2008 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
2008 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament | |
---|---|
2008 WCHA Final Five logo | |
Dates | March 14–22, 2008 |
Teams | 10 |
Finals site |
Xcel Energy Center St. Paul, Minnesota |
Champions | Denver (15th title) |
Winning coach | George Gwozdecky (4th title) |
MVP | Alex Kangas (Minnesota) |
WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments |
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.[1] 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
Conference | 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.[2][3]
Bracket
Teams are reseeded after the first round
First round March 14–16, 2008 |
Quarterfinal March 20, 2008 |
Semifinals March 21, 2008 |
Championship March 22, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
1 | Colorado College | 4 | 3* | — | 1 | Colorado College | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
10 | Alaska-Anchorage | 1 | 2 | — | 4 | St. Cloud State | 2 | 5 | Minnesota | 2* | |||||||||||||||
5 | Minnesota | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
2 | North Dakota | 4 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
9 | Michigan Tech | 0 | 3* | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
3 | Denver | 6 | 1 | — | 3 | Denver | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
8 | Minnesota-Duluth | 3 | 0 | — | 5 | Minnesota | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
4 | Minnesota State | 1** | 1 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
7 | Minnesota | 0 | 2* | 3** | |||||||||||||||||||||
Third place | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
5 | St. Cloud State | 3 | 4* | — | 2 | North Dakota | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
6 | Wisconsin | 0 | 3 | — | 3 | Denver | 3 | 1 | Colorado College | 2 | |||||||||||||||
2 | North Dakota | 4 |
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
Tournament awards
All-Tournament Team[4]
- 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)
See also
References
- General
"2008 WCHA Tournament". Inside College Hockey. Archived from the original on 16 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-22.
- Specific
- ↑ "First Round WCHA Playoffs Set for March 14-16; Colorado College Reigns as 2007-08 WCHA Champion". WCHA. 2008-03-10. Retrieved 2008-03-22.
- ↑ "Minnesota Earns Back-to-Back WCHA Championships as Golden Gophers Down MTU". WCHA. 2007-03-07. Retrieved 2008-03-22.
- ↑ "Minnesota State Mavericks: 2007-2008 Men's Hockey Schedule/Results". USCHO. Archived from the original on 2007-12-21. Retrieved 2008-03-22.
- ↑ "2009-10 WCHA Yearbook 129-144" (PDF). WCHA. Retrieved 2014-06-01.