The 1966 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 7th conference playoff in league history. The tournament was played between March 3 and March 5, 1966. All games were played at home team campus sites. By being declared as co-champions, both Michigan State and Denver were invited to participate in the 1966 NCAA University Division Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.
| 1966 WCHA Men's ice hockey tournament | |
|---|---|
| Dates | March 3–5, 1966 |
| Teams | 8 |
| Finals site | Dee Stadium Houghton, Michigan DU Arena Denver, Colorado |
| Champions | Michigan State†[1] (1st title) Denver‡[2] (5th title) |
| Winning coach | Amo Bessone[3] (1st title) Murray Armstrong[4] (5th title) |
WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments | |
Though not official designations, Michigan State is considered as the East Regional Champion† and Denver as the West Regional Champion‡.
Format
editAll eight teams in the WCHA were eligible for the tournament. In the first round the schools were matched up based upon regional location, having the schools closest to one another play a single game with the winners advancing to the second round. The two Colorado schools (Colorado College and Denver) met in one match, leaving North Dakota to play their closest geographic rival Minnesota. With the Gophers occupied Minnesota-Duluth's next closest opponent was Michigan Tech, leaving Michigan and Michigan State as the pair in the final First Round game. This format was to be used for the following season as well with each team in the first round matches serving as the home team once. Denver was the only higher seed to play a road game in the first round but was guaranteed to be the home team the following season. After the first round the two easternmost remaining teams met in the home venues of Michigan Tech (Dee Stadium) while the two westernmost schools met at Denver's home building (DU Arena). In the second round the first and fourth seeds and the second and third seeds were matched with the winners being declared as co-conference tournament champions.
Conference standings
editNote: GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; PCT = Winning percentage; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against
| Conference | Overall | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | W | L | T | PCT | GF | GA | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA | ||
| Michigan Tech† | 20 | 15 | 4 | 1 | .775 | 77 | 48 | 30 | 23 | 6 | 1 | 141 | 82 | |
| North Dakota | 22 | 13 | 9 | 0 | .591 | 97 | 85 | 30 | 17 | 12 | 1 | 135 | 115 | |
| Minnesota | 22 | 13 | 9 | 0 | .591 | 92 | 76 | 27 | 16 | 11 | 0 | 117 | 94 | |
| Denver* | 20 | 10 | 7 | 3 | .575 | 81 | 61 | 32 | 18 | 11 | 3 | 137 | 100 | |
| Michigan | 18 | 9 | 9 | 0 | .500 | 74 | 72 | 28 | 14 | 14 | 0 | 125 | 109 | |
| Michigan State* | 20 | 9 | 11 | 0 | .450 | 88 | 85 | 29 | 16 | 13 | 0 | 123 | 111 | |
| Colorado College | 18 | 4 | 12 | 2 | .278 | 51 | 93 | 29 | 9 | 18 | 2 | 98 | 147 | |
| Minnesota-Duluth | 20 | 3 | 15 | 2 | .200 | 60 | 100 | 28 | 7 | 19 | 2 | 96 | 137 | |
| Championship: Michigan State, Denver † indicates conference regular season champion * indicates conference tournament champion | ||||||||||||||
Bracket
edit[6] Eastern Teams advanced to one final while western teams advanced to the other
| First Round March 3 | Second Round March 5 | ||||||||
| 1 | Michigan Tech | 9 | |||||||
| 8 | Minnesota-Duluth | 3 | |||||||
| 2 | North Dakota | 4 | |||||||
| 4 | Denver | 5* | |||||||
| 2 | North Dakota | 4 | |||||||
| 3 | Minnesota | 3 | |||||||
| 4 | Denver | 8 | |||||||
| 7 | Colorado College | 2 | |||||||
| 1 | Michigan Tech | 3 | |||||||
| 6 | Michigan State | 4 | |||||||
| 5 | Michigan | 2 | |||||||
| 6 | Michigan State | 3 | |||||||
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
First round
edit(1) Michigan Tech vs. (8) Minnesota-Duluth
edit| March 3 | Michigan Tech | 9 – 3 | Minnesota-Duluth | Dee Stadium | ||||
(2) North Dakota vs. (3) Minnesota
edit| March 3 | North Dakota | 4 – 3 | Minnesota | Winter Sports Building | ||||
(4) Denver vs. (7) Colorado College
edit| March 3 | Colorado College | 2 – 8 | Denver | Broadmoor World Arena | ||||
(5) Michigan vs. (6) Michigan State
edit| March 3 | Michigan | 2 – 3 | Michigan State | Weinberg Coliseum | ||||
Second round
edit(1) Michigan Tech vs. (6) Michigan State
edit| March 5 | Michigan Tech | 3 – 4 | Michigan State | Demonstration Hall | ||||
(2) North Dakota vs. (4) Denver
edit| March 5 | Denver | 5 – 4 | OT | North Dakota | DU Arena | |||
Tournament awards
editNone
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Michigan State Men's Team History". Retrieved June 1, 2014.
- ^ "Denver Men's Team History". Retrieved June 1, 2014.
- ^ "Amo Bessone Year-by-Year Coaching Record". Retrieved June 1, 2014.
- ^ "Murray Armstrong Year-by-Year Coaching Record". Retrieved June 1, 2014.
- ^ "2009-10 WCHA Yearbook 97-112" (PDF). WCHA. Retrieved June 1, 2014.
- ^ "2009-10 WCHA Yearbook 129-144" (PDF). WCHA. Retrieved June 1, 2014.
External links
edit- WCHA.com
- 1965–66 WCHA Standings
- 1965–66 NCAA Standings
- 2013–14 Colorado College Tigers Media Guide
- 2013–14 Denver Pioneers Media Guide[permanent dead link]
- 2013–14 Michigan Wolverines Media Guide; Through the Years Archived 2014-07-14 at the Wayback Machine
- 2013–14 Michigan State Spartans Media Guide; Section 5 Archived 2014-05-13 at the Wayback Machine
- 2013–14 Minnesota Golden Gophers Media Guide Archived 2014-07-28 at the Wayback Machine
- 2012–13 Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs Media Guide
- 2013–14 North Dakota Hockey Media Guide