With the conclusion of the WCHA regular season last weekend, the first round of the women's Western Collegiate Hockey Association Playoffs, a best-of-three series format, get underway next Friday (Feb. 24) at No. 1 tournament seed Wisconsin, No. 2 seed Minnesota, No. 3 seed North Dakota and No. 4 seed Minnesota Duluth. Game two of each series will be played on Saturday (Feb. 25) while any game threes, if necessary, will be contested on Sunday (Feb. 26).

The games at Ridder Arena will be played at 7:07 p.m. on Friday (Feb. 24), 4:07 p.m. on Saturday (Feb. 25), and if a third game is needed, it will be played at 4:07 p.m. on Sunday (Feb. 26). Tickets are available here.

WCHA regular season champion Wisconsin (29-3-2) will host No. 8 seed Minnesota State (7-26-1) at Eagle's Nest in Verona, Wis. Regular season runner-up Minnesota (27-5-2) will entertain No. 7 St. Cloud State (5-27-2) at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, North Dakota (20-10-3) will host No. 6 Bemidji State (17-15-3) at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, and Minnesota Duluth (18-13-1) will go up against No. 5 Ohio State (16-14-4) at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth.

Following next week's four first-round playoff series, the four winners will advance to the 2012 WCHA FINAL FACE-OFF championship, set for March 2-3 at AMSOIL Arena.

The full press release from the WCHA is available here. 

Click here for WCHA Standings.