# 2003 WCHA men's ice hockey tournament

The 2003 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the 44th conference playoff in league history and 49th season where a WCHA champion was crowned. The 2003 tournament was played between March 14 and March 22, 2003, 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
2002–03 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 Colorado College† | 28 | 19 | 4 | 5 | 43 | 125 | 70 | 42 | 30 | 7 | 5 | 190 | 103 |
| #2 Minnesota* | 28 | 15 | 6 | 7 | 37 | 106 | 81 | 45 | 28 | 8 | 9 | 189 | 122 |
| #11 Minnesota State-Mankato | 28 | 15 | 6 | 7 | 37 | 116 | 104 | 41 | 20 | 11 | 10 | 155 | 144 |
| #13 North Dakota | 28 | 14 | 9 | 5 | 33 | 103 | 82 | 43 | 26 | 12 | 5 | 172 | 120 |
| #14 Minnesota-Duluth | 28 | 14 | 10 | 4 | 32 | 95 | 80 | 42 | 22 | 15 | 5 | 153 | 119 |
| St. Cloud State | 28 | 12 | 11 | 5 | 29 | 96 | 85 | 38 | 17 | 16 | 5 | 124 | 118 |
| Denver | 28 | 11 | 11 | 6 | 28 | 95 | 85 | 41 | 21 | 14 | 6 | 152 | 102 |
| Wisconsin | 28 | 7 | 14 | 4 | 18 | 61 | 101 | 40 | 13 | 23 | 4 | 93 | 134 |
| Michigan Tech | 28 | 7 | 18 | 3 | 17 | 77 | 116 | 38 | 10 | 24 | 4 | 109 | 154 |
| Alaska-Anchorage | 28 | 0 | 22 | 6 | 6 | 41 | 111 | 36 | 1 | 28 | 7 | 57 | 143 |
| 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 14–16, 2003 | First round March 14–16, 2003 | First round March 14–16, 2003 | First round March 14–16, 2003 | First round March 14–16, 2003 | Quarterfinal March 20, 2003 | Quarterfinal March 20, 2003 | Quarterfinal March 20, 2003 | Semifinals March 21, 2003 | Semifinals March 21, 2003 | Semifinals March 21, 2003 | Championship March 22, 2003 | Championship March 22, 2003 | Championship March 22, 2003 |
| 1 | Colorado College | 5 | 4 | — | | | | | | | | | |
| 10 | Alaska-Anchorage | 3 | 1 | — | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | 1 | Colorado College | 4* | | | |
| 2 | Minnesota | 3 | 5 | — | 4 | North Dakota | 1 | 5 | Minnesota-Duluth | 3 | | | |
| 9 | Michigan Tech | 1 | 2 | — | 5 | Minnesota-Duluth | 2 | | | | | | |
| 3 | Minnesota State | 2 | 6** | — | | | | | | | 1 | Colorado College | 2 |
| 8 | Wisconsin | 1 | 5 | — | | | | | | | 2 | Minnesota | 4 |
| 4 | North Dakota | 1 | 3* | 3* | | | | | | | | | |
| 7 | Denver | 4 | 2 | 2 | | | | 2 | | | | Minnesota | 3* |
| | | | | | | | | 3 | Minnesota State | 2 | | | |
| 5 | Minnesota-Duluth | 5 | 2 | 7 | | | | | | | | | |
| 6 | St. Cloud State | 4 | 3* | 3 | | | | | | | | | |
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

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

* Colorado College won series 2–0

#### (2) Minnesota vs. (9) Michigan Tech

* Minnesota won series 2–0

#### (3) Minnesota State-Mankato vs. (8) Wisconsin

* Minnesota State-Mankato won series 2–0

#### (4) North Dakota vs. (7) Denver

* North Dakota won series 2–1

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

* Minnesota-Duluth won series 2–1

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

* F Grant Potulny* (Minnesota)
* F Junior Lessard (Minnesota-Duluth)
* F Shane Joseph (Minnesota State-Mankato)
* D Tom Preissing (Colorado College)
* D Keith Ballard (Minnesota)
* G Justin Johnson (Minnesota)
* Most Valuable Player(s)

### Tournament Three Stars

* 3 Justin Johnson (Minnesota)
* 2 Peter Sejna (Colorado College)
* 1 Grant Potulny (Minnesota)