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
Bracket Teams are reseeded after the first round
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
First round
(1) North Dakota vs. (10) Michigan Tech
(2) Minnesota-Duluth vs. (9) Minnesota State-Mankato
(3) Wisconsin vs. (8) Alaska-Anchorage
(4) Denver vs. (7) Colorado College
(5) Minnesota vs. (6) St. Cloud State
Quarterfinal
(7) Colorado College vs. (8) Alaska-Anchorage
Semifinals
(1) North Dakota vs. (8) Alaska-Anchorage
(2) Minnesota-Duluth vs. (5) Minnesota
Third place
(2) Minnesota-Duluth vs. (8) Alaska-Anchorage
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)
See also Western Collegiate Hockey Association men's champions
References
External links WCHA official site 2003–04 WCHA Standings 2003–04 NCAA Standings