# 2001 WCHA men's ice hockey tournament

The 2001 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 42nd conference playoff in league history and 48th season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The 2001 tournament was played between March 9 and March 17, 2001, 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, St. Cloud State was awarded the Broadmoor Trophy and received the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's automatic bid to the 2001 NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey Tournament. This was the inaugural year in which the Xcel Energy Center hosted the WCHA final five and it remained there until the conclusion of the 2013 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
2000–01 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 |
| #2 North Dakota† | 28 | 18 | 4 | 6 | 42 | 115 | 80 | 46 | 29 | 8 | 9 | 183 | 121 |
| #5 St. Cloud State* | 28 | 20 | 8 | 0 | 40 | 111 | 69 | 41 | 31 | 9 | 1 | 168 | 94 |
| #9 Minnesota | 28 | 18 | 8 | 2 | 38 | 107 | 70 | 42 | 27 | 13 | 2 | 171 | 109 |
| #6 Colorado College | 28 | 17 | 11 | 0 | 34 | 106 | 81 | 41 | 27 | 13 | 1 | 150 | 108 |
| #8 Wisconsin | 28 | 14 | 10 | 4 | 32 | 81 | 86 | 41 | 22 | 15 | 4 | 133 | 129 |
| Denver | 28 | 14 | 11 | 3 | 31 | 84 | 78 | 38 | 19 | 15 | 4 | 116 | 104 |
| Minnesota State-Mankato | 28 | 13 | 14 | 1 | 27 | 91 | 99 | 38 | 19 | 18 | 1 | 128 | 135 |
| Michigan Tech | 28 | 6 | 19 | 3 | 15 | 69 | 105 | 36 | 8 | 24 | 4 | 91 | 135 |
| Alaska-Anchorage | 28 | 4 | 20 | 4 | 12 | 61 | 104 | 36 | 7 | 24 | 5 | 82 | 132 |
| Minnesota-Duluth | 28 | 3 | 22 | 3 | 9 | 68 | 121 | 39 | 7 | 28 | 4 | 103 | 166 |
| Championship: St. Cloud State † 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 9–11, 2001 | First round March 9–11, 2001 | First round March 9–11, 2001 | First round March 9–11, 2001 | First round March 9–11, 2001 | Quarterfinal March 15, 2001 | Quarterfinal March 15, 2001 | Quarterfinal March 15, 2001 | Semifinals March 16, 2001 | Semifinals March 16, 2001 | Semifinals March 16, 2001 | Championship March 17, 2001 | Championship March 17, 2001 | Championship March 17, 2001 |
| 1 | North Dakota | 2 | 6 | 4 | | | | | | | | | |
| 10 | Minnesota-Duluth | 3 | 2 | 0 | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | 1 | North Dakota | 2 | | | |
| 2 | St. Cloud State | 5 | 8 | – | 4 | Colorado College | 4 | 4 | Colorado College | 1 | | | |
| 9 | Alaska-Anchorage | 1 | 2 | – | 5 | Wisconsin | 3 | | | | | | |
| 3 | Minnesota | 7 | 3 | – | | | | | | | 1 | North Dakota | 5 |
| 8 | Michigan Tech | 2 | 1 | – | | | | | | | 2 | St. Cloud State | 6* |
| 4 | Colorado College | 3 | 7 | — | | | | | | | | | |
| 7 | Minnesota State-Mankato | 0 | 3 | — | | | | 2 | | | | St. Cloud State | 3 |
| | | | | | | | | 3 | Minnesota | 0 | | | |
| 5 | Wisconsin | 6 | 6 | — | | | | | | | | | |
| 6 | Denver | 4 | 2 | — | | | | | | | | | |
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

### Quarterfinals
#### (1) North Dakota vs. (10) Minnesota-Duluth

* North Dakota won series 2–1

#### (2) St. Cloud State vs. (9) Alaska-Anchorage

* St. Cloud State won series 2–0

#### (3) Minnesota vs. (8) Michigan Tech

* Minnesota won series 2–0

#### (4) Colorado College vs. (7) Minnesota State-Mankato

* Colorado College won series 2–0

#### (5) Wisconsin vs. (6) Denver

* Wisconsin won series 2–0

### Championship
#### (1) North Dakota vs. (2) St. Cloud State
## Tournament awards
### All-Tournament Team

* F Jeff Panzer (North Dakota)
* F Mark Cullen (Colorado College)
* F Tyler Arnason* (St. Cloud State)
* D Duvie Westcott (St. Cloud State)
* D Travis Roche (North Dakota)
* G Scott Meyer (St. Cloud State)
* Most Valuable Player(s)