1987 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament

The 1987 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament was the culmination of the 1986–87 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, the 40th such tournament in NCAA history. It was held between March 20 and 28, 1987, and concluded with North Dakota defeating Michigan State 5-3. All Quarterfinals matchups were held at home team venues while all succeeding games were played at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan.

Qualifying teams

The NCAA permitted 8 teams to qualify for the tournament and divided its qualifiers into two regions (East and West). Each of the tournament champions from the four Division I conferences (CCHA, ECAC, Hockey East and WCHA) received automatic invitations into the tournament with At-large bids making up the remaining 4 teams, 1 from each conference.

East							West
Seed	School	Conference	Record	Berth type	Appearance	Last bid	Seed	School	Conference	Record	Berth type	Appearance	Last bid
1	Boston College	Hockey East	30–7–0	Tournament champion	15th	1986	1	North Dakota	WCHA	36–8–0	Tournament champion	11th	1984
2	Harvard	ECAC Hockey	26–4–0	Tournament champion	12th	1986	2	Michigan State	CCHA	30–9–2	Tournament champion	9th	1986
3	Maine	Hockey East	24–14–2	At-large bid	1st	Never	3	Bowling Green	CCHA	33–8–2	At-large bid	6th	1984
4	St. Lawrence	ECAC Hockey	24–9–0	At-large bid	9th	1983	4	Minnesota	WCHA	32–12–1	At-large bid	14th	1986

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Format

The tournament featured three rounds of play. The two odd-number ranked teams from one region were placed into a bracket with the two even-number ranked teams of the other region. The teams were then seeded according to their ranking. In the Quarterfinals the first and fourth seeds and the second and third seeds played two-game aggregate series to determine which school advanced to the Semifinals. Beginning with the Semifinals all games were played at the Joe Louis Arena and all series became Single-game eliminations. The winning teams in the semifinals advanced to the National Championship Game with the losers playing in a Third Place game.

Tournament bracket

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	Quarterfinals March 20–21							Semifinals March 26–27					National championship March 28
	E1	Boston College	1	3	4
	W4	Minnesota	4	2	6
								W4	Minnesota	3
								W2	Michigan State	5
	W2	Michigan State	6	5	11
	E3	Maine	2	3	5
													W2	Michigan State	3
													W1	North Dakota	5
	W1	North Dakota	3	6	9
	E4	St. Lawrence	1	3	4
								W1	North Dakota	5			Third-place game
								E2	Harvard	2
	E2	Harvard	7	3	10								W4	Minnesota	6
	W3	Bowling Green	1	0	1								E2	Harvard	3

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

Quarterfinals

(E1) Boston College vs. (W4) Minnesota

March 20

Boston College

1 – 4

Minnesota

McHugh Forum

March 21

Boston College

3 – 2

Minnesota

McHugh Forum

Minnesota won series 6–4

(E2) Harvard vs. (W3) Bowling Green

March 20	Harvard		7 – 1		Bowling Green	Bright Hockey Center	Recap
(Caplan, Biotti) Steve Armstrong – 01:27 (Taylor, Bourbeau) Lane MacDonald – GW PP – 04:51 (Armstrong, Caplan) Don Sweeney – PP – 16:41		First period			No scoring
(unassisted) C. J. Young – 03:09 (Barakett, Sweeney) C. J. Young – 08:00 (MacDonald, Barakett) Allen Bourbeau – PP – 11:37		Second period			18:32 – PP – Iain Duncan (Emerson, Barber)
(Taylor, Bourbeau) Tim Barakett – PP – 11:07		Third period			No scoring
( 29 saves / 30 shots ) Dickie McEvoy		Goalie stats			Gary Kruzich ( 34 saves / 41 shots )

March 21

Harvard

3 – 0

Bowling Green

Bright Hockey Center

Harvard won series 10–1

(W1) North Dakota vs. (E4) St. Lawrence

March 20

North Dakota

3 – 1

St. Lawrence

Winter Sports Center

March 21

North Dakota

6 – 3

St. Lawrence

Winter Sports Center

North Dakota won series 9–4

(W2) Michigan State vs. (E3) Maine

March 20[3]	Michigan State		6 – 2		Maine	Munn Ice Arena
No scoring		First period			13:15 – Guy Perron (McHugh)
(Cole, Foster) Don McSween – 10:05 (unassisted) Tom Tilley – 16:41 (Kv. Miller, Hamilton) Bruce Rendall – GW – 18:07		Second period			No scoring
(Luongo, Shibicky) Mitch Messier – 07:31 (Gibson, Hoff) Brian McReynolds – 15:00 (Tilley, Ki. Miller) Kevin Miller – 15:33		Third period			02:38 – Guy Perron (Beers, Nonis)

March 21[3]	Michigan State		5 – 3		Maine	Munn Ice Arena
(Kv. Miller) Mitch Messier – 19:15		First period			No scoring
(Kv. Miller, Rendall) Kip Miller – 09:55 (Rendall, Shibicky) Mitch Messier – 15:12		Second period			09:32 – Steve Santini (D. Capuano, Baker)
(Messier, McSween) Dave Arkeilpane – GW – 15:36 (Cole, Luongo) Bobby Reynolds – 19:28		Third period			01:57 – Todd Jenkins (Nonis) 12:10 – Todd Jenkins (Nonis)

Michigan State won series 11–5

Semifinal

(W1) North Dakota vs. (E2) Harvard

March 26

North Dakota

5 – 2

Harvard

Joe Louis Arena

(W2) Michigan State vs. (W4) Minnesota

March 27[3]	Michigan State		5 – 3		Minnesota	Joe Louis Arena
(Kv. Miller, Hamilton) Mitch Messier – 01:39 (Reynolds, Luongo) Danton Cole – 04:16		First period			No scoring
(O'Toole, Cole) Neil Wilkinson – 10:05		Second period			01:08 – Corey Millen (Blue) 06:27 – Jay Cates (Chorske, Millen) 17:18 – Tom Chorske (unassisted)
(unassisted) Dave Arkeilpane – GW – 07:31 (Luongo) Bill Shibicky – 19:04		Third period			No scoring

Third-place game

(E2) Harvard vs. (W4) Minnesota

March 28

Harvard

3 – 6

Minnesota

Joe Louis Arena

National Championship

(W1) North Dakota vs. (W2) Michigan State

March 28[4]

North Dakota

5 – 3

Michigan State

Joe Louis Arena

Scoring summary
Period	Team	Goal	Assist(s)	Time	Score
1st	UND	Ian Kidd – PP	Joyce	15:07	1–0 UND
	UND	Murray Baron	Bowen and Kidd	16:44	2–0 UND
	UND	Bob Joyce	Kidd and Hrkac	17:02	3–0 UND
2nd	MSU	Tom Tilly	McReynolds and Messier	28:30	3–1 UND
	UND	Malcolm Parks – GW	Koberinski	35:05	4–1 UND
	MSU	Kevin Miller	unassisted	36:56	4–2 UND
3rd	UND	Brent Bobyck	Parent	47:54	5–2 UND
	MSU	Kip Miller	Miller	58:34	5–3 UND

All-Tournament team

• G: Ed Belfour (North Dakota)
• D: Ian Kidd (North Dakota)
• D: Chris Luongo (Michigan State)
• D: Don McSween (Michigan State)
• F: Tony Hrkac* (North Dakota)
• F: Bob Joyce (North Dakota)
• F: Corey Millen (Minnesota)

* Most Outstanding Player(s)^[5]

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References