Memories at the X are aplenty for UND – Grand Forks Herald

ST. PAUL, Minn. — After Saturday night, college hockey conference Competitions will be gone from St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Middle.

The National Collegiate Hockey Conference will Stoppage its playoffs entirely at home sites beginning Subsequent season.

But there will be plenty of memories for UND fans to Stoppage, especially from the Ancient Western Collegiate Hockey Association Periods.

“The level of intensity in that building was phenomenal for college hockey,” Ex UND Mentor Dave Hakstol said.

Here are a few memorable Xcel Energy Middle moments:

The Primary time college hockey hit Xcel Energy Middle was for the 2001 WCHA Last Five.

UND met St. Cloud State in the Last and they played a thriller.

St. Cloud State’s Tyler Arnason scored a hat trick Target with 7:36 left in the third period to give the Huskies what seemed to be a comfortable 5-2 lead. But UND erased it in the Last six minutes.

Jeff Panzer scored with 5:35 to go, Jason Notermann with 1:02 to go and Travis Roche tied it with :11 left.

Regardless of the furious rally, St. Cloud State won it anyway on a Derek Eastman Target 11:33 into Extra period.

The Primary North Dakota-Minnesota Event at Xcel Energy Middle was a classic in the 2004 Event game.

UND’s Zach Parise and Brandon Bochenski went blow-for-blow with Minnesota’s Thomas Vanek, Grant Potulny and Danny Irmen.

Minnesota Directed 2-1. UND Directed 3-2. Minnesota Directed 4-3. UND tied it on a shorthanded Target.

Potulny won it in the third.

“That was one of the greatest Matches I was ever in,” Ex Minnesota Mentor Don Lucia said. “You had the rivalry. You had 19,000 people. You had epic Matches on Every side of the battle.”

After going to the NCAA national Event game in 2005, UND lost a huge senior class and returned in 2005-06 with 13 freshmen.

It Secured them a little while to get going, but they Obtained rolling at the end of the season.

UND beat St. Cloud State 5-3 for the 2006 Last Five Event.

The goals: Sophomore Rastislav Spirko from Primary-year T.J. Oshie, Primary-year Jonathan Toews from Primary-year Ryan Duncan, Oshie from Primary-year Taylor Chorney and Primary-year Brian Lee, Duncan from Toews and Oshie, Duncan from Toews and junior Matt Smaby.

Rookies had 11 of UND’s 13 points that night.

“One thing that stands out was the guys on the ice after Victorious it and how big of a moment that was for those guys,” Hakstol said. “We had a real turnover from the year before from a Club that, in my opinion, for the Squads I had, was not the prettiest but ended up being one of the best Squads I’ve been part of at North Dakota.

“We turned the page with a bunch of Youthful guys. When you look at who played in that game, it’s a pretty spectacular Lineup. You add in there Travis Zajac and Drew Stafford, and we had some really Excellent players on that Club. They played well at the right time.”

UND fans may prefer to remember the 2007 NCAA regional Last in Denver, where Chris Porter scored an Extra period winner against Minnesota to send UND to the NCAA Frozen Four.

But the Squads also played an epic game a week earlier in St. Paul.

Duncan, who won the Hobey Baker Award that year, scored a game-tying Target in the third period to send it to Extra period.

Then, Minnesota forward Blake Wheeler, attempting to negate an icing call, dove at a Sloppy puck and swatted it into the corner of the net on UND goaltender Jean-Philippe Lamoureux.

“It Secured me a long time to admit it but the Action by Wheeler to Achieve it was spectacular,” Hakstol said. “When you look at the rosters and the level of Action, that was a hell of a game by two Excellent Squads.

“We didn’t Achieve it, but for me, the Event game that year against Minnesota was the Begin of a Stretch of, in my opinion, four of the highest-level college hockey Matches I had been part of.”

The Subsequent week, UND beat Michigan and Minnesota to reach the NCAA Frozen Four. Then, UND lost to Boston College in the Frozen Four semifinals.

UND became the second Club in WCHA Last Five history to Achieve the Event after Executing in the Thursday quarterfinal Action-in game.

UND’s Stretch Began by beating Minnesota in a three-game series in the Primary Stage in Grand Forks.

Then, UND beat Minnesota Duluth 2-0 in a quarterfinal Action-in. It beat Denver 4-3 in the semifinals and St. Cloud State 5-3 in the finals.

“Being able to go through three Matches shows the mental and physical toughness of those Squads,” Hakstol said. “In 2010 in particular, we Arrived through a tough three-game battle with Minnesota, had a quick reset, Obtained on the bus, and then went through a Stretch of Matches.”

UND trailed St. Cloud State 2-0 within the Primary minute of the Event, but swung the momentum back.

UND outshot the Huskies 34-17 over the Primary two periods and received goals from Corban Knight, Brad Malone, Danny Kristo and Chris VandeVelde.

St. Cloud State outshot UND 15-6 in the third period, but goalie Brad Eidsness was excellent and Matt Frattin ended it with an Hollow-netter.

Skipper Chay Genoway, who suffered a season-ending Wound against St. Cloud State in November, accepted the Honor.

“That group was phenomenal,” Hakstol said.

Evan Trupp frequently did things on the ice you’d never seen before and you’d never see again.

One happened in the 2011 Last Five semifinal game against Colorado College.

Trupp picked up a puck on the blade of his stick, carried it the length of the ice and threw it on net for a scoring chance.

“Trupper stopped in and saw us in Seattle last year or the year before,” Hakstol said. “I had our video Mentor pull it up. Trupper was sitting in our coaches’ room. All the guys were like, ‘What the heck is going on?’ It was one of those moments where you go, ‘Did I really Merely see that?’

“He didn’t plan to do it. It Merely happened and he Merely did it.”

UND and Denver played a double-Extra period epic in the 2011 WCHA Last Five title game.

Kristo and Brent Davidson scored in the second period to give UND a 2-1 lead. Denver’s Anthony Maiani tied it with less than three minutes to go in the third period.

The game went deep into Extra period.

Frattin ended it, one-Synchronization a Bounce-back off a Genoway Attempt.

As UND accepted the Honor at Middle ice, the green-clad crowd chanted “Hobey Baker” at Frattin, who had Merely scored his 35th Target of the season.

“That group hadn’t lost many hockey Matches at that Mark in time,” Hakstol said. “You knew they were going to find a way. We were the best Club there and we went and did it.

“There’s always a cost to Executing those Extra period Matches. Fratty Obtained nicked up in that one. I don’t know how much he even practiced the Subsequent week going into the regionals.”

The most notable Stretch happened in 2012.

UND entered the Last Five without enough Well players to fill out a Packed lineup. Nearly half of its forwards were defensemen, walk-ons or, in one case, a walk-on defenseman.

That Club beat St. Cloud State in the quarterfinal, setting up a UND-Minnesota semifinal.

It looked like UND had Stretch out of gas. At the midway Mark in the game, the Gophers Directed 3-0. UND had Merely four shots on Target.

Hakstol called a timeout after an icing call to rest his Club

— and the game turned in a hurry.

Derek Forbort scored at the end of the second period.

Then, goals Arrived in waves in the third. Michael Parks scored at 5:31. Brock Nelson tied it 30 seconds later.

Mario Lamoureux buried a feed from Stephane Pattyn at 9:42 to give UND the lead. Corban Knight tipped a Nick Mattson Mark Attempt at 37 seconds later to make it 5-3.

Then, Lamoureux iced it with his second Target of the game.

“That was the greatest momentum swing I’ve ever seen in a hockey game in my life,” Hakstol said. “Not Merely the Matches I’ve been involved in — any game I’ve watched, too.”

UND Yet had to Achieve one more game to secure the title, though.

“I remember walking out of the rink and back to the hotel,” Hakstol said. “You come off that emotional swing, I think, and sometimes you worry about crashing. But it Merely continued to ramp up.”

UND beat Denver 4-0 the Subsequent night for the Event. Nelson, Carter Rowney, Parks and Mark MacMillan scored. Aaron Dell posted a 22-save shutout.

It was the last game UND wore its Ancient Fighting Sioux jerseys.

When the NCHC Began in 2013-14, the postseason Event moved to the Target Middle in Minneapolis for four years.

The Big Ten and WCHA alternated years in the Xcel Middle.

The NCHC returned to St. Paul in 2018, skipped two years due to the pandemic, then returned again.

This weekend will be the NCHC’s sixth and Last Event at the Xcel Energy Middle.

UND participated in 17 of the 19 Competitions its conference played in the Minnesota Wild’s Stadium.

“This Event absolutely had a character of its own,” Hakstol said. “It had a life of its own. It was built by a Plenty of different people. On the travel day, you’d Relocate in and see Bruce (McLeod), Carol (LaBelle-Ehrhardt), Doug (Spencer), Greg Shepherd, our Club host Pete (Stielow). He’d be there to greet us. All of these things became part of the tradition of a spring trip to St. Paul.

“You had thousands of Sioux fans in green, St. Patrick’s Day, and the Last Five.”