blog.siouxsports.comSioux Sports Talk – UND fans discuss the Fighting Hawks

Sioux Sports Talk UND fans discuss the Fighting Hawks Menu SiouxSports.com Home NCAA Midwest Regional Preview: UND vs. Michigan #5 North Dakota (26-11-2) is set to battle #10 Michigan (21-14-3) in the opening round of the NCAA tournament at Centene Community Ice Center in Maryland Heights, Missouri on Friday night. UND has to be relieved to be playing someone from a different conference after they ended NCHC play with five losses in their last eleven league games (two at #15 Colorado College, two at #11 Omaha, and last Friday’s loss to Omaha in the league semifinals at Xcel Energy Center). On the season, the Green and White went a combined 1-8-0 against the Tigers and Mavericks and 25-3-2 against everyone else. Those other three losses were to #2 Boston University, #3 Denver, and #7 Minnesota. UND avenged their only two non-conference losses of the season by defeating the Golden Gophers 2-1 on a Saturday night in Grand Forks and the BU Terriers 5-4 in overtime on a Saturday night at Agganis Arena. North Dakota fared even better against the Denver Pioneers. After splitting the series at altitude back in December (7-5, 2-3 OT), UND swept the Pios on home ice in January (5-2, 4-2). All this to say that Brad Berry’s squad has put together quite an impressive resume coming into the national tourney. And, as luck would have it, Colorado College did not make the NCAA tournament (the Tigers were the first team out according to the Pairwise), and Omaha is on the other side of the bracket, meaning that the two teams could not tangle until the national championship game. There is some goaltending intrigue heading into Friday’s matchup for the Green and White. Two weekends ago, North Dakota swept last-place Miami at home (5-1, 7-1) in the league quarterfinals, but graduate netminder Ludvig Persson (21-10-2, 2.47 GAA, .906 SV%, 5 SO) was not between the pipes. That distinction belonged to freshman Hobie Hedquist , who secured both playoff victories with 23 saves on Friday and 28 saves on Saturday. Coming into Friday’s NCHC semifinal in St. Paul, both goalies had practiced, but Hedquist got the nod. And there was reason for optimism. After all, when Persson was out of the lineup, the freshman had stepped in and performed admirably, winning all five of his starts while posting a goals-against average of 2.05 and a save percentage of .919. It was a different story in the league playoffs. Hedquist made just 29 of 34 saves and could not seem to make the timely stop, allowing two goals in the third period while UND was attempting to mount a comeback. The backbreaker came with just over nine minutes remaning in the hockey game, as Omaha’s Zach Urdahl scored his second of the night just 68 seconds after North Dakota had cut the deficit to 4-3. Urdahl would add an empty-netter for his hat trick at the 15:16 mark of the final frame to make the scoreboard read 6-3 at the final buzzer. Turning our attention to this weekend’s NCAA regional action, UND finds itself in the Midwest Regional along with three teams from the state of Michigan: #4 Michigan State, #10 Michigan, and #14 Western Michigan. The winners of Michigan State/Western Michigan (4:00 p.m. Central Time on ESPNU) and North Dakota/Michigan (7:30 p.m. Central Time on ESPNU) will play on Sunday (5:30 p.m. Central Time on ESPN2) with a trip to the 2024 Frozen Four in St. Paul on the line. The Midwest bracket lines up with the Providence regional, which contains top overall seed Boston College as well as #9 Wisconsin, #8 Quinnipiac, and #20 Michigan Tech. Of course, UND fans are hoping that their favorite team can advance to the Frozen Four for the 23rd time in program history, but it won’t be an easy task. First up on the docket is a Michigan team that finished fourth in the B1G this season but proved they could score with anybody. The Wolverines went just 4-9-1 against the big three in their conference (#4 Michigan State, #7 Minnesota, and #9 Wisconsin) but scored 49 goals in those fourteen games (3.50 goals scored/game). The problem was that they gave up 53 goals in those same games (3.79 goals allowed/game). The only other team in the NCAA tournament field that Michigan faced this season was Massachusetts (the last team in the tournament according to the Pairwise). The Wolverines squared off against UMass in Amherst back in October, winning the opener 7-2 before dropping the rematch 3-6. In terms of common opponents, this year’s Michigan squad traveled to St. Cloud in November and managed a 2-0 Friday night victory and a tie on Saturday (3-3). Those results are very similar to what North Dakota did to the Huskies in January (a 5-3 win and a 3-3 tie). Michigan’s 160 goals this season trail only Denver (194) and Boston College (168) as the top offensive team in the country. North Dakota ranks 7th with 148 goals scored. The Wolverines are even more lethal with the man advantage. No team in college hockey is even close to the 35.3% success rate of the Michigan power play. UND clocks in 9th at 25.7 percent. But that potent power play can be concerning for head coach Brandon Naurato , now in his second season behind the Michigan bench. The Wolverines have scored 49 power play goals this season, over 30 percent of their offensive production. What will happen in the playoffs, when fewer penalties are called? That almost came back to bite the Maize and Blue in the B1G semifinals against Minnesota. Each team was only awarded one power play, and neither capitalized. Michigan escaped with a 2-1 victory. In the B1G championship game, the Wolverines went 1-for-3 with the man advantage but fell in overtime. Over the two postseason games, less than 17 percent of Michigan’s offensive output came on the power play. And this weekend’s games figure to offer a similarly low number of man advantage situations, which would favor North Dakota, a team with a more-than-capable power play but with better scoring depth than most teams in the country. On the defensive side of the ledger, the Wolverines have struggled at times this season. Their 116 goals allowed this season (3.05 allowed per game) is second-worst among NCAA tournament teams (Denver is worst at 117 goals allowed, but they have scored 194 goals this season). North Dakota has done a much better job keeping the puck out of their net, with only 101 goals allowed (2.59 allowed/game) compared to 148 goals scored (3.79). This will be Michigan’s fifth straight tournament appearance, and the Wolverines have made the last two Frozen Fours, losing to eventual champion Denver 3-2 in overtime in 2022 and eventual champion Quinnipiac 5-2 last season. Michigan has nine national titles (seven by 1964); they last hoisted the ultimate trophy in 1998, a title drought stretching 25 seasons and counting. More to the point, in the past 63 years, the Wolverines have three championships. During that same span (1957-2023), UND has won eight national titles, most recently in 2016. During that 2016 title run, North Dakota dispatched Michigan 5-2 to advance to the Frozen Four in Tampa, Florida. Despite their combined 76 tournament appearances (Michigan 41, North Dakota 35), the two teams have only met five times in the NCAA playoffs. In 1998 and 2011, Michigan ended two of the most promising seasons in North Dakota men’s hockey history. The Wolverines hosted UND at the NCAA Midwest Regional at Yost Ice Arena (their home rink) on March 28, 1998 and took down a 30-7-1 Fighting Sioux team by the score of 4-3, ending North Dakota’s promising season one game short of the Frozen Four. The 2011 Matt Frattin -led UND squad outshot Michigan 40-20 but couldn’t light the lamp and fell 2-0 in front of a lively partisan crowd in St. Paul. In addition to the above-mentioned 2016 regional final, UND also bested the Wolverines 8-5 in a 2007 opening-round matchup at Pepsi Center in Denver. One night later, North Dakota beat Minnesota 3-2 in overtime on Chris Porter ‘s wraparound to advance to the...