# 1971 WCHA men's ice hockey tournament

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

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

Note: GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; PCT = Winning percentage; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against
1970–71 Western Collegiate Hockey Association standingsvte :
| | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | 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

| Regional semifinals March 11–12 | Regional semifinals March 11–12 | Regional semifinals March 11–12 | Regional Finals March 13 | Regional Finals March 13 | Regional Finals March 13 |
| E1 | Michigan Tech | 4 | | | |
| E4 | North Dakota | 6 | | | |
| E4 | North Dakota | 6 | E4 | North Dakota | 2 |
| East Regional | East Regional | East Regional | E4 | North Dakota | 2 |
| East Regional | East Regional | East Regional | E3 | Minnesota | 5 |
| E2 | Wisconsin | 3 | E3 | Minnesota | 5 |
| E3 | Minnesota | 4 | | | |
| W1 | Denver | 6 | | | |
| W4 | Colorado College | 3 | | | |
| W4 | Colorado College | 3 | W1 | Denver | 9 |
| West Regional | West Regional | West Regional | W1 | Denver | 9 |
| West Regional | West Regional | West Regional | W3 | Minnesota-Duluth | 3 |
| W2 | Michigan State | 3 | W3 | Minnesota-Duluth | 3 |
| W3 | Minnesota-Duluth | 4 | | | |
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

## Tournament awards

None