2016 WCHA men's ice hockey tournament

The 2016 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 57th conference playoff in league history and 62nd season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The 2016 tournament was played between March 11 and March 19, 2016, at four conference arenas and the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan. By winning the tournament, Ferris State was awarded the Broadmoor Trophy and received the WCHA's automatic bid to the 2016 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.

2016 WCHA Men's ice hockey tournament
Dates	March 11–19, 2016
Teams	8
Finals site	Van Andel Arena Grand Rapids, Michigan
Champions	Ferris State (1st title)
Winning coach	Bob Daniels (1st title)
MVP	Darren Smith (Ferris State)
WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments ← 2015 2017 →

This was the last WCHA tournament where an All-Tournament Team was named. This is also the only year with an All-Tournament Team where the Tournament MVP was not also named to the All-Tournament Team.^[1]

Format

The first round of the postseason tournament features a best-of-three games format. The top eight conference teams participate in the tournament. Teams are 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 earn home ice and host one of the lower seeded teams.

The winners of the first round series advance to the Van Andel Arena for the WCHA Final Five, a holdover from previous tournaments where it was used as the collective name of the quarterfinal, semifinal, and championship rounds. The Final Five uses a single-elimination format. Teams are re-seeded No. 1 through No. 4 according to the final regular season conference standings.^[2]

Conference standings

Note: GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; PTS = Points; GF = Goals For; GA = Goals Against

2015–16 Western Collegiate Hockey Association standings v t e
	Conference record								Overall record
	GP	W	L	T	PTS	GF	GA		GP	W	L	T	GF	GA
#12 Michigan Tech †	28	18	7	3	39	92	55		37	23	9	5	123	77
#15 Minnesota State †	28	16	5	7	39	82	48		41	21	13	7	105	80
Bowling Green	28	16	7	5	37	81	59		42	22	14	6	118	91
Ferris State*	28	13	11	4	30	73	70		41	20	15	6	112	109
Northern Michigan	28	12	11	5	29	65	69		38	15	16	7	89	99
Bemidji State	28	11	12	5	27	66	66		39	17	16	6	96	96
Lake Superior State	28	10	13	5	25	49	71		41	14	22	5	74	105
Alaska	28	8	16	4	20	65	87		36	10	22	4	86	117
Alaska Anchorage	28	8	18	2	18	63	84		34	11	20	3	81	103
Alabama–Huntsville	28	5	17	6	16	61	88		34	7	21	6	73	106
Championship: Ferris State † indicates conference regular season champion (MacNaughton Cup); * indicates conference tournament champion (Broadmoor Trophy) Rankings: USCHO.com Top 20 Poll; updated March 8, 2016

Bracket

Teams are reseeded after the first round

	First round March 11–13							Semifinals March 18					Championship March 19
	1	Michigan Tech	7	5	—
	8	Alaska	1	3	—
								1	Michigan Tech	0
								4	Ferris State	1
	2	Minnesota State	5	0	3
	7	Lake Superior State	2	2	0
													4	Ferris State	2
	(Pairings are reseeded after the first round)
													2	Minnesota State	1
	3	Bowling Green	1	7	3
	6	Bemidji State	3	2	1
								2	Minnesota State	2
								3	Bowling Green	1
	4	Ferris State	3	5	—
	5	Northern Michigan	2	2	—

Note: * denotes overtime periods

Results

First round

All times are local.

(1) Michigan Tech vs. (8) Alaska

March 11, 2016 7:07 pm CDT

(8) Alaska

1 – 7 (1–2, 0–3, 0–2)

(1) Michigan Tech

MacInnes Student Ice Arena, Houghton, MI Attendance: 2,709

Game reference
	Davis Jones (40:00) Jesse Jenks (20:00)	Goalies	Jamie Phillips	Referees: Mike Elam Dan Kovarik Linesmen: Eric Froberg Dan Juopperi
	0 – 1 8:36 – Joel L'Esperance (Gould, Watson) Tyler Morley – 11:05 1 – 1 1 – 2 13:29 – Dylan Steman (Petan, Watson) 1 – 3 4:05 – Jake Lucchini (Vallis, Roy) 1 – 4 13:12 – Joel L'Esperance (Heinonen, Steman) 1 – 5 14:28 – Alex Gillies (Lucchini, Hanna) 1 – 6 7:38 – Cliff Watson (Heinonen, Steman) 1 – 7 15:24 – C.J. Eick (Petan, Watson)
	8 min	Penalties	8 min
	21	Shots	42

March 12, 2016 7:07 pm CDT

(8) Alaska

3 – 5 (1–2, 2–2, 0–1)

(1) Michigan Tech

MacInnes Student Ice Arena, Houghton, MI Attendance: 3,018

Game reference
	Davis Jones	Goalies	Jamie Phillips	Referees: Mike Elam Dan Kovarik Linesmen: Eric Froberg Dan Juopperi
	Chad Staley (Erickson, Morley) – 2:27 1 – 0 1 – 1 12:09 – Alex Petan 1 – 2 12:40 – Reid Sturos (Vallis, Neville) 1 – 3 3:48 – Alex Gillies (Baltus, Auk) 1 – 4 4:39 – Joel L'Esperance (Eick, Vallis) Tyler Morley (Atkinson, Woods) – pp – 11:46 2 – 4 Marcus Basara (Atkinson, Huysmans) – pp – 17:23 3 – 4 3 – 5 19:25 – en – Malcolm Gould
	8 min	Penalties	8 min
	24	Shots	40

(2) Minnesota State vs. (7) Lake Superior State

March 11, 2016 7:07 pm CDT

(7) Lake Superior State

2 – 5

(2) Minnesota State

March 12, 2016 7:07 pm CDT

(7) Lake Superior State

2 – 0

(2) Minnesota State

March 13, 2016 7:07 pm CDT

(7) Lake Superior State

0 – 3

(2) Minnesota State

(3) Bowling Green vs. (6) Bemidji State

March 11, 2016 7:07 pm CDT

(6) Bemidji State

3 – 1

(3) Bowling Green

March 12, 2016 7:07 pm CDT

(6) Bemidji State

2 – 7

(3) Bowling Green

March 13, 2016 7:07 pm CDT

(6) Bemidji State

1 – 3

(3) Bowling Green

(4) Ferris State vs. (5) Northern Michigan

March 11, 2016 7:07 pm CDT

(5) Northern Michigan

2 – 3

(4) Ferris State

March 12, 2016 7:07 pm CDT

(5) Northern Michigan

2 – 5

(4) Ferris State

Semifinals

All times are local (UTC−4).

(3) Bowling Green vs. (2) Minnesota State

March 18, 2016 4:07 pm EDT

(3) Bowling Green

1 – 2 (0–2, 0–0, 1–0)

(2) Minnesota State

Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, Michigan Attendance: 5,044

Game reference
	Chris Nell	Goalies	Cole Huggins	Referees: Pete Friesema Tony Czech Linesmen: Dan Juopperi Eric Froberg
	0 – 1 5:18 – Brad McClure (Brickley) 0 – 2 7:00 – Casey Nelson (Franklin, Knutson) Mitchell McLain (Pohlkamp, Cooper) – pp – 16:05 1 – 2
	12 min	Penalties	8 min
	24	Shots	23

(4) Ferris State vs. (1) Michigan Tech

March 18, 2016 7:37 pm EDT

(4) Ferris State

1 – 0 (0–0, 0–0, 1–0)

(1) Michigan Tech

Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, Michigan Attendance: 5,044

Game reference
	Darren Smith	Goalies	Jamie Phillips	Referees: Tony Czech Chris Perrault Linesmen: Rick Nelson Matt Tyree
	Kenny Babinski (Dorantes, O'Rourke) – 11:15 1 – 0
	8 min	Penalties	12 min
	33	Shots	30

Championship

All times are local (UTC−4).

(4) Ferris State vs. (2) Minnesota State

March 19, 2016 6:07 pm EDT

(4) Ferris State

2 – 1 (1–1, 1–0, 0–0)

(2) Minnesota State

Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, Michigan Attendance: 4,048

Game reference
	Darren Smith	Goalies	Cole Huggins	Referees: Tony Czech Chris Perrault Linesmen: Rick Nelson Matt Tyree
	0 – 1 10:33 – pp – Bryce Gervais (McClure, Jutzi) Brandon Anselmini (Lowney, Dorantes) – pp – 14:55 1 – 1 Gerald Mayhew – ps – 19:34 2 – 1
	27 min	Penalties	31 min
	29	Shots	14

Tournament awards

All-Tournament Team

• F Kenny Babinski (Ferris State)
• F Gerald Mayhew (Ferris State)
• F Brad McClure (Minnesota State)
• D Brandon Anselmini (Ferris State)
• D Casey Nelson (Minnesota State)
• G Cole Huggins (Minnesota State)

Most Valuable Player

G Darren Smith (Ferris State)