Minnesota's NCAA regional opponent will be an old familiar one: Minnesota-Duluth. The Gophers and Bulldogs drew a matchup against each other after UM's Big Ten Tournament championship win Saturday.
The teams will square off on Friday in Manchester, NH, in the opening round of the NCAA Northeast Regional.
Although the teams have met only once in NCAA tournament play - a 3-1 UM-D victory in 2004 -- they've already faced off four times during the 2014-15 regular season. Minnesota holds a 134-78-17 all-time record against the NCHC competitor. The Gophers and Bulldogs have only met once in the NCAA tournament, a 3-1 win for Minnesota Duluth in the 2004 NCAA Midwest Regional in Grand Rapids, Mich. Meanwhile, the Gophers are 12-12-2 all-time against Boston University (5-3 in the NCAA tournament) and 14-6-0 all-time against Yale (0-1 in the NCAA tournament).
Minnesota State and Michigan Tech are in the field, too. The Mavericks and Huskies tussled Saturday night on FOX Sports North in one of the most memorable championship tilts in NCAA history. A tight WCHA tournament championship battle finally broke open in the third period as Minnesota State erupted for four unanswered goals. The Mavs were powered by a natural hat trick from freshman Brad McClure.
The NCAA has awarded Minnesota State -- which owns the nation's top win percentage (.782) -- the tournament's overall No. 1 seed. That pits the Mavericks (29-7-3) against R.I.T. (19-14-5), the Atlantic Conference champion, in South Bend on Saturday.
Michigan Tech, which lost out in a bid for the WCHA regular season title to Minnesota State by one point, received the West Regional's second seed. The Mavs will face off against St. Cloud State (at-large seed) in Fargo on Friday.
DOUG McLEOD is the original Voice of Golden Gopher hockey. He began calling Minnesota games on radio in 1978 and moved to TV in 1987. He also spent 16 seasons in the National Hockey League as voice of the Minnesota North Stars, Pittsburgh Penguins and Phoenix Coyotes.
