| 1994 WCHA Men's ice hockey tournament | |
|---|---|
| Dates | March 11–19, 1994 |
| Teams | 10 |
| Finals site | Bradley Center Milwaukee |
| Champions | Minnesota [1] (9th title) |
| Winning coach | Doug Woog [2] (2nd title) |
| MVP | Chris McAlpine [3] (Minnesota) |
| Attendance | 61,367 |
WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments | |
The 1994 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 35th conference playoff in league history and 42nd season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The tournament was played between March 11 and March 19, 1994. First round games were played at home team campus sites while all 'Final Five' matches were held at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. By winning the tournament, Minnesota was awarded the Broadmoor Trophy and received the WCHA's automatic bid to the 1994 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.
The first round of the postseason tournament featured a best-of-three games format. All nine conference teams participated in the tournament as did Mankato State which was slated to join the WCHA as a full member in two years. Teams were seeded No. 1 through No. 9 according to their final conference standing, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with an identical number of points accumulated while Mankato State was seeded tenth. The top five seeded teams each earned home ice and hosted one of the lower seeded teams.
The winners of the first round series advanced to the Bradley Center for the WCHA Final Five, the collective name for the quarterfinal, semifinal, and championship rounds. The Final Five uses a single-elimination format. Teams were re-seeded No. 1 through No. 5 according to the final regular season conference standings, with the top three teams automatically advancing to the semifinals and the remaining two playing in a quarterfinal game. The semifinal pitted the top remaining seed against the winner of the quarterfinal game while the two other teams that received byes were matched against one another with the winners advancing to the championship game and the losers meeting in a Third Place contest. The Tournament Champion received an automatic bid to the 1994 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 | ||
| Colorado College† | 32 | 18 | 9 | 5 | 41 | 135 | 126 | 39 | 23 | 11 | 5 | 163 | 138 | |
| Minnesota* | 32 | 18 | 10 | 4 | 40 | 111 | 109 | 42 | 25 | 13 | 4 | 151 | 142 | |
| Wisconsin | 32 | 19 | 12 | 1 | 39 | 128 | 103 | 42 | 26 | 15 | 1 | 172 | 133 | |
| St. Cloud State | 32 | 16 | 12 | 4 | 36 | 127 | 111 | 38 | 21 | 13 | 4 | 160 | 135 | |
| Northern Michigan | 32 | 17 | 14 | 1 | 35 | 129 | 120 | 39 | 22 | 16 | 1 | 157 | 140 | |
| Alaska-Anchorage | 32 | 14 | 16 | 2 | 30 | 110 | 109 | 36 | 15 | 19 | 2 | 123 | 132 | |
| Minnesota-Duluth | 32 | 12 | 17 | 3 | 27 | 125 | 131 | 38 | 14 | 21 | 3 | 144 | 160 | |
| North Dakota | 32 | 11 | 17 | 4 | 26 | 101 | 131 | 38 | 11 | 23 | 4 | 119 | 164 | |
| Denver | 32 | 11 | 18 | 3 | 25 | 116 | 130 | 38 | 15 | 20 | 3 | 146 | 155 | |
| Michigan Tech | 32 | 8 | 19 | 5 | 21 | 93 | 105 | 45 | 13 | 27 | 5 | 135 | 163 | |
| Championship: Minnesota † indicates conference regular season champion * indicates conference tournament champion | ||||||||||||||
Teams are reseeded after the first round
| First Round March 11–12 | Quarterfinal March 17 | Semifinals March 18 | Championship March 19 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Colorado College | 2 | 3 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| 10 | Michigan Tech | 3 | 0 | 3* | ||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Minnesota | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Minnesota | 8 | 6 | — | 5 | Northern Michigan | 1 | 10 | Michigan Tech | 1 | ||||||||||
| 9 | Denver | 5 | 3 | — | 10 | Michigan Tech | 5 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | Wisconsin | 6 | 4 | — | 2 | Minnesota | 3* | |||||||||||||
| 8 | North Dakota | 1 | 2 | — | 4 | St. Cloud State | 2 | |||||||||||||
| 4 | St. Cloud State | 3 | 8 | — | ||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Minnesota-Duluth | 0 | 5 | — | 3 | Wisconsin | 2 | |||||||||||||
| 4 | St. Cloud State | 3* | ||||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Northern Michigan | 5 | 5 | — | ||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Alaska-Anchorage | 2 | 1 | — | ||||||||||||||||
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
| March 11 | Colorado College | 2 – 3 | Michigan Tech | Broadmoor World Arena | ||||
| March 12 | Colorado College | 3 – 0 | Michigan Tech | Broadmoor World Arena | ||||
| March 13 | Colorado College | 2 – 3 | Michigan Tech | Broadmoor World Arena | ||||
| Michigan Tech won series 2–1 | |
| March 11 | Minnesota | 8 – 5 | Denver | Mariucci Arena | ||||
| March 12 | Minnesota | 6 – 3 | Denver | Mariucci Arena | ||||
| Minnesota won series 2–0 | |
| March 11 | Wisconsin | 6 – 1 | North Dakota | Dane County Coliseum | ||||
| March 12 | Wisconsin | 4 – 2 | North Dakota | Dane County Coliseum | ||||
| Wisconsin won series 2–0 | |
| March 11 | St. Cloud State | 3 – 0 | Minnesota-Duluth | National Hockey Center | ||||
| March 12 | St. Cloud State | 8 – 5 | Minnesota-Duluth | National Hockey Center | ||||
| St. Cloud State won series 2–0 | |
| March 11 | Northern Michigan | 5 – 2 | Alaska-Anchorage | Lakeview Arena | ||||
| March 12 | Northern Michigan | 5 – 1 | Alaska-Anchorage | Lakeview Arena | ||||
| Northern Michigan won series 2–0 | |
| March 17 | Northern Michigan | 1 – 5 | Michigan Tech | Bradley Center | ||||
| March 18 | Minnesota | 6 – 1 | Michigan Tech | Bradley Center | ||||
| March 18 | Wisconsin | 2 – 3 | OT | St. Cloud State | Bradley Center | |||
| March 19 | Wisconsin | 8 – 3 | Michigan Tech | Bradley Center | ||||
| March 19 | Minnesota | 3 – 2 | OT | St. Cloud State | Bradley Center | |||