SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — It has been 10 years since North Dakota’s last Frozen Four appearance and five years since its last regional final appearance.
That is unusual territory for a proud Fighting Hawks program, but what matters now is that North Dakota is one win away from returning to college hockey’s biggest stage.
Cody Croal scored twice and Dylan James added a goal as North Dakota held off Merrimack 3-0 on Thursday night at Denny Sanford Premier Center to advance to Saturday night’s regional final.
“I thought it was a really good back and forth game,” said UND head coach Dane Jackson, who in his first year on the job has his team within reach of their 23rd Frozen Four. “Overall, I thought our puck management and our kind of determination to play a 200-foot game was strong, and obviously we had a great, great backbone.
“I just think there’s so much parody in college hockey right now. So the No. 1 seed versus the No. 4, we just, you know, they were really playing good hockey. So we went into it knowing full well we’d have to play our best game.”
Max Lundgren made 25 saves for Merrimack, but despite a tremendous run to the NCAA Tournament that included winning the Hockey East Tournament championship as a No. 8 seed, the Warriors saw their season come to an end. Jan Spunar stopped all 31 shots he faced for North Dakota.
All 31 shots the Warriors put on goal were saved by Jan Spunar in the North Dakota net, but head coach Scott Borek wouldn’t want his team’s season to have gone any other way in getting to just their third NCAA tournament of the 21st century, but second in the last four years.
“Mostly I want to say our team has been through a lot this year,” Borek said. “I’m just very, very proud to be the coach of Merrimack College. And I love our team.”
North Dakota got the quick start it wanted when Croal scored just after a power play expired. But Merrimack, playing in the NCAA Tournament for the second time in four years and only the third time in the 21st century, did not go away easily. The Warriors played well defensively down low with good speed, keeping the North Dakota offense to the outside and limiting its forecheck.
But Merrimack could not find the equalizer. Late in the second period, the Warriors appeared to tie the game during a scramble in front of the North Dakota net, but the whistle blew just before the puck crossed the line. There was no review, and the score remained 1-0 in favor of the Fighting Hawks.
“Sometimes it just doesn’t go your way,” said MC forward Trevor Hoskin.
“We believe he thought it was covered,” Borek said when he asked the refs what happened during the play.
After pushing hard for most of the final 20 minutes, North Dakota finally got a key insurance goal early in the third period to make it 2-0 when Ellis Rickwood found Dylan James on a backdoor feed that beat Lundgren on the stick side.
“Just all started with [Will] Zellers for check in there and getting it over to [Rickwood]. And I just happened to be backdoor, so it wasn’t very hard for me,” James said. “You always want an insurance goal.”
James, who as a senior is playing in his final NCAA tournament, is relishing his final opportunity to try to win his first national championship — and North Dakota’s ninth, if the Fighting Hawks are able to finish the job.
“Come back here as a senior, you know, this is it for me, right?” he replied when asked what all this meant for him.
Croal iced the game with 44.5 seconds left on an empty-net goal, his second of the night.
“He’s such an unsung hero on this team,” Zellers said of Croal. “He plays so hard and makes the right plays.”
North Dakota will face Quinnipiac for the Sioux Falls Regional title and a spot in the Frozen Four on Saturday. The Fighting Hawks beat the Bobcats for the 2016 national championship in Tampa, Florida, and in a regional semifinal in 2015. North Dakota is seeking its first Frozen Four berth since that 2016 title game, while Quinnipiac is trying to return for the first time since winning the 2023 championship 3-2 over Minnesota in overtime, also in Tampa.