| 1996 WCHA Men's ice hockey tournament | |
|---|---|
| Dates | March 1–9, 1996 |
| Teams | 10 |
| Finals site | Bradley Center Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| Champions | Minnesota [1] (10th title) |
| Winning coach | Doug Woog [2] (3rd title) |
| MVP | Brian Bonin [3] (Minnesota) |
| Attendance | 47,304 |
WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments | |
The 1996 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 37th conference playoff in league history and 44th season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The tournament was played between March 1 and March 9, 1996. First round games were played at home team campus sites while all 'Final Five' matches were held at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. By winning the tournament, Minnesota was awarded the Broadmoor Trophy and received the WCHA's automatic bid to the 1996 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.
The first round of the postseason tournament featured a best-of-three games format. All ten conference teams participated in the tournament. 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. 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 1996 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 | 26 | 2 | 4 | 56 | 178 | 78 | 42 | 33 | 5 | 4 | 225 | 104 | |
| Minnesota* | 32 | 21 | 9 | 2 | 44 | 155 | 95 | 42 | 30 | 10 | 2 | 204 | 121 | |
| Denver | 32 | 17 | 12 | 3 | 37 | 120 | 112 | 39 | 22 | 14 | 3 | 149 | 131 | |
| Minnesota-Duluth | 32 | 16 | 15 | 1 | 33 | 116 | 109 | 38 | 20 | 17 | 1 | 139 | 125 | |
| North Dakota | 32 | 16 | 15 | 1 | 33 | 127 | 126 | 38 | 19 | 18 | 1 | 162 | 155 | |
| Wisconsin | 32 | 14 | 15 | 3 | 31 | 110 | 123 | 40 | 17 | 20 | 3 | 145 | 160 | |
| Michigan Tech | 32 | 12 | 14 | 6 | 30 | 108 | 118 | 42 | 18 | 18 | 6 | 145 | 159 | |
| St. Cloud State | 32 | 10 | 18 | 4 | 24 | 106 | 132 | 39 | 13 | 22 | 4 | 135 | 153 | |
| Alaska-Anchorage | 32 | 8 | 20 | 5 | 20 | 86 | 130 | 37 | 9 | 23 | 5 | 103 | 153 | |
| Northern Michigan | 32 | 5 | 25 | 2 | 12 | 64 | 147 | 39 | 7 | 30 | 2 | 83 | 174 | |
| Championship: Minnesota † indicates conference regular season champion * indicates conference tournament champion Final rankings: USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Top 10 Poll | ||||||||||||||
Teams are reseeded after the first round
| First Round March 1–3 | Quarterfinal March 7 | Semifinals March 8 | Championship March 9 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Colorado College | 4 | 6 | — | ||||||||||||||||
| 10 | Northern Michigan | 3 | 1 | — | ||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Colorado College | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Minnesota | 6 | 7 | — | 7 | Michigan Tech | 4* | 7 | Michigan Tech | 4 | ||||||||||
| 9 | Alaska-Anchorage | 4 | 1 | — | 8 | St. Cloud State | 3 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | Denver | 1 | 6 | 0 | 2 | Minnesota | 7 | |||||||||||||
| 8 | St. Cloud State | 3 | 4 | 4 | 7 | Michigan Tech | 2 | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Minnesota-Duluth | 4 | 3 | — | ||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Michigan Tech | 5 | 4 | — | 2 | Minnesota | 4* | |||||||||||||
| 6 | Wisconsin | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 5 | North Dakota | 5 | 4 | — | ||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Wisconsin | 6 | 5 | — | ||||||||||||||||
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
| March 1 | Colorado College | 4 – 3 | Northern Michigan | Cadet Ice Arena | ||||
| March 2 | Colorado College | 6 – 1 | Northern Michigan | Cadet Ice Arena | ||||
| Colorado College won series 2–0 | |
| March 1 | Minnesota | 6 – 4 | Alaska-Anchorage | Mariucci Arena | ||||
| March 2 | Minnesota | 7 – 1 | Alaska-Anchorage | Mariucci Arena | ||||
| Minnesota won series 2–0 | |
| March 1 | Denver | 1 – 3 | St. Cloud State | DU Arena | ||||
| March 2 | Denver | 6 – 4 | St. Cloud State | DU Arena | ||||
| March 3 | Denver | 0 – 4 | St. Cloud State | DU Arena | ||||
| St. Cloud State won series 2–1 | |
| March 1 | Minnesota-Duluth | 4 – 5 | Michigan Tech | DECC | ||||
| March 2 | Minnesota-Duluth | 3 – 4 | Michigan Tech | DECC | ||||
| Michigan Tech won series 2–0 | |
| March 1 | North Dakota | 5 – 6 | Wisconsin | Ralph Engelstad Arena | ||||
| March 2 | North Dakota | 4 – 5 | Wisconsin | Ralph Engelstad Arena | ||||
| Wisconsin won series 2–0 | |
| March 7 | Michigan Tech | 4 – 3 | OT | St. Cloud State | Bradley Center | |||
| March 8 | Colorado College | 3 – 4 | Michigan Tech | Bradley Center | ||||
| March 8 | Minnesota | 4 – 3 | OT | Wisconsin | Bradley Center | |||
| March 9 | Colorado College | 6 – 4 | Wisconsin | Bradley Center | ||||
| March 9 | Minnesota | 7 – 2 | Michigan Tech | Bradley Center | ||||