# 1989 WCHA men's ice hockey tournament

The 1989 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 30th conference playoff in league history and 37th season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The tournament was played between February 24 and March 6, 1989. First round games were played at home team campus sites while all 'Final Four' matches were held at the Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. By winning the tournament, Northern Michigan was awarded the Broadmoor Trophy and received the WCHA's automatic bid to the 1989 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.

## Format

The first round of the postseason tournament featured a best-of-three games format. Teams were seeded No. 1 through No. 8 according to their final conference standing, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with an identical number of points accumulated. The top four seeded teams each earned home ice and hosted one of the lower seeded teams.
The winners of the first round series advanced to the semifinal and championship rounds held at the Civic Center. All Final Four games used a single-elimination format. Teams were re-seeded No. 1 through No. 4 according to the final regular season conference standings, with the top remaining seed matched against lowest remaining seed in one semifinal game while the two other semifinalists meeting with the winners advancing to the championship game and the losers competing in a Third Place contest. The Tournament Champion received an automatic bid to the 1989 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
1988–89 Western Collegiate Hockey Association standingsvte :
| | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall |
| | GP | W | L | T | PTS | GF | GA | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA |
| Minnesota† | 35 | 27 | 6 | 2 | 56 | 157 | 91 | 48 | 34 | 11 | 3 | 209 | 134 |
| Northern Michigan* | 35 | 20 | 13 | 2 | 42 | 163 | 110 | 45 | 26 | 17 | 2 | 212 | 144 |
| Wisconsin | 35 | 17 | 13 | 5 | 39 | 126 | 108 | 46 | 25 | 16 | 5 | 168 | 134 |
| North Dakota | 35 | 19 | 15 | 1 | 39 | 131 | 119 | 41 | 22 | 18 | 1 | 164 | 138 |
| Denver | 35 | 16 | 17 | 2 | 34 | 143 | 144 | 43 | 22 | 19 | 2 | 179 | 178 |
| Michigan Tech | 35 | 15 | 19 | 1 | 31 | 128 | 150 | 42 | 15 | 25 | 2 | 142 | 188 |
| Minnesota-Duluth | 35 | 12 | 21 | 2 | 26 | 106 | 135 | 40 | 15 | 23 | 2 | 126 | 153 |
| Colorado College | 35 | 9 | 23 | 3 | 21 | 115 | 157 | 40 | 11 | 26 | 3 | 133 | 179 |
| Championship: Northern Michigan † indicates conference regular season champion * indicates conference tournament champion |||||||||||||||

## Bracket

Teams are reseeded after the first round
| First Round February 24–27 | First Round February 24–27 | First Round February 24–27 | First Round February 24–27 | First Round February 24–27 | | | Semifinals March 5 | Semifinals March 5 | Semifinals March 5 | Championship March 6 | Championship March 6 | Championship March 6 |
| 1 | Minnesota | 5 | 7 | — | | | | | | | | |
| 8 | Colorado College | 4 | 1 | — | | | | | | | | |
| 8 | Colorado College | 4 | 1 | — | | | 1 | Minnesota | 1 | | | |
| | | | | | | | 5 | Denver | 2 | | | |
| 2 | Northern Michigan | 7 | 7 | — | | | 5 | Denver | 2 | | | |
| 7 | Minnesota-Duluth | 2 | 3 | — | | | | | | | | |
| 7 | Minnesota-Duluth | 2 | 3 | — | | | | | | 2 | Northern Michigan | 9 |
| (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | 2 | Northern Michigan | 9 |
| (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | 5 | Denver | 4 |
| 3 | Wisconsin | 5 | 5 | — | | | | | | | | | 5 | Denver | 4 |
| 6 | Michigan Tech | 2 | 3 | — | | | | | |
| 6 | Michigan Tech | 2 | 3 | — | | | 2 | Northern Michigan | 4 | Third place | Third place | Third place |
| | | | | | | | 3 | Wisconsin | 2 |
| 4 | North Dakota | 7 | 4 | 2 | | | 3 | Wisconsin | 2 | 1 | Minnesota | 3 |
| 5 | Denver | 1 | 5 | 3 | | | | | | 3 | Wisconsin | 4 |
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

### First round
#### (1) Minnesota vs. (8) Colorado College

* Minnesota won series 2–0

#### (2) Northern Michigan vs. (7) Minnesota-Duluth

* Northern Michigan won series 2–0

#### (3) Wisconsin vs. (6) Michigan Tech

* Wisconsin won series 2–0

#### (4) North Dakota vs. (5) Denver

* Denver won series 2–1

### Championship
#### (2) Northern Michigan vs. (5) Denver
## Tournament awards
### All-Tournament Team

* F Phil Berger (Northern Michigan)
* F Doug MacDonald (Wisconsin)
* F Jay Moore (Denver)
* D John Goode (Northern Michigan)
* D Darryl Olsen (Northern Michigan)
* G Bill Pye* (Northern Michigan)
* Most Valuable Player(s)