The first round of the postseason tournament features a best-of-three games format.

8 according to their final conference standing, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with an identical number of points accumulated.

The winners of the first round series advance to the Xcel Energy Center for the NCHC Frozen Faceoff.

[1] Game 1 of the series between Western Michigan and Colorado College was delayed 1 day due to the effects from Winter Storm Ulmer.

[2] Teams are reseeded for the Semifinals * denotes overtime periods All times are local.