# 1982 WCHA men's ice hockey tournament

The 1982 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 23rd conference playoff in league history and 30th season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The tournament was played between March 4 and March 14, 1982. First round and semifinal games were played at home team campus sites while the championship match was held at the Winter Sports Center in Grand Forks, North Dakota. By winning the tournament, Wisconsin received the WCHA's automatic bid to the 1982 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.
This as the first WCHA tournament held after the defection of four conference schools to the CCHA.

## 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, North Dakota's home venue, Winter Sports Center, 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 1982 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
1981–82 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 |
| North Dakota† | 26 | 19 | 7 | 0 | 38 | 119 | 81 | 47 | 35 | 12 | 0 | 218 | 143 |
| Wisconsin* | 26 | 18 | 7 | 1 | 37 | 126 | 80 | 47 | 35 | 11 | 1 | 255 | 126 |
| Minnesota | 26 | 13 | 11 | 2 | 28 | 103 | 102 | 36 | 22 | 12 | 2 | 153 | 125 |
| Denver | 26 | 9 | 15 | 2 | 20 | 119 | 132 | 43 | 21 | 19 | 3 | 233 | 197 |
| Minnesota-Duluth | 26 | 9 | 16 | 1 | 19 | 114 | 141 | 40 | 16 | 21 | 3 | 192 | 201 |
| Colorado College | 26 | 6 | 18 | 2 | 14 | 105 | 150 | 36 | 11 | 23 | 2 | 152 | 196 |
| Championship: Wisconsin † indicates conference regular season champion * indicates conference tournament champion |||||||||||||||

## Bracket

Teams are reseeded after the first round
| First Round March 4–6 | First Round March 4–6 | First Round March 4–6 | First Round March 4–6 | Semifinals March 9–10 | Semifinals March 9–10 | Semifinals March 9–10 | Semifinals March 9–10 | Championship March 13–14 | Championship March 13–14 | Championship March 13–14 | Championship March 13–14 |
| | | | | 1 | North Dakota | 4 | 5 | | | | |
| 3 | Minnesota | 3 | 6 | 4 | Denver | 3 | 2 | | | | |
| 6 | Colorado College | 1 | 3 | | | | | 1 | North Dakota | 0 | 1 |
| | | | | | | | | 2 | Wisconsin | 9 | 3 |
| | | | | 2 | Wisconsin | 3 | 6 | | | | |
| 4 | Denver | 5 | 5 | 3 | Minnesota | 4 | 2 | | | | |
| 5 | Minnesota-Duluth | 2 | 5 | | | | | | | | |
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

### First round
#### (3) Minnesota vs. (6) Colorado College

* Minnesota won series 9–4

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

* Denver won series 10–7

### Semifinals
#### (1) North Dakota vs. (4) Denver

* North Dakota won series 9–5

#### (2) Wisconsin vs. (3) Minnesota

* Wisconsin won series 9–6

### Championship
#### (1) North Dakota vs. (2) Wisconsin

* Wisconsin won series 12–1

## Tournament awards

None