The Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team will face No. 1 seed North Dakota in the West Region in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday, March 27 at 8 p.m. The winner of Friday night’s contest will face the winner of Michigan Tech and St. Cloud State for a spot in the Frozen Four.
Top seeded North Dakota owns a 27-9-3 record and topped the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) regular season with a 16-6-2 record. Despite a dominant regular season, North Dakota fell to St. Cloud State 3-1 in the conference semifinals. The next day it lost to Denver 5-1 in the third place game.
Parallel to North Dakota, Quinnipiac finds itself in a similar situation. The Bobcats, who are the No. 4 seed in the West, finished in first place of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC). It then lost to Harvard 5-2 in the ECAC semifinals. In the quarterfinal round, Quinnipiac star forward Sam Anas was forced to the locker room with a lower body injury and did not play in the semifinal game. Anas is fifth in the conference with 40 points recording 23 goals and 17 assists. His status for Friday night has yet to be determined.
Both teams are very familiar with the NCAA Tournament. Last season North Dakota reached the Frozen Four as a No. 4 seed defeating Wisconsin and Ferris State before losing to Minnesota. Quinnipiac was blanked 4-0 by Providence in the first round. In 2013, the Bobcats reached the national championship game but lost to Yale 4-0.
Two other ECAC teams are in the field of 16. Harvard, the ECAC tournament champion, will face the University of Nebraska-Omaha on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Yale will face Boston University on Friday afternoon at 2.
