NoDak Receives 2-seed; Plays Michigan in Maryland Heights NCAA Regional Friday

NORTH DAKOTA ENTERS THE NCAA MENS ICE HOCKEY TOURNAMENT AS A 2-SEED.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (KVRR)–The NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament field is set and North Dakota now knows who, when and where they will play this week.

After winning the Penrose Cup during the regular season, this past weekend North Dakota fell to Omaha in the NCHC semifinals 6-3 all but certainly eliminating their chances at a 1-seed and a favorable venue for the NCAA tournament. Denver won the final against Omaha Saturday and earlier Sunday evening, the NCAA tournament field is now set.

UND will play in the Maryland Heights Regional. Michigan State is the 1-seed for this region and will take on Western Michigan out of the NCHC.

North Dakota gets the 2-seed in this region and they will take on Big Ten Tournament runner-up Michigan. These games will take place Friday, March 29 and Sunday, March 31.

North Dakota versus Michigan on Friday night will take place at 7:30 P.M. NoDak all-time vs Michigan in the NCAA tournament is 3-2, most recently meeting in the 2016 regional tournament and defeating them 5-2 en route to their 8th national championship in program history. The game will air on ESPNU.

Now that NoDak knows their path to a 9th NCAA tournament title, the questions now focus on the goaltender situation. All-NCHC second team goalie Ludvig Perrson missed the last 3 games for UND and freshman Hobie Hedquist has played in his absence. Hequist swept Miami (OH) in the opening round of the NCHC tournament before allowing 5 goals Friday night in the 6-3 loss to Omaha in the semifinals.

After Friday’s defeat to Omaha, Head Coach Brad Berry spoke on the goalie situation ahead of the NCAA tournament.

“Ludvig just coming back from his situation and you know, he missed the first day or two of practice and then he got in towards the mid week of practice,” said Berry on the decision to start Hedquist over Perrson in Friday’s semifinal. “Hobie was just coming off of a sweep of Miami playing very well and you get opportunity if you earn it and Hobie earned it. The most important thing is making sure that we get back and we start together playing as a team. A lot of really good teams are fighting for the national championship and we’re going to make sure that we press the right buttons and do the right things this week to give us a chance to win next week.”

Here is how the full bracket looks starting with the left side:

Boston College the No. 1 overall seed takes on Michigan Tech. Wisconsin will take on last year’s champ Quinnipiac. This Region takes place in Providence, Rhode Island.
The bottom half is the Maryland heights Region we saw before. Michigan State versus Western Michigan and North Dakota versus Michigan.

Here is the right side:

Denver the No. 3 overall seed and will take on Umass. Then Maine will take on Cornell. This is the Springfield Region.

Boston University the No. 2 overall seed takes on RIT. Finally, Minnesota takes on Omaha out of the NCHC. This is the Sioux Falls region.

All these games will take place between Thursday and Sunday with the Frozen Four taking place April 11th and 13th down at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.