No Postseason In 2020 Fueling UND Heading Into Regionals This Year

Hawks take the Ice for the first time at Scheels Arena as American International Game is Friday

FARGO, N.D. — One of Four NCAA Tournament Regionals begin in Fargo on Friday. The host team, North Dakota hockey, practiced  for the first time on Scheels Arena ice after clearing COVID protocol getting ready for their first ever meeting with American International.

This is one of the most experienced Fighting Hawks teams entering the postseason. All eight seniors played all four years in Grand Forks, a rarity in college hockey. The motivation to return? No NCAA Tournament last season.
In 2020, the Hawks won 21 games and did not get to close that chapter.

This year, having reached that mark again, it’s all the drive needed to make a run at a championship.

“It’s one of those things where we went through our summer and then the fall crossing our fingers. There wasn’t much certainty,” head coach Brad Berry said. “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,” senior captain Jordan Kawaguchi said. “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.”

UND will look for their first win in the tournament since winning the national championship in 2016.