It’s hard to believe, but the National Collegiate Hockey Conference playoffs are here. Soon, hockey teams’ seasons will end as they are defeated first in the conference tournaments and then in the NCAA playoffs. For college hockey fans, this is the most exciting time of the year.
This weekend, the University of North Dakota Hockey team entertains Miami University for the first round of the NCHC playoffs. For the RedHawks to continue, they need to win the series against the Fighting Hawks. Lose, and they’re out. UND is already in the NCAA playoffs, and they’ve probably locked themselves into a number one seed.
On paper, it doesn’t look like a great matchup. The RedHawks are struggling through another horrific season, going 7-24-3 (1-21-2 NCHC), while UND finished first in the NCHC standings, 24-10-2 (15-8-1 NCHC). Obviously, we don’t play hockey on paper, and UND will need to play strong if they want to finish off the pesky RedHawks in two games. UND Sweeps 5-1 and 4-3.
“Yeah, looking forward to the playoffs and the new season,” head coach Brad Berry said. “Everybody starts with a blank slate. They’re trying to put their body of work together to keep playing. It’s an exciting time of year. Our guys are excited to move forward and are ready to go.”
From Miami’s perspective, they didn’t think they played that badly, but they still ended up getting swept by UND.
“We thought we took care of the puck pretty well,” Miami head coach Chris Bergeron said during their weekly press conference. We thought we might have played better the second night than the first night.”
Linkorama
Here are some of the links for this weekend in NCHC Hockey.
Ludvig Persson has never won a conference playoff game before; ND Ice Podcast
BRACKETOLOGY: A pretty easy week to seed the regionals, but Omaha’s recent sweep of North Dakota could cause future problems
Hawk-ey Talk with Virg Foss: The Best Season Begins
The First-Round League Playoff Series: Why Is It So Difficult To Sweep?
Miami Travels to No. 5 North Dakota for NCHC Quarterfinals
From the Grand Forks Herald. Preview: It’s playoff time in Grand Forks
Eli Swanson, Jason Feldman, and Brad Schlossman break down this weekend’s matchup on the UND Hockey Podcast.
On this week's UND Hockey Podcast, we talk about the matchup between the Fighting Hawks and RedHawks. Listen here: https://t.co/0vAAfS3w5N
— Brad Elliott Schlossman (@SchlossmanGF) March 15, 2024
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