Roughly 320 miles separate North Dakota’s Ralph Engelstad Arena from Minnesota’s Mariucci Arena. On Friday, the Fighting Hawks will take that trip across the border into the Twin Cities to resume one of the most fabled rivalries in college hockey. But this weekend’s matchup will be a little different.
It will be the first meeting between the two programs in almost three years.
Many players on either roster haven’t experienced the Minnesota-North Dakota rivalry. The ones who have were just freshmen, wide-eyed as they faced the famed rivals for the first time on one of the biggest stages in the country, the 2014 Frozen Four in Philadelphia.