2008 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament

2008 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament

2008 WCHA Final Five logo
Dates March 14–22, 2008
Teams 10
Finals site Xcel Energy Center
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Champions Denver (15th title)
Winning coach George Gwozdecky (4th title)
MVP Alex Kangas (Minnesota)
WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments

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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.

Contents

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

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

Conference Overall
GP W L T PTS GF GA GP W L T GF GA
#8 Colorado College† 28 21 6 1 43 95 52 41 28 12 1 136 88
#4 North Dakota 28 18 7 3 39 85 53 43 28 11 4 129 80
#9 Denver* 28 16 11 1 33 75 67 41 26 14 1 116 94
#15 Minnesota State 28 12 12 4 28 71 75 39 19 16 4 106 97
#14 St. Cloud State 28 12 12 4 28 79 74 40 19 16 5 118 94
#13 Wisconsin 28 11 12 5 27 68 68 40 16 17 7 114 102
#12 Minnesota 28 9 12 7 25 64 70 45 19 17 9 109 109
Minnesota–Duluth 28 9 14 5 23 55 76 36 13 17 6 74 91
Michigan Tech 28 9 15 4 22 55 77 39 14 20 5 78 99
Alaska–Anchorage 28 3 19 6 12 54 89 36 7 21 8 81 112
Championship: Denver
† indicates conference regular season champion
* indicates conference tournament champion
Final rankings: USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Top 15 Poll

Tiebreakers

Bracket

  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 — 4  St. Cloud State 2     5  Minnesota 2*  
  5  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 —     5  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)

Awards

All-Tournament Team

Most Valuable Player

See also

References

General

"2008 WCHA Tournament". Inside College Hockey. http://insidecollegehockey.com/6History/wcha_08.htm. 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. http://wcha.cstv.com/sports/m-hockey/spec-rel/031008aac.html. Retrieved 2008-03-22. 
  2. ^ "Minnesota Earns Back-to-Back WCHA Championships as Golden Gophers Down MTU". WCHA. 2007-03-07. http://wcha.cstv.com/sports/m-hockey/spec-rel/030307aaa.html. Retrieved 2008-03-22. 
  3. ^ "Minnesota State Mavericks: 2007-2008 Men's Hockey Schedule/Results". USCHO. Archived from the original on 2007-12-21. http://web.archive.org/web/20071221233107/http://www.uscho.com/schedules/team.php/minnesota-state-mavericks/mens-college-hockey/season,20072008/team,mnst/gender,m.html. Retrieved 2008-03-22. 

External links