# 1983 WCHA men's ice hockey tournament

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 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† | 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 |||||||||||||||

## Bracket

Teams are reseeded after the first round
| First Round February 25–26 | First Round February 25–26 | First Round February 25–26 | First Round February 25–26 | Semifinals March 4–5 | Semifinals March 4–5 | Semifinals March 4–5 | Semifinals March 4–5 | Championship 12-13 | Championship 12-13 | Championship 12-13 | 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

* Wisconsin won series 8–4

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

* Minnesota-Duluth won series 13–4

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

* Minnesota won series 11–6

#### (2) North Dakota vs. (3) Wisconsin

* Wisconsin won series 7–6

### Championship
#### (1) Minnesota vs. (3) Wisconsin

* Wisconsin won series 8–3

## Tournament awards

None