{"id":146305,"date":"2024-03-22T21:56:18","date_gmt":"2024-03-23T02:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=146305"},"modified":"2024-03-22T22:12:23","modified_gmt":"2024-03-23T03:12:23","slug":"omaha-puts-six-on-north-dakota-to-advance-to-nchc-championship-game-in-inaugural-frozen-faceoff-appearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2024\/03\/22\/omaha-puts-six-on-north-dakota-to-advance-to-nchc-championship-game-in-inaugural-frozen-faceoff-appearance\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 11 Omaha puts six on No. 4-ranked North Dakota to advance to NCHC championship game in inaugural Frozen Faceoff appearance"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Omaha and North Dakota square off Friday night in the first NCHC semifinal (photo: Russell Hons).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ST. PAUL, Minn. —<\/strong> A regular-season-ending sweep of North Dakota put Omaha in great position to make the NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n

The Mavericks all but ensured going there after advancing to the Frozen Faceoff, and another dominant victory over the regular-season champs has them within reach of a conference tournament trophy to go with it.<\/p>\n

Zach Urdahl scored two of his three goals in the third period to help the Mavericks pull away to beat the Fighting Hawks 6-3 on Friday night in the first NCHC Frozen Faceoff semifinal. A surging Omaha program making its debut in the conference semifinals sure left no doubt they belonged here by keeping UND off their game all night at Xcel Energy Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally proud of our guys\u2019 effort tonight,\u201d said Mavericks coach Mike Gabinet, who brought this program into their first conference tournament semifinal since 2001 when they won a series at Colorado College last weekend. \u201cI thought we played a really good game there start to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

In large part that was thanks to the defense of North Dakota not playing very sharp, as a visibly annoyed coach Brad Berry acknowledged after the game. He thought his goaltender played well, but that he didn\u2019t have enough help from his teammates after Omaha put 35 shots on goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re gonna have to play a little tighter defensively,\u201d Berry said.<\/p>\n

The regular-season champion Fighting Hawks came out fast knowing what the Mavericks did to them in their last series. NCHC player of the year Jackson Blake found Jackson Kunz out front and Kunz banged it home just 1:18 into the contest, and it was 1-0 North Dakota. Omaha responded with heavy pressure over the next three minutes and eight shots but couldn\u2019t beat Hobie Hedquist.<\/p>\n

UND then countered with their forecheck and wouldn\u2019t let UNO record another shot for over 10 minutes while the Hawks piled up shots on their own.<\/p>\n

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Kid can't be stopped..#OmahaHKY<\/a> | @ZUrdahl<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/MaTRBio63L<\/a><\/p>\n

— Omaha Hockey (@OmahaHKY) March 22, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n