| 1997 WCHA Men's ice hockey tournament | |
|---|---|
| Dates | March 7–15, 1997 |
| Teams | 10 |
| Finals site | Civic Center St. Paul, Minnesota |
| Champions | North Dakota [1] (6th title) |
| Winning coach | Dean Blais [2] (1st title) |
| MVP | David Hoogsteen [3] (North Dakota) |
| Attendance | 56,707 |
WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments | |
The 1997 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 38th conference playoff in league history and 45th season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The tournament was played between March 7 and March 15, 1997. First round games were played at home team campus sites while all 'Final Five' matches were held at the Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. By winning the tournament, North Dakota was awarded the Broadmoor Trophy and received the WCHA's automatic bid to the 1997 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 and were seeded No. 1 through No. 10 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 Civic 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 1997 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 | ||
| North Dakota†* | 32 | 21 | 10 | 1 | 43 | 137 | 105 | 43 | 31 | 10 | 2 | 190 | 130 | |
| Minnesota† | 32 | 21 | 10 | 1 | 43 | 129 | 94 | 42 | 28 | 13 | 1 | 179 | 128 | |
| St. Cloud State | 32 | 18 | 10 | 4 | 40 | 127 | 105 | 40 | 23 | 13 | 4 | 152 | 130 | |
| Colorado College | 32 | 17 | 11 | 4 | 38 | 121 | 107 | 44 | 25 | 15 | 4 | 169 | 141 | |
| Denver | 32 | 17 | 11 | 4 | 38 | 127 | 99 | 41 | 24 | 13 | 4 | 163 | 122 | |
| Minnesota-Duluth | 32 | 15 | 13 | 4 | 34 | 115 | 111 | 38 | 18 | 16 | 4 | 133 | 131 | |
| Wisconsin | 32 | 15 | 15 | 2 | 32 | 115 | 115 | 38 | 15 | 21 | 2 | 132 | 151 | |
| Northern Michigan | 32 | 9 | 21 | 2 | 20 | 78 | 127 | 40 | 13 | 24 | 3 | 108 | 152 | |
| Alaska-Anchorage | 32 | 7 | 21 | 4 | 18 | 75 | 109 | 36 | 9 | 23 | 4 | 86 | 126 | |
| Michigan Tech | 32 | 5 | 23 | 4 | 14 | 81 | 133 | 39 | 8 | 27 | 4 | 98 | 155 | |
| Championship: North Dakota † indicates conference regular season champion * indicates conference tournament champion Final rankings: USA Today/American Hockey Magazine Coaches Poll Top 10 Poll | ||||||||||||||
Teams are reseeded after the first round
| First Round March 7–8 | Quarterfinal March 13 | Semifinals March 14 | Championship March 15 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 | North Dakota | 4 | 3 | — | ||||||||||||||||
| 10 | Michigan Tech | 1 | 0 | — | ||||||||||||||||
| 1 | North Dakota | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Minnesota | 8 | 5 | — | 4 | Colorado College | 5 | 4 | Colorado College | 1 | ||||||||||
| 9 | Alaska-Anchorage | 2 | 1 | — | 5 | Denver | 2 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | St. Cloud State | 5 | 3 | — | 1 | North Dakota | 4* | |||||||||||||
| 8 | Northern Michigan | 2 | 2 | — | 2 | Minnesota | 3 | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Colorado College | 9 | 1**** | — | ||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Wisconsin | 3 | 0 | — | 2 | Minnesota | 5* | |||||||||||||
| 3 | St. Cloud State | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Denver | 4 | 7 | — | ||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Minnesota-Duluth | 1 | 3 | — | ||||||||||||||||
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
| March 7 | North Dakota | 4 – 1 | Michigan Tech | Ralph Engelstad Arena | ||||
| March 8 | North Dakota | 3 – 0 | Michigan Tech | Ralph Engelstad Arena | ||||
| North Dakota won series 2–0 | |
| March 7 | Minnesota | 8 – 2 | Alaska-Anchorage | Mariucci Arena | ||||
| March 8 | Minnesota | 5 – 1 | Alaska-Anchorage | Mariucci Arena | ||||
| Minnesota won series 2–0 | |
| March 7 | St. Cloud State | 5 – 2 | Northern Michigan | National Hockey Center | ||||
| March 8 | St. Cloud State | 3 – 2 | Northern Michigan | National Hockey Center | ||||
| St. Cloud State won series 2–0 | |
| March 7 | Colorado College | 9 – 3 | Wisconsin | Cadet Ice Arena | ||||
| March 8 | Colorado College | 1 – 0 | 4OT | Wisconsin | Cadet Ice Arena | |||
| Colorado College won series 2–0 | |
| March 7 | Denver | 4 – 1 | Minnesota-Duluth | DU Arena | ||||
| March 8 | Denver | 7 – 3 | Minnesota-Duluth | DU Arena | ||||
| Denver won series 2–0 | |
| March 13 | Colorado College | 5 – 2 | Denver | Civic Center | ||||
| March 14 | North Dakota | 5 – 1 | Colorado College | Civic Center | ||||
| March 14 | Minnesota | 5 – 4 | OT | St. Cloud State | Civic Center | |||
| March 15 | St. Cloud State | 0 – 6 | Colorado College | Civic Center | ||||
| March 15 | North Dakota | 4 – 3 | OT | Minnesota | Civic Center | |||