Last weekend was historical for the National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s hockey tournament. All five of Minnesota’s Division One hockey programs made it to the first round, a first for the same season. 

The Bemidji State University Beavers, Minnesota State University-Mankato Mavericks, St. Cloud State University Huskies, University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs and the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers were the entrants. 

Growing up, my family had season tickets to SCSU hockey so we went almost every weekend and naturally I was a huge fan. The Huskies were my team and remained close, even when I went to a different college. 

Back in the early 2000’s when we would attend games, the atmosphere was like a MN Wild game. Everyone was super into it and the games were packed, I miss it a lot. 

However, as one gets older, your allegiances tend to change as did mine. I went from a diehard SCSU fan, to choosing the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks and they became my number one team. SCSU remained second and I cheer for both if they aren’t playing each other. 

So, on to tournament play. Bemidji unfortunately lost out but the others remained. MSU was the last to claim their place amongst the Frozen Four with a historic win over the U of M. That punched their first ticket to the finals. 

The second win for Minnesota hockey was SCSU defeating Boston College. First, they got by Boston University then had to face BC. Many had BC picked to win but that didn’t hold up. BC got the early lead however, SCSU was able to fight back and score just their second trip to the Frozen Four in their history. I was pretty happy still being an SCSU fan and all.

The third win was during a match-up that was rather difficult for me, UND had to play UMD to go on. I was obviously cheering for UND to win but that game turned out to be one for the books. 

It was pretty even, up until the third period when UMD jumped on the scoreboard with two quick goals. That was when things started to get heated for UND, that next goal was going to make or break it for them. It came down to the last minute and a half when UND stormed back, scoring two huge goals to send it to overtime. 

Now typically, many expect overtime to end rather fast on a typical fluky goal. That wasn’t the case with this game. UMD thought they had it won early in the first overtime but it was deemed offsides and overturned so back to overtime we went. Now, I don’t know about you but during overtime games I tend to forget to breathe and that was no different with this game. Every close call came with a huge gulp of air. 

One overtime went by with no change in the score. Then the second went by and a third, then a fourth and at that point it was starting to reach the point that was historic. 

Once that fourth overtime ended and they made it to the fifth, they went on to be the longest NCAA tourney hockey game in history at 142 minutes and 13 seconds. So, in terms of hours, that’s 2 hours, 22 minutes and 13 seconds when a normal game is around one hour, pretty crazy. 

If you include stoppages and intermissions the game lasted over six hours. UMD finally scored in that fifth overtime to go on to play for their third consecutive NCAA Championship starting April 8. The other impressive thing about that game was the respect that went on following the conclusion.

There was the obvious celebrating by UMD and the utter disappointment for UND. However, UMD’s goaltender and several other players went out of their way to skate over to UND’s goalie and pat him on the back and just show respect. 

Regardless of how the game ended, going into five overtimes, it’s hard to watch anyone lose and that show of class and respect went a long way. I was very impressed and happy to see them care that much. No one would have expected it of them but they did it regardless. UMD, MSU and SCSU will join the University of Massachusetts in the Frozen Four starting April 8.