1987-88 WCHA season

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
==Bracket==
Teams are reseeded after the first round
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
===First Round===
====(1) Minnesota vs. (8) Colorado College====
====(2) Wisconsin vs. (7) Northern Michigan====
====(3) Denver vs. (6) Minnesota-Duluth====
====(4) Michigan Tech vs. (5) North Dakota====
===Semifinals===
====(1) Minnesota vs. (6) Minnesota-Duluth====
====(2) Wisconsin vs. (5) North Dakota====
===Third Place===
====(5) North Dakota vs. (6) Minnesota-Duluth====
===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)
==See also==
*Western Collegiate Hockey Association men's champions
==References==
==External links==
*WCHA.com
*1987–88 WCHA Standings
*1987–88 NCAA Standings
*2013–14 Colorado College Tigers Media Guide
*2013–14 Denver Pioneers Media Guide
*2013–14 Minnesota Golden Gophers Media Guide
*2012–13 Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs Media Guide
*2013–14 North Dakota Hockey Media Guide
*2006–07 Northern Michigan Wildcats Media Guide
*2003–04 Wisconsin Badgers Media Guide
Category:1988 in hockey
Category:Western Collegiate Hockey Association seasons