# 2008 WCHA men's ice hockey tournament

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. 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
2007–08 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 |
| #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 Final rankings: USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Top 15 Poll |||||||||||||||

#### 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.

## Bracket

Teams are reseeded after the first round
| First round March 14–16, 2008 | First round March 14–16, 2008 | First round March 14–16, 2008 | First round March 14–16, 2008 | First round March 14–16, 2008 | Quarterfinal March 20, 2008 | Quarterfinal March 20, 2008 | Quarterfinal March 20, 2008 | Semifinals March 21, 2008 | Semifinals March 21, 2008 | Semifinals March 21, 2008 | Championship March 22, 2008 | Championship March 22, 2008 | Championship March 22, 2008 |
| 1 | Colorado College | 4 | 3* | — | | | | | | | | | |
| 10 | Alaska-Anchorage | 1 | 2 | — | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | 1 | Colorado College | 1 | | | |
| 2 | North Dakota | 4 | 2 | 2 | 5 | St. Cloud State | 2 | 7 | Minnesota | 2* | | | |
| 9 | Michigan Tech | 0 | 3* | 1 | 7 | Minnesota | 3 | | | | | | |
| 3 | Denver | 6 | 1 | — | | | | | | | 3 | Denver | 2 |
| 8 | Minnesota-Duluth | 3 | 0 | — | | | | | | | 7 | Minnesota | 1 |
| 4 | Minnesota State | 1** | 1 | 2 | | | | | | | | | |
| 7 | Minnesota | 0 | 2* | 3** | | | | 2 | | | | North Dakota | 1 |
| | | | | | | | | 3 | Denver | 3 | | | |
| 5 | St. Cloud State | 3 | 4* | — | | | | | | | | | |
| 6 | Wisconsin | 0 | 3 | — | | | | | | | | | |
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

### First round
#### (1) Colorado College vs. (10) Alaska-Anchorage

* Colorado College won series 2–0

#### (2) North Dakota vs. (9) Michigan Tech

* North Dakota won series 2–1

#### (3) Denver vs. (8) Minnesota–Duluth

* Denver won series 2–0

#### (4) Minnesota State vs. (7) Minnesota

* Minnesota won series 2–1

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

* St. Cloud State won series 2–0

### Championship
#### (3) Denver vs. (7) Minnesota
## Tournament awards
### All-Tournament Team

* F Mike Hoeffel (Minnesota)
* F Tom May (Denver)
* F T. J. Oshie (North Dakota)
* D Chris Butler (Denver)
* D Taylor Chorney (North Dakota)
* G Peter Mannino (Denver)

### MVP

Alex Kangas, (Minnesota)