# 1988 WCHA men's ice hockey tournament

The 1988 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 29th conference playoff in league history and 36th season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The tournament was played between February 25 and March 7, 1988. First round games were played at home team campus sites while all 'Final Four' matches were held, for the first time, at the Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. This was the first year in the tournament's history that the championship game was held at a neutral site which it would continue to do henceforward (as of 2014). By winning the tournament, Wisconsin was awarded the Broadmoor Trophy and received the WCHA's automatic bid to the 1988 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.
Additionally, this was the first season that the WCHA named a tournament MVP as well as an All-Tournament Team.

## Format

The first round of the postseason tournament featured a best-of-three games format. Teams were seeded No. 1 through No. 8 according to their final conference standing, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with an identical number of points accumulated. The top four seeded teams each earned home ice and hosted one of the lower seeded teams.
The winners of the first round series advanced to the semifinal and championship rounds held at the Civic Center. All Final Four games used a single-elimination format. Teams were re-seeded No. 1 through No. 4 according to the final regular season conference standings, with the top remaining seed matched against lowest remaining seed in one semifinal game while the two other semifinalists meeting with the winners advancing to the championship game and the losers competing in a Third Place contest. The Tournament Champion received an automatic bid to the 1988 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
1987–88 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† | 35 | 28 | 7 | 0 | 56 | 167 | 107 | 44 | 34 | 10 | 0 | 209 | 125 |
| Wisconsin* | 35 | 22 | 12 | 1 | 45 | 163 | 125 | 45 | 30 | 13 | 2 | 205 | 161 |
| Denver | 35 | 19 | 14 | 2 | 40 | 169 | 152 | 39 | 20 | 17 | 2 | 184 | 170 |
| Michigan Tech | 35 | 19 | 15 | 1 | 39 | 165 | 158 | 41 | 20 | 20 | 1 | 189 | 188 |
| North Dakota | 35 | 16 | 18 | 1 | 33 | 147 | 140 | 42 | 21 | 20 | 1 | 174 | 160 |
| Minnesota-Duluth | 35 | 15 | 18 | 2 | 32 | 143 | 155 | 41 | 18 | 21 | 2 | 163 | 179 |
| Northern Michigan | 35 | 14 | 17 | 4 | 32 | 145 | 147 | 40 | 16 | 20 | 4 | 164 | 159 |
| Colorado College | 35 | 3 | 31 | 1 | 7 | 102 | 206 | 38 | 4 | 33 | 1 | 111 | 222 |
| Championship: Wisconsin † indicates conference regular season champion * indicates conference tournament champion |||||||||||||||

## Bracket

Teams are reseeded after the first round
| First Round February 25–28 | First Round February 25–28 | First Round February 25–28 | First Round February 25–28 | First Round February 25–28 | | | Semifinals March 6 | Semifinals March 6 | Semifinals March 6 | Championship March 7 | Championship March 7 | Championship March 7 |
| 1 | Minnesota | 7 | 5 | — | | | | | | | | |
| 8 | Colorado College | 0 | 0 | — | | | | | | | | |
| 8 | Colorado College | 0 | 0 | — | | | 1 | Minnesota | 6 | | | |
| | | | | | | | 6 | Minnesota-Duluth | 1 | | | |
| 2 | Wisconsin | 2* | 5 | — | | | 6 | Minnesota-Duluth | 1 | | | |
| 7 | Northern Michigan | 1 | 4 | — | | | | | | | | |
| 7 | Northern Michigan | 1 | 4 | — | | | | | | 1 | Minnesota | 2 |
| (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | 1 | Minnesota | 2 |
| (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | (Pairings are reseeded after the first round) | 2 | Wisconsin | 3 |
| 3 | Denver | 2 | 3 | — | | | | | | | | | 2 | Wisconsin | 3 |
| 6 | Minnesota-Duluth | 5 | 7 | — | | | | | |
| 6 | Minnesota-Duluth | 5 | 7 | — | | | 2 | Wisconsin | 2 | Third place | Third place | Third place |
| | | | | | | | 5 | North Dakota | 1 |
| 4 | Michigan Tech | 4 | 6 | 3 | | | 5 | North Dakota | 1 | 5 | North Dakota | 6 |
| 5 | North Dakota | 5 | 3 | 4* | | | | | | 6 | Minnesota-Duluth | 0 |
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

### First round
#### (1) Minnesota vs. (8) Colorado College

* Minnesota won series 2–0

#### (2) Wisconsin vs. (7) Northern Michigan

* Wisconsin won series 2–0

#### (3) Denver vs. (6) Minnesota-Duluth

* Minnesota-Duluth won series 2–0

#### (4) Michigan Tech vs. (5) North Dakota

* North Dakota won series 2–1

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

* F Neil Eisenhut (North Dakota)
* F Paul Ranheim (Wisconsin)
* F Steve Tuttle (Wisconsin)
* D Randy Skarda (Minnesota)
* D Paul Stanton (Wisconsin)
* G Dean Anderson* (Wisconsin)
* Most Valuable Player(s)