2008 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament | |||
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![]() 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.
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
Conference | Overall | |||||||||||||
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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 |
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[]
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[]

Members of the Denver Pioneers celebrating their tournament victory
All-Tournament Team[]
- G: Peter Mannino, Denver
- D: Chris Butlar, Denver
- D: Taylor Chorney, North Dakota
- F: Mike Hoeffel, Minnesota
- F: Tom May, Denver
- F: T. J. Oshie, North Dakota
Most Valuable Player[]
- G: Alex Kangas, Minnesota
See also[]
References[]
- General
2008 WCHA Tournament. Inside College Hockey. Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
- Specific
- ↑ First Round WCHA Playoffs Set for March 14-16; Colorado College Reigns as 2007-08 WCHA Champion. WCHA (2008-03-10). Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
- ↑ Minnesota Earns Back-to-Back WCHA Championships as Golden Gophers Down MTU. WCHA (2007-03-07). Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
- ↑ Minnesota State Mavericks: 2007-2008 Men's Hockey Schedule/Results. USCHO. Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
External links[]
WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments (Champions) |
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Broadmoor Trophy |