It was held between March 21 and 29, 1986, and concluded with Michigan State defeating Harvard 6-5.
All Quarterfinals matchups were held at home team venues while all succeeding games were played at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island.
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.
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 Providence Civic Center and all series became Single-game eliminations.