Sheyenne Hockey Advances to First Ever State Tournament

Mustangs beat the defending state champs, Grand Forks Central, 2-1

GRAND FORKS, N.D — For the first time in program history, Sheyenne hockey is playing in the state tournament doing so in exciting fashion.

The Mustangs came in to the east region tournament as the six seed and knocked off the defending state champs, Grand Forks Central 2-1, on their home ice after dropping both regular season meetings.

The victory puts the Stangs as the east’s four seed up against the west’s top seed, Jamestown, on Thursday at Scheels Arena.

The Blue Jays already lost a match-up to them 8-1 in December.

Creating program history is a quality head coach Dave Benson saw in his team all year long.

“You pound the rock for five years in a row. Being a new program. Having kids who are fighters. Who are battling and giving their all,” Benson said. “They’re now seeing that reward and it goes to show ‘hey the process were following is going to work.’ we just had to get to that next step. Last year we won a few more games and had a nice season. Those guys did a phenomenal job of paving the way for these guys and these guys just took it one step further.”

To make the win even more impactful, Central missed their first state tournament in nine years.