No Postseason In 2020 Fueling UND Heading Into Regionals This Year

COVID-19 stopped North Dakota Hockey's season in 2020 and now they're extra motivated heading in to the regionals over the weekend

FARGO, ND (KVRR) – With the NCAA regionals tomorrow, It’s win or go home U.N.D. Hockey as they get set for American International, a team they’ll face for the first time ever.

Fighting Hawks are back in the tournament for 33rd time in program history and this time, they’re the top seed in the 16-team field. Up to now, they’ve won 21 games, the second straight they’ve reached that mark. They were poised to make a run last year before everything came to stop and they feel that’s something that’s driving them even more heading into this playoff.

“It’s one of those things where we went through our summer and then the fall crossing our fingers.” said head coach Brad Berry. “There wasn’t much certainty. It was a lot of hard work by a lot of people and our guys were really excited about it. I got to hand it to our leadership group and our players. They were very patient; they were very understanding and the leadership group got us through kind of a tough year here.”

“Our class was juniors last year,” said senior captain Jordan Kawaguchi. “We saw how heartbroken the seniors were and obviously we were heartbroken for us and them, definitely added a little extra motivation kind of do it for that group, as well.”

The puck drops at 8:30pm from Scheels Arena in Fargo. The winner plays either Michigan or Saint Cloud State in the regional championship game for a chance to clinch a spot in the Frozen Four.