# 2002 WCHA men's ice hockey tournament

The 2002 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 43rd conference playoff in league history and 49th season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The 2002 tournament was played between March 8 and March 16, 2002, at five conference arenas and the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, the home of the NHL's Minnesota Wild. By winning the tournament, Denver was awarded the Broadmoor Trophy and received the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's automatic bid to the 2002 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 schools participated in the tournament with teams 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. 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
2001–02 Western Collegiate Hockey Association standingsvte :
| | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall |
| | GP | W | L | T | PTS | GF | GA | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA |
| #5 Denver†* | 28 | 21 | 6 | 1 | 43 | 108 | 63 | 41 | 32 | 8 | 1 | 158 | 86 |
| #10 St. Cloud State | 28 | 19 | 7 | 2 | 40 | 117 | 65 | 42 | 29 | 11 | 2 | 179 | 99 |
| #1 Minnesota | 28 | 18 | 7 | 3 | 39 | 113 | 84 | 44 | 32 | 8 | 4 | 197 | 119 |
| #7 Colorado College | 28 | 16 | 10 | 2 | 34 | 95 | 74 | 43 | 27 | 13 | 3 | 147 | 97 |
| Wisconsin | 28 | 12 | 13 | 3 | 27 | 88 | 90 | 39 | 16 | 19 | 4 | 123 | 120 |
| Minnesota State-Mankato | 28 | 11 | 15 | 2 | 24 | 84 | 107 | 38 | 16 | 20 | 2 | 124 | 138 |
| Alaska-Anchorage | 28 | 10 | 14 | 4 | 24 | 79 | 96 | 36 | 12 | 19 | 5 | 99 | 125 |
| North Dakota | 28 | 11 | 15 | 2 | 24 | 103 | 100 | 37 | 16 | 19 | 2 | 134 | 136 |
| Minnesota-Duluth | 28 | 6 | 19 | 3 | 15 | 72 | 112 | 40 | 13 | 24 | 3 | 119 | 153 |
| Michigan Tech | 28 | 4 | 22 | 2 | 10 | 66 | 134 | 38 | 8 | 28 | 2 | 92 | 177 |
| Championship: Denver † indicates conference regular season champion * indicates conference tournament champion Final rankings: USA Today/American Hockey Magazine Poll Top 15 Poll |||||||||||||||

## Bracket

Teams are reseeded after the first round
| First round March 8–9 | First round March 8–9 | First round March 8–9 | First round March 8–9 | First round March 8–9 | Quarterfinal March 14 | Quarterfinal March 14 | Quarterfinal March 14 | Semifinals March 15 | Semifinals March 15 | Semifinals March 15 | Championship March 16 | Championship March 16 | Championship March 16 |
| 1 | Denver | 5 | 8 | – | | | | | | | | | |
| 10 | Michigan Tech | 1 | 1 | – | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | 1 | Denver | 3 | | | |
| 2 | St. Cloud State | 5* | 6 | – | 4 | Colorado College | 3* | 4 | Colorado College | 0 | | | |
| 9 | Minnesota-Duluth | 4 | 3 | – | 5 | Wisconsin | 2 | | | | | | |
| 3 | Minnesota | 7 | 4* | – | | | | | | | 1 | Denver | 5 |
| 8 | North Dakota | 4 | 3 | – | | | | | | | 3 | Minnesota | 2 |
| 4 | Colorado College | 6 | 1 | — | | | | | | | | | |
| 7 | Alaska-Anchorage | 1 | 0 | — | | | | 2 | | | | St. Cloud State | 1 |
| | | | | | | | | 3 | Minnesota | 4 | | | |
| 5 | Wisconsin | 3* | 7 | — | | | | | | | | | |
| 6 | Minnesota State-Mankato | 2 | 3 | — | | | | | | | | | |
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

### First round
#### (1) Denver vs. (10) Michigan Tech

* Denver won series 2–0

#### (2) St. Cloud State vs. (9) Minnesota-Duluth

* St. Cloud State won series 2–0

#### (3) Minnesota vs. (8) North Dakota

* Minnesota won series 2–0

#### (4) Minnesota State vs. (7) Alaska-Anchorage

* Colorado College won series 2–0

#### (5) Wisconsin vs. (6) Minnesota State-Mankato

* Wisconsin won series 2–0

### Championship
#### (1) Denver vs. (3) Minnesota
## Tournament awards
### All-Tournament Team

* F Troy Riddle (Minnesota)
* F Chris Paradise (Denver)
* F Mark Cullen (Colorado College)
* D Jordan Leopold (Minnesota)
* D Ryan Caldwell (Denver)
* G Wade Dubielewicz* (Denver)
* Most Valuable Player(s)