# 2004 WCHA men's ice hockey tournament

The 2004 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 45th conference playoff in league history and 50th season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The 2004 tournament was played between March 12 and March 20, 2004, at five conference arenas and the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. By winning the tournament, Minnesota was awarded the Broadmoor Trophy and received the Western Collegiate Hockey Association'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
2003–04 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 North Dakota† | 28 | 20 | 5 | 3 | 43 | 122 | 62 | 41 | 30 | 8 | 3 | 182 | 90 |
| #4 Minnesota–Duluth | 28 | 19 | 7 | 2 | 40 | 119 | 71 | 45 | 28 | 13 | 4 | 185 | 123 |
| #8 Wisconsin | 28 | 14 | 7 | 7 | 35 | 85 | 62 | 43 | 22 | 13 | 8 | 123 | 93 |
| #1 Denver | 28 | 13 | 10 | 5 | 31 | 93 | 90 | 44 | 27 | 12 | 5 | 149 | 120 |
| #6 Minnesota* | 28 | 15 | 12 | 1 | 31 | 101 | 86 | 44 | 27 | 14 | 3 | 178 | 127 |
| St. Cloud State | 28 | 12 | 12 | 4 | 28 | 81 | 89 | 38 | 18 | 16 | 4 | 113 | 118 |
| #15 Colorado College | 28 | 11 | 15 | 2 | 24 | 77 | 75 | 39 | 20 | 16 | 3 | 126 | 98 |
| Alaska–Anchorage | 28 | 7 | 18 | 3 | 17 | 68 | 103 | 40 | 14 | 23 | 3 | 104 | 140 |
| Minnesota State | 28 | 6 | 18 | 4 | 16 | 83 | 139 | 39 | 10 | 24 | 5 | 124 | 179 |
| Michigan Tech | 28 | 6 | 19 | 3 | 15 | 66 | 118 | 38 | 8 | 25 | 5 | 97 | 161 |
| Championship: Minnesota † 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 12–14 | First round March 12–14 | First round March 12–14 | First round March 12–14 | First round March 12–14 | Quarterfinal March 18 | Quarterfinal March 18 | Quarterfinal March 18 | Semifinals March 19 | Semifinals March 19 | Semifinals March 19 | Championship March 20 | Championship March 20 | Championship March 20 |
| 1 | North Dakota | 6 | 4* | — | | | | | | | | | |
| 10 | Michigan Tech | 2 | 3 | — | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | 1 | North Dakota | 4 | | | |
| 2 | Minnesota-Duluth | 3 | 6 | 6 | 7 | Colorado College | 1 | 8 | Alaska-Anchorage | 2 | | | |
| 9 | Minnesota State | 4* | 2 | 5 | 8 | Alaska-Anchorage | 4 | | | | | | |
| 3 | Wisconsin | 2 | 4 | 1 | | | | | | | 1 | North Dakota | 4 |
| 8 | Alaska-Anchorage | 3 | 0 | 4 | | | | | | | 5 | Minnesota | 5 |
| 4 | Denver | 3 | 1 | – | | | | | | | | | |
| 7 | Colorado College | 4 | 6 | – | | | | 2 | | | | Minnesota-Duluth | 4 |
| | | | | | | | | 5 | Minnesota | 7 | | | |
| 5 | Minnesota | 6 | 7 | – | | | | | | | | | |
| 6 | St. Cloud State | 1 | 3 | – | | | | | | | | | |
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

### First round
#### (1) North Dakota vs. (10) Michigan Tech

* North Dakota won series 2–0

#### (2) Minnesota-Duluth vs. (9) Minnesota State-Mankato

* Minnesota-Duluth won series 2–1

#### (3) Wisconsin vs. (8) Alaska-Anchorage

* Alaska-Anchorage won series 2–1

#### (4) Denver vs. (7) Colorado College

* Colorado College won series 2–0

#### (5) Minnesota vs. (6) St. Cloud State

* Minnesota won series 2–0

### Championship
#### (1) North Dakota vs. (5) Minnesota
## Tournament awards
### All-Tournament Team

* F Zach Parise (North Dakota)
* F Danny Irmen (Minnesota)
* F Brandon Bochenski (North Dakota)
* D Matt Jones (North Dakota)
* D Keith Ballard (Minnesota)
* G Kellen Briggs* (Minnesota)
* Most Valuable Player(s)