2008 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament

The 2008 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was played between March 14 and March 22, 2008 at five conference arenas and the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. By winning the tournament, Denver was awarded the Broadmoor Trophy and received the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's automatic bid to the 2008 NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey Tournament.

Format

The first round of the postseason tournament featured a best-of-three games format. All ten conference teams participated in the tournament. Teams were seeded No. 1 through No. 10 according to their final conference standing, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with an identical number of points accumulated.[1] The top five seeded teams each earned home ice and hosted one of the lower seeded teams.

The winners of the first round series advanced to the Xcel Energy Center for the WCHA Final Five, the collective name for the quarterfinal, semifinal, and championship rounds. The Final Five uses a single-elimination format. Teams were re-seeded No. 1 through No. 5 according to the final regular season conference standings, with the top three teams automatically advancing to the semifinals.

Conference Standings

Colorado College versus the University of Minnesota

Note: GP = Games Played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; PTS = Points; GF = Goals For; GA = Goals Against

2007–08 Western Collegiate Hockey Association standings
Conference Overall
GP W L T PTS GF GA GP W L T GF GA
#8 Colorado College282161439552412812113688
#4 North Dakota281873398553432811412980
#9 Denver*2816111337567412614111694
#15 Minnesota State2812124287175391916410697
#14 St. Cloud State2812124287974401916511894
#13 Wisconsin28111252768684016177114102
#12 Minnesota2891272564704519179109109
Minnesota–Duluth28914523557636131767491
Michigan Tech28915422557739142057899
Alaska–Anchorage28319612548936721881112
Championship: Denver
indicates conference regular season champion
* indicates conference tournament champion
Final rankings: USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Top 15 Poll

Tiebreakers

  • Minnesota State and St. Cloud State each finished the regular season with 28 points. Minnesota State won the tiebreaker, having the better head-to-head record of the two teams.[2][3]

Bracket

Teams are reseeded after the first round

  First round
March 14–16, 2008
Quarterfinal
March 20, 2008
Semifinals
March 21, 2008
Championship
March 22, 2008
                                         
  1 Colorado College 4 3*   1 Colorado College 1  
10 Alaska-Anchorage 1 2 5 St. Cloud State 2     7 Minnesota 2*  
  7 Minnesota 3  
  2 North Dakota 4 2 2
9 Michigan Tech 0 3* 1
  3 Denver 6 1     3 Denver 2
8 Minnesota-Duluth 3 0     7 Minnesota 1
  4 Minnesota State 1** 1 2
7 Minnesota 0 2* 3**
Third place
  5 St. Cloud State 3 4* 2 North Dakota 1
6 Wisconsin 0 3 3 Denver 3   1 Colorado College 2
2 North Dakota 4

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

(1) Colorado College vs. (10) Alaska-Anchorage

Colorado College won series 2–0

(2) North Dakota vs. (9) Michigan Tech

North Dakota won series 2–1

(3) Denver vs. (8) Minnesota–Duluth

Denver won series 2–0

(4) Minnesota State vs. (7) Minnesota

Minnesota won series 2–1

(5) St. Cloud State vs. (6) Wisconsin

St. Cloud State won series 2–0

(5) St. Cloud State vs. (7) Minnesota

(1) Colorado College vs. (7) Minnesota

(2) North Dakota vs. (3) Denver

(1) Colorado College vs. (2) North Dakota

(3) Denver vs. (7) Minnesota

Tournament awards

Members of the Denver Pioneers celebrating their tournament victory

All-Tournament Team

[4]

MVP

Alex Kangas, (Minnesota)

See also

References

General

"2008 WCHA Tournament". Inside College Hockey. Archived from the original on 16 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-22.

Specific
  1. "First Round WCHA Playoffs Set for March 14-16; Colorado College Reigns as 2007-08 WCHA Champion". WCHA. 2008-03-10. Retrieved 2008-03-22.
  2. "Minnesota Earns Back-to-Back WCHA Championships as Golden Gophers Down MTU". WCHA. 2007-03-07. Archived from the original on 2007-06-18. Retrieved 2008-03-22.
  3. "Minnesota State Mavericks: 2007-2008 Men's Hockey Schedule/Results". USCHO. Archived from the original on 2007-12-21. Retrieved 2008-03-22.
  4. "2009-10 WCHA Yearbook 129-144" (PDF). WCHA. Retrieved 2014-06-01.
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