| 1990 WCHA Men's ice hockey tournament | |
|---|---|
| Dates | March 1–12, 1990 |
| Teams | 8 |
| Finals site | Civic Center St. Paul, Minnesota |
| Champions | Wisconsin [1] (9th title) |
| Winning coach | Jeff Sauer [2] (4th title) |
| MVP | Steve Rohlik [3] (Wisconsin) |
| Attendance | 47,845 |
WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments | |
The 1990 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 31st conference playoff in league history and 38th season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The tournament was played between March 1 and March 12, 1990. 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, Wisconsin was awarded the Broadmoor Trophy and received the WCHA's automatic bid to the 1990 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 1990 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 | ||
| Wisconsin†* | 28 | 19 | 8 | 1 | 39 | 147 | 111 | 46 | 36 | 9 | 1 | 254 | 166 | |
| Minnesota | 28 | 17 | 9 | 2 | 36 | 147 | 124 | 46 | 28 | 16 | 2 | 227 | 189 | |
| North Dakota | 28 | 15 | 10 | 3 | 33 | 149 | 114 | 45 | 28 | 13 | 4 | 252 | 175 | |
| Northern Michigan | 28 | 15 | 12 | 1 | 31 | 130 | 129 | 42 | 22 | 19 | 1 | 191 | 191 | |
| Denver | 28 | 13 | 15 | 0 | 26 | 130 | 139 | 42 | 18 | 24 | 0 | 183 | 201 | |
| Minnesota-Duluth | 28 | 13 | 15 | 0 | 26 | 114 | 112 | 40 | 20 | 19 | 1 | 170 | 152 | |
| Colorado College | 28 | 10 | 17 | 1 | 21 | 97 | 129 | 40 | 18 | 20 | 2 | 152 | 174 | |
| Michigan Tech | 28 | 6 | 22 | 0 | 12 | 112 | 168 | 40 | 10 | 30 | 0 | 150 | 218 | |
| Championship: Wisconsin † indicates conference regular season champion * indicates conference tournament champion | ||||||||||||||
Teams are reseeded after the first round
| First Round March 1–4 | Semifinals March 11 | Championship March 12 | ||||||||||||||
| 1 | Wisconsin | 4 | 4* | — | ||||||||||||
| 8 | Michigan Tech | 2 | 3 | — | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Wisconsin | 4* | ||||||||||||||
| 4 | Northern Michigan | 3 | ||||||||||||||
| 2 | Minnesota | 9 | 9 | — | ||||||||||||
| 7 | Colorado College | 3 | 2 | — | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Wisconsin | 7 | ||||||||||||||
| (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | ||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Minnesota | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| 3 | North Dakota | 11 | 2 | — | ||||||||||||
| 6 | Minnesota-Duluth | 4 | 1 | — | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Minnesota | 5 | Third place | |||||||||||||
| 3 | North Dakota | 4 | ||||||||||||||
| 4 | Northern Michigan | 3 | 9 | — | 3 | North Dakota | 6* | |||||||||
| 5 | Denver | 0 | 4 | — | 4 | Northern Michigan | 5 | |||||||||
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
| March 3 | Wisconsin | 4 – 2 | Michigan Tech | Dane County Coliseum | ||||
| March 4 | Wisconsin | 4 – 3 | OT | Michigan Tech | Dane County Coliseum | |||
| Wisconsin won series 2–0 | |
| March 2 | Minnesota | 9 – 3 | Colorado College | Mariucci Arena | ||||
| March 3 | Minnesota | 9 – 2 | Colorado College | Mariucci Arena | ||||
| Minnesota won series 2–0 | |
| March 1 | North Dakota | 11 – 4 | Minnesota-Duluth | Ralph Engelstad Arena | ||||
| March 2 | North Dakota | 2 – 1 | Minnesota-Duluth | Ralph Engelstad Arena | ||||
| North Dakota won series 2–0 | |
| March 2 | Northern Michigan | 3 – 0 | Denver | Lakeview Arena | ||||
| March 3 | Northern Michigan | 9 – 4 | Denver | Lakeview Arena | ||||
| Northern Michigan won series 2–0 | |
| March 11 | Wisconsin | 4 – 3 | OT | Northern Michigan | Civic Center | |||
| March 11 | Minnesota | 5 – 4 | North Dakota | Civic Center | ||||
| March 12 | North Dakota | 6 – 5 | OT | Northern Michigan | Civic Center | |||
| March 12 | Wisconsin | 7 – 1 | Minnesota | Civic Center | ||||