UMD Men’s Hockey Prepares for Rivals St. Cloud State in NCHC Frozen Faceoff Semifinal

This will be the seventh meeting between the Bulldogs and Huskies this season. Puck drop is set for 3:07 p.m. on Monday.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – It’s no secret that the UMD men’s hockey team is pretty good during the postseason. Entering Saturday’s NCHC quarterfinal, the Bulldogs have won 12 straight postseason games, going back to the start of the 2018 NCAA Tournament.

And it would require overtime, but that streak was pushed to 13 on Saturday as UMD got the 5-4 win over Western Michigan in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff quarterfinals. Six minutes into overtime, freshman defenseman Connor Kelley scored to send UMD to the NCHC semifinals.

“They have such a tradition here and I just want to follow in those footsteps. Playoff hockey is everything so that was definitely nice to get that one,” Kelley said.

“It’s over, you can’t change it but you have an opportunity in front of you to go win it in overtime and fortunately we did that. [Kelley]’s certainly elevated his game here the last month, month and a half so I’m happy for him,” head coach Scott Sandelin added.

Next, UMD will face rivals St. Cloud State. This will be the seventh meeting between the two this season, with two of those going the Bulldogs way. And two years ago, the Huskies and Bulldogs battled to double overtime before Nick Swaney gave UMD the win in the NCHC title game.

“In order to be the best you’ve got to beat the best and I think playing these guys six times already this year, we know how great of a team they are and we’re ready for the challenge,” Swaney said.

“There’s not a lot of pre-scout video we’ve got to do on each other. We’ve had great games with them. Three were in overtime, the other two were basically one goal games and then we had the anomaly, the 5-1 game,” Sandelin added.

Puck drop in the NCHC semifinal between the Bulldogs and Huskies is set for 3:07 p.m. on Monday.