# 1998 WCHA men's ice hockey tournament

The 1998 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 39th conference playoff in league history and 46th season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The tournament was played between March 13 and March 21, 1998. First round games were played at home team campus sites while all 'Final Five' matches were held at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. By winning the tournament, Wisconsin was awarded the Broadmoor Trophy and received the WCHA's automatic bid to the 1998 NCAA Division I Men's 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 in two years. 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 Bradley 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 and the remaining two playing in a quarterfinal game. The semifinal pitted the top remaining seed against the winner of the quarterfinal game while the two other teams that received byes were matched against one another with the winners advancing to the championship game and the losers meeting in a Third Place contest. The Tournament Champion received an automatic bid to the 1998 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
1997–98 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† | 28 | 21 | 6 | 1 | 43 | 127 | 80 | 39 | 30 | 8 | 1 | 188 | 115 |
| Wisconsin* | 28 | 17 | 10 | 1 | 35 | 102 | 88 | 41 | 26 | 14 | 1 | 151 | 121 |
| Colorado College | 28 | 16 | 10 | 2 | 34 | 111 | 93 | 42 | 26 | 13 | 3 | 174 | 132 |
| St. Cloud State | 28 | 16 | 11 | 1 | 33 | 101 | 90 | 40 | 22 | 16 | 2 | 141 | 121 |
| Minnesota-Duluth | 28 | 14 | 12 | 2 | 30 | 94 | 90 | 40 | 21 | 17 | 2 | 140 | 130 |
| Minnesota | 28 | 12 | 16 | 0 | 24 | 101 | 94 | 39 | 17 | 22 | 0 | 140 | 133 |
| Michigan Tech | 28 | 10 | 17 | 1 | 21 | 79 | 116 | 40 | 17 | 20 | 3 | 132 | 155 |
| Denver | 28 | 8 | 18 | 2 | 18 | 91 | 119 | 38 | 11 | 25 | 2 | 127 | 167 |
| Alaska-Anchorage | 28 | 5 | 19 | 4 | 14 | 45 | 81 | 36 | 6 | 25 | 5 | 59 | 116 |
| Championship: Wisconsin † 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 13–15 | First Round March 13–15 | First Round March 13–15 | First Round March 13–15 | First Round March 13–15 | Quarterfinal March 19 | Quarterfinal March 19 | Quarterfinal March 19 | Semifinals March 20 | Semifinals March 20 | Semifinals March 20 | Championship March 21 | Championship March 21 | Championship March 21 |
| 1 | North Dakota | 5 | 5 | — | | | | | | | | | |
| 10 | Mankato State | 2 | 4 | — | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | 1 | North Dakota | 4 | | | |
| 2 | Wisconsin | 6 | 6 | — | 4 | St. Cloud State | 4 | 4 | St. Cloud State | 3 | | | |
| 9 | Alaska-Anchorage | 1 | 2 | — | 5 | Minnesota-Duluth | 3 | | | | | | |
| 3 | Colorado College | 3* | 6 | — | | | | | | | 1 | North Dakota | 2 |
| 8 | Denver | 2 | 4 | — | | | | | | | 2 | Wisconsin | 3 |
| 4 | St. Cloud State | 6 | 2 | 6 | | | | | | | | | |
| 7 | Michigan Tech | 4 | 3 | 2 | | | | 2 | | | | Wisconsin | 5 |
| | | | | | | | | 3 | Colorado College | 2 | | | |
| 5 | Minnesota-Duluth | 7 | 0 | 5* | | | | | | | | | |
| 6 | Minnesota | 3 | 5 | 4 | | | | | | | | | |
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

### Quarterfinals
#### (1) North Dakota vs. (10) Mankato State

* North Dakota won series 2–0

#### (2) Wisconsin vs. (9) Alaska-Anchorage

* Wisconsin won series 2–0

#### (3) Colorado College vs. (8) Denver

* Colorado College won series 2–0

#### (4) St. Cloud State vs. (7) Michigan Tech

* St. Cloud State won series 2–1

#### (5) Minnesota-Duluth vs. (6) Minnesota

* Minnesota-Duluth won series 2–1

### Championship
#### (1) North Dakota vs. (2) Wisconsin
## Tournament awards
### All-Tournament Team

* F Joe Bianchi* (Wisconsin)
* F Jason Blake (North Dakota)
* F Stewart Bodtker (Colorado College)
* D Curtis Murphy (North Dakota)
* D Matt Peterson (Wisconsin)
* G Graham Melanson (Wisconsin)
* Most Valuable Player(s)