1983 WCHA men's ice hockey tournament

1983 WCHA Men's ice hockey tournament
DatesFebruary 25-March 13, 1983
Teams6
Finals siteWilliams Arena
Minneapolis, Minnesota
ChampionsWisconsin[1] (7th title)
Winning coachJeff Sauer[2] (2nd title)
WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments

The 1983 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 24th conference playoff in league history and 31st season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The tournament was played between February 25 and March 13, 1983. First round and semifinal games were played at home team campus sites while the championship match was held at the Williams Arena in Minneapolis, Minnesota. By winning the tournament, Wisconsin received the WCHA's automatic bid to the 1983 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.

Format

All member teams were eligible for the tournament and were seeded No. 1 through No. 6 according to their final conference standing, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with an identical number of points accumulated. As a result of their receiving the Broadmoor Trophy, Minnesota's home venue, Williams Arena, served as the site for the Championship game regardless of which teams qualified for the penultimate match. Each series were two-game matchups with the team that scored the most goals advancing to the succeeding round. The top two seeded teams received byes into the semifinal round while the third seed and sixth seed and the fourth seed and fifth seed met in the first round. The teams that advanced to the semifinal were re-seeded according to the final regular season conference standings, with the first seed matched against lowest remaining seed in one semifinal game and the second seed meeting with the other advancing team with the winners meeting in the championship round. The Tournament Champion received an automatic bid to the 1983 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.

Conference standings

Note: GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; PTS = Points; GF = Goals For; GA = Goals Against

1982–83 Western Collegiate Hockey Association standings
Conference Overall
GP W L T PTS GF GA GP W L T GF GA
Minnesota† 26 18 7 1 37 148 101 46 33 12 1 253 155
North Dakota 26 16 9 1 33 115 71 36 21 13 2 158 100
Wisconsin* 26 15 9 2 32 118 85 47 33 10 4 233 131
Minnesota-Duluth 26 14 12 0 28 103 95 45 28 16 1 193 158
Denver 26 11 15 0 22 120 146 37 15 22 0 177 207
Colorado College 26 2 24 0 4 78 184 35 6 28 1 126 227
Championship: Wisconsin
† indicates conference regular season champion
* indicates conference tournament champion

[3]

Bracket

[4] Teams are reseeded after the first round

First Round
February 25–26 		Semifinals
March 4–5 		Championship
12-13
1 Minnesota 8 3
3 Wisconsin 3 5 4 Minnesota-Duluth 2 4
6 Colorado College 2 2 1 Minnesota 1 2
3 Wisconsin 5 3
2 North Dakota 1 5
4 Minnesota-Duluth 7 6 3 Wisconsin 1 6***
5 Denver 2 2

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

First round

(3) Wisconsin vs. (6) Colorado College

February 25 Wisconsin 3 – 2 Colorado College Dane County Coliseum
February 26 Wisconsin 5 – 2 Colorado College Dane County Coliseum
Wisconsin won series 8–4


(4) Minnesota-Duluth vs. (5) Denver

February 25 Minnesota-Duluth 7 – 2 Denver Duluth Arena Auditorium
February 26 Minnesota-Duluth 6 – 2 Denver Duluth Arena Auditorium
Minnesota-Duluth won series 13–4


Semifinals

(1) Minnesota vs. (4) Minnesota-Duluth

March 4 Minnesota 8 – 2 Minnesota-Duluth Williams Arena
March 5 Minnesota 3 – 4 Minnesota-Duluth Williams Arena
Minnesota won series 11–6


(2) North Dakota vs. (3) Wisconsin

March 4 North Dakota 1 – 1 Wisconsin Winter Sports Center
March 5 North Dakota 5 – 6 3OT Wisconsin Winter Sports Center
Wisconsin won series 7–6


Championship

(1) Minnesota vs. (3) Wisconsin

March 12 Minnesota 1 – 5 Wisconsin Williams Arena
March 13 Minnesota 2 – 3 Wisconsin Williams Arena
Wisconsin won series 8–3


Tournament awards

None

See also

References

  1. ^ "Wisconsin Men's Team History". Retrieved June 1, 2014.
  2. ^ "Jeff Sauer Year-by-Year Coaching Record". Retrieved June 1, 2014.
  3. ^ "2009-10 WCHA Yearbook 113-128" (PDF). WCHA. Retrieved June 1, 2014.
  4. ^ "2009-10 WCHA Yearbook 129-144" (PDF). WCHA. Retrieved June 1, 2014.