Quarterfinal games were played at home team campus sites, while the final four games were, for the first time, played at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island.
This was the final year the Hockey East championship was decided at a venue outside of the state of Massachusetts (as of 2014).
By winning the tournament, Boston University received the Hockey East's automatic bid to the 1986 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.
In the semifinals, the first seed was matched against the lowest remaining quarterfinalist while the other remaining quarterfinalists met in a single-elimination game with the winners advancing to the championship game and the losers meeting in a third-place game.
Note: GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; PTS = Points; GF = Goals For; GA = Goals Against [4] Teams are reseeded after the quarterfinals Note: * denotes overtime period(s)