Four teams qualified for the tournament, two each from the eastern and western regions. The ECACtournament champion and the two WCHAtournament co-champions received automatic bids into the tournament. An at-large bid was offered to a second eastern team based upon both their ECAC tournament finish as well as their regular season record.
Despite winning the tournament the ECAC champion was not seeded as the top eastern team; this occurred because the at-large team played and won more games, both in conference and overall. The WCHA co-champion with the better regular season record was given the top western seed. The second eastern seed was slotted to play the top western seed and vice versa. All games were played at the Williams Arena. All matches were Single-game eliminations with the semifinal winners advancing to the national championship game and the losers playing in a consolation game.