1971 WCHA men's ice hockey tournament
| 1971 WCHA Men's ice hockey tournament | |
|---|---|
| Dates | March 11–13, 1971 |
| Teams | 8 |
| Finals site | Dane County Coliseum Madison, Wisconsin DU Arena Denver, Colorado |
| Champions | Minnesota†[1] (2nd title) Denver‡[2] (8th title) |
| Winning coach | Glen Sonmor[3] (1st title) Murray Armstrong[4] (8th title) |
WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments | |
The 1971 WCHA men's ice hockey tournament was the 12th conference playoff in league history. The tournament was played between March 12 and March 20, 1971. All East Regional games were played at the Dane County Coliseum in Madison, Wisconsin while West Regional games were held at the DU Arena in Denver, Colorado. By winning the regional tournaments, both the East Regional Champion†, Minnesota, and West Regional Champion‡, Denver, were invited to participate in the 1971 NCAA University Division men's ice hockey tournament.
Format
[edit]The top eight teams in the WCHA, according to their final conference standings, were eligible for the tournament and were seeded No. 1 through No. 8. The eight teams were then divided into two separate groups by placing all even-numbered seeds in one group (2, 4, 6, 8) and the odd-numbered seeds (1, 3, 5, 7) in the other group. Using the location of the top seeds in each of the groups, the odd-numbered group (containing Michigan Tech) was placed in the east region which was held at the Dane County Coliseum while the odd-numbered grouping (containing Denver) was placed in the west region which was held at the DU Arena. Once each regional group was set the teams were reseeded No. 1 to No. 4 according to their final conference standings. In the first round the first and fourth seeds and the second and third seeds in each region were matched in a single game with the winners advancing to their regional final games. The winners of the two championship games were declared as co-conference tournament champions.
Conference standings
[edit]Note: GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; PCT = Winning percentage; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against
| Conference | Overall | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | W | L | T | PCT | GF | GA | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA | ||
| Michigan Tech† | 22 | 18 | 4 | 0 | .818 | 112 | 62 | 33 | 25 | 6 | 2 | 173 | 105 | |
| Denver* | 22 | 15 | 7 | 0 | .682 | 114 | 92 | 36 | 25 | 10 | 1 | 178 | 133 | |
| Wisconsin | 22 | 13 | 9 | 0 | .591 | 102 | 77 | 34 | 20 | 13 | 1 | 180 | 110 | |
| Michigan State | 22 | 12 | 10 | 0 | .545 | 101 | 97 | 31 | 19 | 12 | 0 | 152 | 124 | |
| Minnesota* | 22 | 9 | 12 | 1 | .432 | 77 | 88 | 32 | 14 | 17 | 1 | 116 | 128 | |
| Minnesota-Duluth | 24 | 10 | 14 | 0 | .417 | 98 | 106 | 34 | 16 | 17 | 1 | 147 | 146 | |
| North Dakota | 26 | 10 | 15 | 1 | .404 | 92 | 116 | 33 | 14 | 17 | 2 | 123 | 141 | |
| Colorado College | 18 | 7 | 11 | 0 | .389 | 81 | 100 | 29 | 11 | 17 | 1 | 142 | 168 | |
| Michigan | 22 | 5 | 17 | 0 | .227 | 77 | 116 | 30 | 9 | 21 | 0 | 118 | 147 | |
| Championship: Minnesota, Denver † indicates conference regular season champion * indicates conference tournament champion | ||||||||||||||
Bracket
[edit]| Regional semifinals March 11–12 | Regional Finals March 13 | ||||||||
| E1 | Michigan Tech | 4 | |||||||
| E4 | North Dakota | 6 | |||||||
| E4 | North Dakota | 2 | |||||||
| East Regional | |||||||||
| E3 | Minnesota | 5 | |||||||
| E2 | Wisconsin | 3 | |||||||
| E3 | Minnesota | 4 | |||||||
| W1 | Denver | 6 | |||||||
| W4 | Colorado College | 3 | |||||||
| W1 | Denver | 9 | |||||||
| West Regional | |||||||||
| W3 | Minnesota-Duluth | 3 | |||||||
| W2 | Michigan State | 3 | |||||||
| W3 | Minnesota-Duluth | 4 | |||||||
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
East Regional
[edit]Semifinals
[edit](1) Michigan Tech vs. (4) North Dakota
[edit]| March 11 | Michigan Tech | 4 – 6 | North Dakota | Dane County Coliseum | ||||
(2) Wisconsin vs. (3) Minnesota
[edit]| March 11 | Wisconsin | 3 – 4 | Minnesota | Dane County Coliseum | ||||
Finals
[edit](3) Minnesota vs. (4) North Dakota
[edit]| March 13 | Minnesota | 5 – 2 | North Dakota | Dane County Coliseum | ||||
West Regional
[edit]Semifinals
[edit](1) Denver vs. (4) Colorado College
[edit]| March 11 | Denver | 6 – 3 | Colorado College | DU Arena | ||||
(2) Michigan State vs. (3) Minnesota-Duluth
[edit]| March 12 | Michigan State | 3 – 4 | Minnesota-Duluth | DU Arena | ||||
Finals
[edit](1) Denver vs. (3) Minnesota-Duluth
[edit]| March 13 | Denver | 9 – 3 | Minnesota-Duluth | DU Arena | ||||
Tournament awards
[edit]None
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Minnesota Men's Team History". Retrieved June 1, 2014.
- ^ "Denver Men's Team History". Retrieved June 1, 2014.
- ^ "Glen Sonmor Year-by-Year Coaching Record". Retrieved June 1, 2014.
- ^ "Murray Armstrong Year-by-Year Coaching Record". Retrieved June 1, 2014.
- ^ "2009-10 WCHA Yearbook 97-112" (PDF). WCHA. Retrieved June 1, 2014.
- ^ "2009-10 WCHA Yearbook 129-144" (PDF). WCHA. Retrieved June 1, 2014.
External links
[edit]- WCHA.com
- 1970–71 WCHA Standings
- 1970–71 NCAA Standings
- 2013–14 Colorado College Tigers Media Guide
- 2013–14 Denver Pioneers Media Guide[permanent dead link]
- 2013–14 Michigan State Spartans Media Guide; Section 5 Archived 2014-05-13 at the Wayback Machine
- 2013–14 Minnesota Golden Gophers Media Guide Archived 2014-07-28 at the Wayback Machine
- 2012–13 Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs Media Guide
- 2013–14 North Dakota Hockey Media Guide
- 2003–04 Wisconsin Badgers Media Guide