NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament: Fargo Regional Recap
The Fargo region saw an action-packed weekend of hockey. Teams were hungry for a trip to Tampa, but only one would be crowned regional champions.
St. Cloud State and Minnesota State was the first matchup of the region. Minnesota State was coming off a CCHA championship and was ready for some more hardware, but the St. Cloud Huskies had other ideas.
The real action didn’t start until the second period as the Huskies netted two goals to really grab the momentum. Minnesota State couldn’t find any answers as St. Cloud continued to pour it on. The Huskies had a 3-0 lead in the third period and put the cherry on top with an empty net goal.
St. Cloud came away victorious but had to wait to see who would be the winner of Minnesota vs. Canisius.
Coming into this game, Canisius was a heavy underdog, but early in the second period, the Griffins were able to take the 2-1 lead. They knew they had to stay out of the box against a very complete Golden Gophers team, but a five-minute major penalty turned the tide of the game.
It was 3-2 in favor of the Golden Gophers at the time, and the penalty the Griffins took really stopped any signs of coming back into the game.
Minnesota scored twice on the major penalty, which was a part of the six-goal third period the Gophers put together.
The 9-2 hole was too deep for the Griffins to climb out of which meant the victorious Golden Gophers had a game against St. Cloud.
In that game against St. Cloud, Minnesota’s Bryce Brodzinski allowed the Golden Gophers to jump out to an early 1-0 lead. They were able to lock it down until the end of the first period, where the score remained 1-0 with both teams going to their locker rooms.
It only took a little over three minutes into the second period for the Huskies to knot up the game from a nice play by Adam Ingram, but never count out the Golden Gophers because their skill showed up once again.
Logan Cooley was able to provide the go-ahead goal, and in the third period, he set up Jackson LaCombe for some insurance. An empty netter would seal the game away and the Golden Gophers had their ticket punched for Tampa with the 4-1 win.
Now, Minnesota has its eyes set on Boston University, the champions of the Manchester region. With the recent failure to win the Big Ten championship, Minnesota is playing with a chip on its shoulder.
That matchup won’t take place for another week and a half as it will take place on April 6.
Anthony Desher is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email acd5698@psu.edu.
