| Year: | 2004 |
| Gender: | men's |
| Division: | Division I |
| Teams: | 16 |
| Frozenfourarena: | FleetCenter |
| Frozenfourcity: | Boston |
| Champions: | Denver Pioneers |
| Titlecount: | 6th |
| Champgamecount: | 8th |
| Champffcount: | 12th |
| Runnerup: | Maine Black Bears |
| Gamecount: | 5th |
| Runnerffcount: | 9th |
| Semifinal1: | Boston College Eagles |
| Frozenfourcount: | 18th |
| Semifinal2: | Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs |
| Frozenfourcount2: | 3rd |
| Coach: | George Gwozdecky |
| Coachcount: | 1st |
| Mop: | Adam Berkhoel |
| Mopteam: | Denver |
| Attendance: | 96,327 |
The 2004 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament involved 16 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college ice hockey. It began on March 26, 2004, and ended with the championship game on April 10. A total of 15 games were played. This was the first season in which the Atlantic Hockey sent a representative to the tournament. Atlantic Hockey assumed possession of the automatic bid that had been the possession of the MAAC after it collapsed and all remaining ice hockey programs formed the new conference.
The University of Denver, coached by George Gwozdecky, won its sixth national title with a 1-0 victory in the final game over the University of Maine, coached by Tim Whitehead before a record crowd of over 18,000 people at Boston's FleetCenter (now known as the TD Garden). While Denver's Gabe Gauthier scored the game's only goal, the game is best remembered for Denver surviving Maine's six skaters to three skaters advantage in the final 90 seconds of the contest.[1]
Denver goaltender Adam Berkhoel was named the tournament Most Outstanding Player.
The NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey Championship is a single-elimination tournament featuring 16 teams representing all six Division I conferences in the nation. The Championship Committee seeds the entire field from 1 to 16 within four regionals of 4 teams. The winners of the six Division I conference championships receive automatic bids to participate in the NCAA Championship. Regional placements are based primarily on the home location of the top seed in each bracket with an attempt made to put the top-ranked teams close to their home site.
The at-large bids and seeding for each team in the tournament was announced on March 21, 2004.[2] The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) and the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) each had five teams receive a berth in the tournament, Hockey East had three teams receive a berth in the tournament, while Atlantic Hockey, College Hockey America (CHA) and the ECAC each received a single bid for their tournament champions.
| West Regional – Colorado Springs | Northeast Regional – Manchester | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | School | Conference | Record | Berth type | Appearance | Last bid | Seed | School | Conference | Record | Berth type | Appearance | Last bid | |
| 1 | North Dakota (1) | WCHA | 29–7–3 | At-large bid | 19th | 2003 | 1 | Boston College (2) | Hockey East | 27–8–4 | At-large bid | 24th | 2003 | |
| 2 | Denver | WCHA | 23–12–5 | At-large bid | 17th | 2002 | 2 | Michigan | CCHA | 26–13–2 | At-large bid | 27th | 2003 | |
| 3 | Miami | CCHA | 23–13–4 | At-large bid | 3rd | 1997 | 3 | New Hampshire | Hockey East | 20–14–6 | At-large bid | 14th | 2003 | |
| 4 | Holy Cross | Atlantic Hockey | 22–9–4 | Tournament champion | 1st | Never | 4 | Niagara | CHA | 21–14–3 | Tournament champion | 2nd | 2000 | |
| East Regional – Albany | Midwest Regional – Grand Rapids | |||||||||||||
| Seed | School | Conference | Record | Berth type | Appearance | Last bid | Seed | School | Conference | Record | Berth type | Appearance | Last bid | |
| 1 | Maine (3) | Hockey East | 30–7–3 | Tournament champion | 14th | 2003 | 1 | Minnesota (4) | WCHA | 26–13–3 | Tournament champion | 28th | 2003 | |
| 2 | Ohio State | CCHA | 26–15–0 | Tournament champion | 4th | 2003 | 2 | Minnesota-Duluth | WCHA | 26–12–4 | At-large bid | 5th | 1993 | |
| 3 | Wisconsin | WCHA | 21–12–8 | At-large bid | 20th | 2000 | 3 | Michigan State | CCHA | 23–16–2 | At-large bid | 23rd | 2002 | |
| 4 | Harvard | ECAC | 18–14–3 | Tournament champion | 19th | 2003 | 4 | Notre Dame | CCHA | 20–14–4 | At-large bid | 1st | Never | |
Number in parentheses denotes overall seed in the tournament.
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
| Scoring summary[6] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period | Team | Goal | Assist(s) | Time | Score | |||
| 1st | align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Gabe Gauthier (18) – GW PP | James | align=center | 12:26 | align=center | 1–0 DEN |
| 2nd | None | |||||||
| 3rd | None | |||||||
| Penalty summary | ||||||||
| Period | Team | Player | Penalty | Time | PIM | |||
| 1st | align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Max Bull | Checking from Behind | align=center | 3:39 | align=center | 2:00 |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Gabe Gauthier | Roughing | align=center | 5:13 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| align=center style=";" | Maine | Dustin Penner | Holding the Stick | align=center | 5:13 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| align=center style=";" | Maine | Mathew Deschamps | Obstruction Interference | align=center | 11:49 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Max Bull | Cross-Checking | align=center | 13:25 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| align=center style=";" | Maine | Jon Jankus | Tripping | align=center | 14:24 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | J. D. Corbin | Holding | align=center | 17:03 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| 2nd | align=center style=";" | Maine | Todd Jackson | Tripping | align=center | 26:26 | align=center | 2:00 |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Gabe Gauthier | Cross-Checking | align=center | 26:31 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| align=center style=";" | Maine | Jon Jankus | Holding the Stick | align=center | 26:31 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Jeff Drummond | HK | align=center | 28:16 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Ryan Caldwell | Roughing | align=center | 29:47 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| align=center style=";" | Maine | Mike Hamilton | Roughing | align=center | 29:47 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| 3rd | align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Jeff Drummond | Obstruction Holding | align=center | 43:24 | align=center | 2:00 |
| align=center style=";" | Maine | Prestin Ryan | Interference | align=center | 48:09 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Jon Foster | Roughing | align=center | 52:15 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| align=center style=";" | Maine | Mathew Deschamps | Roughing | align=center | 52:15 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Matt Laatsch | Hooking | align=center | 57:51 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | Gabe Gauthier | Delay of Game | align=center | 58:26 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| Shots by period | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | T | ||||||
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | Denver | align=center | 4 | align=center | 6 | align=center | 10 | align=center | 20 | |
| align=center style=";" | Maine | align=center | 6 | align=center | 9 | align=center | 9 | align=center | 24 | |
| Goaltenders | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Name | Saves | Goals against | Time on ice | |||||
| align=center style="color:white; background:#862633; " | DEN | align=center | 24 | align=center | 0 | align=center | 60:00 | ||
| align=center style=";" | Maine | align=center | 19 | align=center | 1 | align=center | 58:39 | ||
* Most Outstanding Player(s)[7]
| Conference |
| Record | Win % | Regional Finals | Frozen Four | Championship Game | Champions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WCHA | 5 | 9-4 | .692 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| CCHA | 5 | 1-5 | .125 | 1 | - | - | - | |
| Hockey East | 3 | 5-3 | .625 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | |
| ECAC | 1 | 0-1 | .000 | - | - | - | - | |
| Atlantic Hockey | 1 | 0-1 | .000 | - | - | - | - | |
| CHA | 1 | 0-1 | .000 | - | - | - | - |