UND Hockey Gets Ready for Postseason Play

Fighting Hawks No.1 seed in Frozen Face-off

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — In eight years playing in the NCHC there is one goal left for North Dakota hockey to accomplish and its winning the conference tournament. That opportunity will be presented this weekend as the Frozen Face-off starts Friday — at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

The Fighting Hawks already captured one piece of hardware winning the Penrose Cup. It earned them the top seed heading in to postseason play. This year’s tournament, however, has a different format.
Instead of a best of three in the quarterfinal round every game is single elimination. For head coach Brad Berry it ups the anty for his players.

“It forces you to be sharp right away here so I think it lends itself into having that mentality and focus of intensity that you need to have for success which will help you in the NCAA regionals to0 because its the same format,” Berry said.

“There is a little bit added pressure but at the end of the day, its just hockey,” NCHC forward of the year Shane Pinto Said. “That’s just how I’m going to approach it being another day. It’s at the Ralph we’ll have all our home fans. Were pretty happy about that support behind us but I just need to stick to my game and not overthink anything.”

As the one seed the Fighting Hawks play the eight seed Miami Ohio. That’ll be the night cap on Friday with a 7:37 puck drop. The Hawks took both from the RedHawks in the Omaha bubble. With a win, a match-up with Denver or Omaha awaits. The Mavericks beat UND to end the regular season and the Pioneers were their last loss in this tournament back in 2019.