# 1999 WCHA men's ice hockey tournament

The 1999 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 40th conference playoff in league history and 47th season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The 1999 tournament played between March 12 and March 20, 1999, at five conference arenas and the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. By winning the tournament, Denver was awarded the Broadmoor Trophy and received the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's automatic bid to the 1999 NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey Tournament.

## Format

The first round of the postseason tournament featured a best-of-three games format. All nine conference teams participated in the tournament as did Mankato State which was slated to join the WCHA as a full member the following year. Teams were seeded No. 1 through No. 9 according to their final conference standing, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with an identical number of points accumulated while Mankato State was seeded tenth. 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 Target 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.

### Conference standings

Note: GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; PTS = Points; GF = Goals For; GA = Goals Against
1998–99 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 |
| #5 North Dakota† | 28 | 24 | 2 | 2 | 50 | 142 | 76 | 40 | 32 | 6 | 2 | 199 | 104 |
| #6 Colorado College | 28 | 20 | 8 | 0 | 40 | 103 | 68 | 42 | 29 | 12 | 1 | 169 | 111 |
| #8 Denver* | 28 | 15 | 11 | 2 | 32 | 101 | 95 | 41 | 26 | 13 | 2 | 154 | 126 |
| Wisconsin | 28 | 13 | 12 | 3 | 29 | 76 | 81 | 38 | 15 | 19 | 4 | 98 | 110 |
| Minnesota | 28 | 10 | 12 | 6 | 26 | 90 | 99 | 43 | 15 | 19 | 9 | 139 | 157 |
| Alaska-Anchorage | 28 | 10 | 13 | 5 | 25 | 57 | 71 | 36 | 13 | 18 | 5 | 74 | 92 |
| St. Cloud State | 28 | 8 | 16 | 4 | 20 | 79 | 95 | 39 | 16 | 18 | 5 | 122 | 122 |
| Michigan Tech | 28 | 9 | 19 | 0 | 18 | 67 | 99 | 38 | 9 | 28 | 1 | 86 | 145 |
| Minnesota-Duluth | 28 | 4 | 20 | 4 | 12 | 71 | 102 | 38 | 7 | 27 | 4 | 100 | 139 |
| Championship: Denver † indicates conference regular season champion * indicates conference tournament champion Final rankings: USA Today/American Hockey Magazine Coaches Poll Top 10 Poll |||||||||||||||

## Bracket

Teams are reseeded after the first round
| First round March 12–14, 1999 | First round March 12–14, 1999 | First round March 12–14, 1999 | First round March 12–14, 1999 | First round March 12–14, 1999 | Quarterfinal March 18, 1999 | Quarterfinal March 18, 1999 | Quarterfinal March 18, 1999 | Semifinals March 19, 1999 | Semifinals March 19, 1999 | Semifinals March 19, 1999 | Championship March 20, 1999 | Championship March 20, 1999 | Championship March 20, 1999 |
| 1 | North Dakota | 2 | 3 | 10 | | | | | | | | | |
| 10 | Mankato State | 3* | 2 | 0 | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | 1 | North Dakota | 6 | | | |
| 2 | Colorado College | 3 | 5* | — | 5 | Minnesota | 5 | 5 | Minnesota | 2 | | | |
| 9 | Minnesota-Duluth | 1 | 4 | — | 7 | St. Cloud State | 3 | | | | | | |
| 3 | Denver | 2 | 4 | — | | | | | | | 1 | North Dakota | 3 |
| 8 | Michigan Tech | 1 | 2 | — | | | | | | | 3 | Denver | 4 |
| 4 | Wisconsin | 2 | 2 | — | | | | | | | | | |
| 7 | St. Cloud State | 5 | 3 | — | | | | 2 | | | | Colorado College | 2 |
| | | | | | | | | 3 | Denver | 3* | | | |
| 5 | Minnesota | 4 | 1 | — | | | | | | | | | |
| 6 | Alaska-Anchorage | 0 | 0 | — | | | | | | | | | |
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

### First round
#### (1) North Dakota vs. (10) Mankato State

* North Dakota won series 2–1

#### (2) Colorado College vs. (9) Minnesota-Duluth

* Colorado College won series 2–0

#### (3) Denver vs. (8) Michigan Tech

* Denver won series 2–0

#### (4) Wisconsin vs. (7) St. Cloud State

* St. Cloud State won series 2–0

#### (5) Minnesota vs. (6) Alaska-Anchorage

* Minnesota won series 2–0

### Championship
#### (1) North Dakota vs. (3) Denver
## Tournament awards
### All-Tournament Team

* F Justin Morrison (Colorado College)
* F Jeff Panzer (North Dakota)
* F Paul Veres (Denver)
* D Erik Westrum (Minnesota)
* D Joe Ritson (Denver)
* G Stephen Wagner* (Denver)
* Most Valuable Player(s)