| 2019 WCHA Men's ice hockey tournament | |
|---|---|
| Dates | March 8–23, 2019 |
| Teams | 8 |
| Finals site | Mankato, Minnesota Verizon Center |
| Champions | Minnesota State (3rd title) |
| Winning coach | Mike Hastings (3rd title) |
| Most Outstanding Player | Nick Rivera (Minnesota State) |
WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments | |
The 2019 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 60th conference playoff in league history and 65th season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The 2019 tournament was played between March 8 and March 23, 2019, at four conference arenas, with the championship game being hosted by Minnesota State at their home rink, Verizon Center. By winning the tournament, Minnesota State was awarded the Broadmoor Trophy and received the WCHA's automatic bid to the 2019 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.
The first two rounds of the postseason tournament featured a best-of-three games format. The top eight conference teams participated in the tournament. Teams were seeded No. 1 through No. 8 according to their final conference standings, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with an identical number of points accumulated. The higher seeded teams each earned home ice and host one of the lower seeded teams. (teams will NOT be re-seeded with each proceeding round). [1]
The final was a single game held at the campus site of the highest remaining seed.
| Conference record | Overall record | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | W | L | T | 3/SW | PTS | GF | GA | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA | ||
| #6 Minnesota State †* | 28 | 22 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 68 | 99 | 43 | 42 | 32 | 8 | 2 | 147 | 76 | |
| Northern Michigan | 28 | 18 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 56 | 82 | 57 | 39 | 21 | 16 | 2 | 104 | 96 | |
| #13 Bowling Green | 28 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 55 | 77 | 52 | 41 | 25 | 11 | 5 | 133 | 75 | |
| Lake Superior State | 28 | 16 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 50 | 91 | 69 | 38 | 23 | 13 | 2 | 123 | 93 | |
| Bemidji State | 28 | 13 | 11 | 4 | 2 | 45 | 71 | 63 | 38 | 15 | 17 | 6 | 95 | 94 | |
| Michigan Tech | 28 | 13 | 12 | 3 | 1 | 43 | 68 | 63 | 38 | 14 | 20 | 4 | 90 | 101 | |
| Alaska | 28 | 12 | 14 | 2 | 2 | 40 | 57 | 81 | 36 | 12 | 21 | 3 | 72 | 114 | |
| Alabama–Huntsville | 28 | 8 | 18 | 2 | 2 | 28 | 61 | 93 | 38 | 8 | 28 | 2 | 67 | 129 | |
| Ferris State | 28 | 7 | 18 | 3 | 0 | 24 | 68 | 96 | 36 | 10 | 23 | 3 | 90 | 123 | |
| Alaska Anchorage | 28 | 2 | 23 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 29 | 86 | 34 | 3 | 28 | 3 | 40 | 115 | |
| Championship: March 23, 2019 † indicates conference regular season champion (MacNaughton Cup) * indicates conference tournament champion (Broadmoor Trophy) Rankings: USCHO.com Top 20 Poll | |||||||||||||||
| Quarterfinals March 8–9 | Semifinals March 15–16 | Championship March 23 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Minnesota State | 3 | 4 | X | ||||||||||||||
| 8 | Alabama–Huntsville | 1 | 1 | X | ||||||||||||||
| 1 | Minnesota State | 2 | 2 | X | ||||||||||||||
| 4 | Lake Superior | 1 | 0 | X | ||||||||||||||
| 4 | Lake Superior | 4 | 3 | X | ||||||||||||||
| 5 | Bemidji State | 2 | 1 | X | ||||||||||||||
| 1 | Minnesota State | 3* | ||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Bowling Green | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Bowling Green | 3 | 6 | X | ||||||||||||||
| 6 | Michigan Tech | 2 | 2 | X | ||||||||||||||
| 2 | Northern Michigan | 1 | 1 | X | ||||||||||||||
| 3 | Bowling Green | 6 | 2** | X | ||||||||||||||
| 2 | Northern Michigan | 5** | 4 | X | ||||||||||||||
| 7 | Alaska | 4 | 3 | X | ||||||||||||||
Note: * denotes overtime periods
| March 8 | Minnesota State | 3-1 | Alabama–Huntsville | Verizon Arena | Recap | |||
| (Rivera, French) Walker Duehr (9) - 05:09 | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| (Gerard, Scheid) Marc Michaelis (17) - GW PP - 04:48 | Second period | 16:28 - Connor Merkley (3) (Finnson, Dunn) | ||||||
| (Scheid, Tuomie) Marc Michaelis (22) - PP - 05:26 | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| ( 12 saves / 13 shots ) Dryden McKay | Goalie stats | Mark Sinclair ( 32 saves / 35 shots ) | ||||||
| March 9 | Minnesota State | 4–1 | Alabama–Huntsville | Verizon Arena | Recap | |||
| (Jaremko, Mackey) Reggie Lutz (5) - PP - 01:44 (Gerard) Parker Tuomie (14) - GW - 08:57 | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| (Jaremko, Coatta) Reggie Lutz (6) - PP - 14:25 (Tuomie) Marc Michaelis (19) - 15:36 | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Third period | 10:16 - Adam Wilcox (3) (Wood) | ||||||
| ( 18 saves / 19 shots ) Dryden McKay | Goalie stats | Mark Sinclair ( 27 saves / 31 shots ) | ||||||
| Minnesota State wins series 2–0 | |
| March 8 | Northern Michigan | 5–4 | 2OT | Alaska | Berry Events Center | Recap | ||
| No Scoring | First period | 16:38 - Tyler Cline (9) (Staley) | ||||||
| (Loughran, Readman) Joseph Nardi (8) - 02:09 (Frantti, Loven) Vincent de Mey (4) - 03:31 | Second period | 10:30 - Kyle Marino (5) (LaDouce, Doyle) 12:46 - Steven Jandric (9) (Newton, Young) 16:05 - Chase Ellingson (1) (Hope) | ||||||
| (Nardi, Readman) Griffin Loughran (6) - PP - 06:51 (Craighead, Beaulieu) Adam Rockwood (7) - EA - 19:46 | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| (Loughran, Beaulieu) Joseph Nardi (9) - GW - 10:30 | Second overtime period | No scoring | ||||||
| ( 38 saves / 42 shots ) Atte Tolvanen | Goalie stats | Anton Martinsson ( 39 saves / 44 shots ) | ||||||
| March 9 | Northern Michigan | 4–3 | Alaska | Berry Events Center | Recap | |||
| No Scoring | First period | 08:06 - Kylar Hope (8) (Leiter, Jandric) | ||||||
| (Black, Rockwood) Denver Pierce (10) - 12:54 (Klee, Loven) Vincent de Mey (5) - 13:36 | Second period | 08:28 - Kyle Marino (6) (Doyle) | ||||||
| (Pierce) Troy Loggins (23) - 09:59 (Rockwood, Loggins) Darien Craighead (9) - GW PP - 11:58 | Third period | 17:52 - EA - Tyler Cline (6) (Thompson, Jandric) | ||||||
| ( 26 saves / 29 shots ) Atte Tolvanen | Goalie stats | Anton Martinsson ( 26 saves / 30 shots ) | ||||||
| Northern Michigan wins series 2–0 | |
| March 8 | Bowling Green | 3–2 | Michigan Tech | Slater Family Ice Arena | Recap | |||
| No Scoring | First period | 06:56 - Raymond Brice (3) (Parrottino, Reitmeier) | ||||||
| No scoring | Second period | 18:18 - SH - Alec Broetzman (8) (Reitmeier) | ||||||
| (Barber, Johnson) Connor Ford (14) - PP - 11:55 (Smith, Pohlkamp) Frédéric Létourneau (14) - 12:10 (Ford, Kruse) Max Johnson (14) - GW PP - 13:41 | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| ( 23 saves / 25 shots ) Ryan Bednard | Goalie stats | Matt Jurusik ( 38 saves / 41 shots ) | ||||||
| March 9 | Bowling Green | 6–2 | Michigan Tech | Slater Family Ice Arena | Recap | |||
| (Johnson) Adam Smith (2) - 05:25 (Wright, Pohlkamp) Max Johnson (16) - 09:30 (Kruse, Johnson) Connor Ford (15) - GW PP - 10:24 | First period | 04:35 - PP - Jake Lucchini (10) (Bliss, Smith) 11:54 - Jake Lucchini (3) (Smith, Donohue) | ||||||
| (Schneider, Theorcharidis) Max Johnson (17) - PP - 07:36 | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| (unassisted) Frédéric Létourneau (6) - PS - 09:08 (unassisted) Connor McDonald (1) - SH EN - 11:05 | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| ( 25 saves / 27 shots ) Ryan Bednard | Goalie stats | Matt Jurusik ( 25 saves / 30 shots ) / Devin Kero ( 4 saves / 4 shots ) | ||||||
| Bowling Green wins series 2-0 | |
| March 8 | Lake Superior State | 4–2 | Bemidji State | Taffy Abel Arena | Recap | |||
| No Scoring | First period | 07:20 - Nick Cardelli (9) (Harris, Billett) | ||||||
| (Eriksson) Diego Cuglietta (24) - 05:17 (Saccoman, Calder) Lukas Kaelble (2) - PP - 18:29 | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| (Calder, Saccoman) Anthony Nellis (15) - GW PP - 09:49 (unassisted) Max Humitz (15) - EN - 19:44 | Third period | 10:27 - EA - Brad Johnson (3) (Sillinger, Combs) | ||||||
| ( 29 saves / 31 shots ) Nick Kossoff | Goalie stats | Zach Driscoll ( 17 saves / 20 shots ) | ||||||
| March 9 | Lake Superior State | 3–1 | Bemidji State | Taffy Abel Arena | Recap | |||
| No Scoring | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| (Nordqvist, Nellis) Max Humitz (16) - 09:29 | Second period | 12:01 - Justin Baudry (9) (Somoza, Ierullo) | ||||||
| (Nordqvist, Cuglietta) Hampus Eriksson (3) - GW PP - 06:30 (Cuglietta) Collin Saccoman (10) - EN - 19:22 | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| ( 39 saves / 40 shots ) Nick Kossoff | Goalie stats | Zach Driscoll ( 31 saves / 33 shots ) | ||||||
| Lake Superior State wins series 2–0 | |
| March 15 | Minnesota State | 2–1 | Lake Superior State | Verizon Arena | Recap | |||
| (Tuomie, Michaelis) Charlie Gerard (11) - 06:18 (French, Mackey) Walker Duehr (10) - GW - 07:20 | First period | 01:37 - Diego Cuglietta (25) (Humitz, Ruggiero) | ||||||
| No scoring | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| ( 20 saves / 21 shots ) Dryden McKay | Goalie stats | Nick Kossoff ( 29 saves / 31 shots ) | ||||||
| March 16 | Minnesota State | 2–0 | Lake Superior State | Verizon Arena | Recap | |||
| (Michaelis, Gerard) Julian Napravnik (8) - GW PP - 12:14 (Coatta, Scheid) Reggie Lutz (7) - PP - 13:27 | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| ( 31 saves / 31 shots ) Dryden McKay | Goalie stats | Nick Kossoff ( 28 saves / 30 shots ) | ||||||
| Minnesota State wins series 2–0 | |
| March 15 | Northern Michigan | 1–6 | Bowling Green | Berry Events Center | Recap | |||
| No Scoring | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Second period | 01:35 - Max Johnson (18) (Létourneau) 05:42 - GW - Adam Smith (3) (Ford, Létourneau) | ||||||
| (Loggins, Rockwood) Griffin Loughran (7) - 8:55 | Third period | 00:30 - PP - Brandon Kruse (9) (Rauhauser, Johnson) 01:23 - PP - Connor Ford (16) (Rauhauser, Johnson) 11:12 - Max Johnson (19) (Kruse, Johnson) 19:54 - Cameron Wright (9) (Barber, Linkenheld) | ||||||
| ( 36 saves / 42 shots ) Atte Tolvanen | Goalie stats | Ryan Bednard ( 26 saves / 27 shots ) | ||||||
| March 16 | Northern Michigan | 1–2 | 2OT | Bowling Green | Berry Events Center | Recap | ||
| No Scoring | First period | 15:12 - Connor Ford (17) (Pohlkamp, Baylis) | ||||||
| (Beaulieu, Rockwood) Darien Craighead (10) - 00:21 | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Second overtime period | 02:09 - GW - Sam Craggs (8) (Cullen, Rauhauser) | ||||||
| ( 41 saves / 43 shots ) Atte Tolvanen | Goalie stats | Ryan Bednard ( 40 saves / 41 shots ) | ||||||
| Bowling Green wins series 2–0 | |
| March 23 | Minnesota State | 3–2 | OT | Bowling Green | Verizon Arena | Recap | ||
| No Scoring | First period | 14:56 - Frédéric Létourneau (7) (Schneider, Cullen) | ||||||
| No scoring | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| (Zmolek, Coatta) Jake Jaremko (6) - EA - 18:16 (McNeely, Tuomie) Connor Mackey (7) - EA - 19:04 | Third period | 01:28 - PP - Alec Rauhauser (4) (Johnson, Ford) | ||||||
| (French, McMahan) Nick Rivera (15) - GW - 01:37 | First overtime period | No scoring | ||||||
| ( 17 saves / 19 shots ) Dryden McKay | Goalie stats | Ryan Bednard ( 24 saves / 27 shots ) | ||||||
Nick Rivera (Minnesota State)