# 2005 WCHA men's ice hockey tournament

The 2005 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 46th conference playoff in league history and 51st season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The 2005 tournament was played between March 11 and March 19, 2005, 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 WCHA's automatic bid to the NCAA 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: PTS = Points; GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GF = Goals For; GA = Goals Against
2004–05 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 |
| #1 Denver†* | 28 | 19 | 7 | 2 | 40 | 114 | 81 | 43 | 32 | 9 | 2 | 174 | 110 |
| #2 Colorado College† | 28 | 19 | 7 | 2 | 40 | 98 | 66 | 43 | 31 | 9 | 3 | 160 | 101 |
| #4 Minnesota | 28 | 17 | 10 | 1 | 35 | 105 | 80 | 44 | 28 | 15 | 1 | 155 | 109 |
| #13 Wisconsin | 28 | 16 | 9 | 3 | 35 | 94 | 64 | 41 | 23 | 14 | 4 | 127 | 91 |
| #3 North Dakota | 28 | 13 | 12 | 3 | 29 | 71 | 67 | 45 | 25 | 15 | 5 | 136 | 103 |
| Minnesota–Duluth | 28 | 11 | 13 | 4 | 26 | 90 | 89 | 38 | 15 | 17 | 6 | 119 | 118 |
| Alaska–Anchorage | 28 | 9 | 15 | 4 | 22 | 72 | 102 | 37 | 12 | 19 | 6 | 94 | 129 |
| Minnesota State–Mankato | 28 | 8 | 16 | 4 | 20 | 82 | 109 | 38 | 13 | 19 | 6 | 118 | 140 |
| St. Cloud State | 28 | 8 | 19 | 1 | 17 | 66 | 100 | 40 | 14 | 23 | 3 | 109 | 126 |
| Michigan Tech | 28 | 7 | 19 | 2 | 16 | 64 | 98 | 37 | 8 | 25 | 4 | 91 | 136 |
| Championship: Denver † indicates conference regular season champion * indicates conference tournament champion Final rankings: USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Top 15 Poll |||||||||||||||

## Bracket

Teams are reseeded after the first round
| First round March 11–13 | First round March 11–13 | First round March 11–13 | First round March 11–13 | First round March 11–13 | Quarterfinal March 17 | Quarterfinal March 17 | Quarterfinal March 17 | Semifinals March 18 | Semifinals March 18 | Semifinals March 18 | Championship March 19 | Championship March 19 | Championship March 19 |
| 1 | Denver | 7 | 1 | — | | | | | | | | | |
| 10 | Michigan Tech | 1 | 0 | — | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | 1 | Denver | 2* | | | |
| 2 | Colorado College | 8 | 4 | – | 4 | Wisconsin | 1 | 5 | North Dakota | 1 | | | |
| 9 | St. Cloud State | 2 | 2 | – | 5 | North Dakota | 3 | | | | | | |
| 3 | Minnesota | 7 | 5 | – | | | | | | | 1 | Denver | 1 |
| 8 | Minnesota State | 2 | 3 | – | | | | | | | 2 | Colorado College | 0 |
| 4 | Wisconsin | 5 | 1 | 2 | | | | | | | | | |
| 7 | Alaska-Anchorage | 4 | 2 | 1 | | | | 2 | | | | Colorado College | 3 |
| | | | | | | | | 3 | Minnesota | 0 | | | |
| 5 | North Dakota | 8 | 6 | – | | | | | | | | | |
| 6 | Minnesota-Duluth | 2 | 1 | – | | | | | | | | | |
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

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

* Denver won series 2–0

#### (2) Colorado College vs. (9) St. Cloud State

* Colorado College won series 2–0

#### (3) Minnesota vs. (8) Minnesota State

* Minnesota won series 2–0

#### (4) Wisconsin vs. (7) Alaska-Anchorage

* Wisconsin won series 2–1

#### (5) North Dakota vs. (6) Minnesota-Duluth

* North Dakota won series 2–0

### Championship
#### (1) Denver vs. (2) Colorado College
## Tournament awards
### All-Tournament Team

* F Rastislav Špirko (North Dakota)
* F Brett Sterling* (Colorado College)
* F Gabe Gauthier (Denver)
* D Nick Fuher (North Dakota)
* D Matt Laasch (Denver)
* G Curtis McElhinney (Colorado College)
* Most Valuable Player(s)