FARGO, N.D. — It’s a familiar game for North Dakota.
For the ninth time in 11 seasons, UND will play in the regional final after defeating Quinnipiac 4-1 on Friday night at Scheels Arena in the NCAA West Regional.
[scg_html_w2015]An electric atmosphere saw North Dakota score the first goal and put the Bobcats in a 4-0 deficit they weren’t able to cut into until the final minutes of the game.
UND’s next opponent is one it’s well acquainted with — a St. Cloud State team that pushed it out of the NCHC conference championship game just one week ago.
Although the thought of finding redemption against its foe Saturday night for a ticket to the Frozen Four adds motivation to the matchup, North Dakota knows there’s a lot more on the line.
“I think you’re just excited to have the opportunity to play tomorrow night, and that’s why we fought so hard tonight,” UND coach Dave Hakstol said. “We wanted to have the opportunity to come back to the rink tomorrow as a group and battle hard, and there’s different rivalries at different stages of the season. I’m not sure how big a role that will play in tomorrow. We’re playing for an opportunity to advance in this tournament. That’s enough said for our group.”
For Quinnipiac, it was tough to break through a team that blocked 28 shots.
“They were very committed tonight,” Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said. “Any time you get a team to commit to that, you’re going to win hockey games. Shot attempts were 50-27 for two periods … I know that’s not the score, but we played well tonight. I thought our compete level was great.”
UND opened scoring on a power play at 12:59 of the first period when Tucker Poolman sniped a shot in the net past Michael Garteig (21 saves).
Bryn Chyzyk put North Dakota up 2-0 when he picked up the puck in the corner and threw it toward the net, sending it past Garteig at 7:09 of the second frame.
Garteig probably wanted that one back.
“Did everything go our way?” Pecknold said. “No, it didn’t. We got that fluke second goal that just killed us, but our guys didn’t quit.”
They never quit, but neither did North Dakota.
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000DmzguOvuf6M” g_name=”20150327-Quinipiac-NoDak” f_show_caption=”t” f_show_slidenum=”t” img_title=”casc” pho_credit=”iptc” f_link=”t” f_bbar=”t” fsvis=”f” width=”500″ height=”375″ bgcolor=”#AAAAAA” bgtrans=”t” btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” crop=”f” trans=”xfade” tbs=”4000″ f_ap=”t” linkdest=”c” f_fullscreen=”f” f_constrain=”f” twoup=”f” f_topbar=”f” f_bbarbig=”” f_htmllinks=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”f” f_show_watermark=”f” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”f” f_up=”f” target=”_self” wmds=”llQ6QNgpeC.p1Ucz7U.f22AEUD2614E33QbHpOLDknzPDFhwoSOcaVgaa2GNtt84_e5KAQ–” ]Troy Stecher picked up the puck on a four-on-three disadvantage and rushed down the ice to tally North Dakota’s 10th short-handed goal of the season and third of the game. The crowd erupted.
“It’s pretty special playing in this environment,” Stecher said. “You obviously don’t get the opportunity too much to play in your home state in regionals, so we really embraced that and tried to use that to our advantage tonight.”
Zane McIntyre stood firm in the net for UND, nearly posting a shutout until Andrew Taverner broke through the goaltender with just 1:26 left on the clock.
In his five career NCAA postseason games, McIntyre has posted a 1.31 GAA and a .955 save percentage.
Luke Johnson put in an empty-netter for UND at 19:44 and sealed the 4-1 win.
Quinnipiac’s season was over, but it knew its final performance of the season was fought with determination.
“They battled,” Pecknold said. “North Dakota played well, they deserved to win, but I thought we played well tonight. It wasn’t our best game, but I thought we competed and battled.”
As the host of the tournament, North Dakota played in front of a largely green-and-white crowd, but that meant no guarantees.
“What a tremendous atmosphere for our players to have the opportunity to play in,” Hakstol said. “You’re not guaranteed anything this time of the year playing in an environment like this in your home state because the teams are so good. Everybody that we’re playing has been in these environments before.”
North Dakota took its win, then quickly began preparations for the next step.
“About 20 minutes ago now, we’ve turned the page and started to move forward to tomorrow night’s game,” Hakstol said.
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