The 2012 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was played between March 9 and March 17, 2012 at six conference arenas and the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. North Dakota received the Broadmoor Trophy as the tournament's champions and was awarded the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's automatic bid to the 2012 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.
Format
The first round of the postseason tournament features a best-of-three games format. All twelve conference teams participate in the tournament. Teams are seeded No. 1 through No. 12 according to their final conference standing, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with an identical number of points accumulated. The top six seeded teams each earn home ice and host one of the lower seeded teams.
The winners of the first round series advance to the Xcel Energy 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 are re-seeded No. 1 through No. 6 according to the final regular season conference standings, with the top two teams automatically advancing to the semifinals. All Final Five games will be broadcast by Fox Sports North and carried by Root Sports Rocky Mountain and Fox College Sports Central.
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 periods
Results
First round
(1) Minnesota vs. (12) Alaska-Anchorage
(2) Minnesota-Duluth vs. (11) Minnesota State
(3) Denver vs. (10) Wisconsin
(4) North Dakota vs. (9) Bemidji State
(5) Colorado College vs. (8) Michigan Tech
(6) St. Cloud State vs. (7) Nebraska-Omaha
Quarterfinals
(3) Denver vs. (8) Michigan Tech
(4) North Dakota vs. (6) St. Cloud State
Semifinals
(1) Minnesota vs. (4) North Dakota
(2) Minnesota-Duluth vs. (3) Denver
Championship
(3) Denver vs. (4) North Dakota
Tournament awards
All-Tournament Team
F Mario Lamoureux (North Dakota) F Brock Nelson (North Dakota) F Jason Zucker (Denver) D Derek Forbort (North Dakota) D Andrew MacWilliams (North Dakota) G Aaron Dell* (North Dakota) * Most Valuable Player(s)
References
External links
Western Collegiate Hockey Association
'Second Season' Gets Underway Friday with Six First Round Men's WCHA Playoff Series