 | 15 | 19 | 1 | 31 | 128 | 150 | 42 | 15 | 25 | 2 | 142 | 188 | |
| Minnesota-Duluth | 35 | 12 | 21 | 2 | 26 | 106 | 135 | 40 | 15 | 23 | 2 | 126 | 153 | |
| Colorado College | 35 | 9 | 23 | 3 | 21 | 115 | 157 | 40 | 11 | 26 | 3 | 133 | 179 | |
| Championship: Northern Michigan † indicates conference regular season champion * indicates conference tournament champion | ||||||||||||||
Teams are reseeded after the first round
| First Round February 24–27 | Semifinals March 5 | Championship March 6 | ||||||||||||||
| 1 | Minnesota | 5 | 7 | — | ||||||||||||
| 8 | Colorado College | 4 | 1 | — | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Minnesota | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| 5 | Denver | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| 2 | Northern Michigan | 7 | 7 | — | ||||||||||||
| 7 | Minnesota-Duluth | 2 | 3 | — | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Northern Michigan | 9 | ||||||||||||||
| (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | ||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Denver | 4 | ||||||||||||||
| 3 | Wisconsin | 5 | 5 | — | ||||||||||||
| 6 | Michigan Tech | 2 | 3 | — | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Northern Michigan | 4 | Third place | |||||||||||||
| 3 | Wisconsin | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| 4 | North Dakota | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | Minnesota | 3 | |||||||||
| 5 | Denver | 1 | 5 | 3 | 3 | Wisconsin | 4 | |||||||||
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
| February 24 | Minnesota | 5 – 4 | Colorado College | Mariucci Arena | ||||
| February 25 | Minnesota | 7 – 1 | Colorado College | Mariucci Arena | ||||
| Minnesota won series 2–0 | |
| February 24 | Northern Michigan | 7 – 2 | Minnesota-Duluth | Lakeview Arena | ||||
| February 25 | Northern Michigan | 7 – 3 | Minnesota-Duluth | Lakeview Arena | ||||
| Northern Michigan won series 2–0 | |
| February 24 | Wisconsin | 5 – 2 | Michigan Tech | Dane County Coliseum | ||||
| February 25 | Wisconsin | 5 – 3 | Michigan Tech | Dane County Coliseum | ||||
| Wisconsin won series 2–0 | |
| February 25 | North Dakota | 7 – 1 | Denver | Ralph Engelstad Arena | ||||
| February 26 | North Dakota | 4 – 5 | Denver | Ralph Engelstad Arena | ||||
| February 27 | North Dakota | 2 – 3 | Denver | Ralph Engelstad Arena | ||||
| Denver won series 2–1 | |
| March 5 | Minnesota | 1 – 2 | Denver | Civic Center | ||||
| March 5 | Northern Michigan | 4 – 2 | Wisconsin | Civic Center | ||||
| March 6 | Minnesota | 3 – 4 | Wisconsin | Civic Center | ||||
| March 6 | Northern Michigan | 9 – 4 | Denver | Civic Center | ||||