For the University of North Dakota, it was a tale as old as time: a Penrose-winning regular season capped off with an early loss in the NCAA tournament.  

“We battled extremely hard, and we didn’t get the result we wanted to reward for our effort,” Head Coach Brad Berry said. “But I was proud of the way our guys responded and played today.”  

UND fell to the University of Michigan 4-3 on March 29 in the first round of the Maryland Heights regional. Since their 2016 championship, UND has only one win in the NCAA tournament.  

Before the game even started, it was announced that fifth-year Garrett Pyke would be held out of the lineup due to injury. Berry said the injury was severe enough that Pyke would have been held out for two weeks if UND continued playing. It was an unfortunate event for Pyke since it would have been his first time playing in the NCAA tournament, and it was also unfortunate for UND, who lost one of their key puck-moving defensemen and the quarterback of their second power-play unit.  

“That’s the way fate and destiny is…sometimes,” Berry said. “You have to make adjustments for it, and you have to find a way to win.”  

UND came out hot to start the game; Hunter Johannes scored the opening goal in the first five minutes. Beyond the early lead, UND dominated the first period, holding the dynamic Michigan offense to four shots and registering seven of their own.  

“At the beginning, they were out shooting us pretty good,” Michigan Forward Dylan Duke said. “We only had four shots going after the first period. So, we knew we had to change something, had to come out with a strong mentality.”  

And the Wolverines did, with Frank Nazar scoring the tying goal just 1:47 into the second period. The Wolverines tried to build off that momentum but were unsuccessful. Jackson Blake would restore UND’s lead seven minutes later. UND also outshot Michigan again in the second. However, it triggered a shift in Michigan, according to Duke.  

“Adversity has been something we’ve been going through all year,” Duke said. “We had a good team talk in the locker room, and we talked about doing it for the guy next to you. So, we came out in the third, did that, and found a way to win a big game.”  

The third period, specifically the first twelve minutes of it, was the deciding factor in the game. Michigan scored three unanswered goals to take a 4-2 lead, with the tying goal coming just 50 seconds into the third period. Duke, who scored the tying and winning goals in the third, said Michigan “did everything it takes to win a hockey game” in the third period.  

However, if you ask UND, it was not that Michigan did everything right, but that they fell flat.  

“We might have started out a little flat in the third,” UND Assistant Captain Jake Schmaltz said. “They were able to capitalize on it, with three goals.”  

UND would wake up after the fourth goal and try to push back, with Jackson Kunz bringing it within one with five minutes left to play. But the push came too late, and Michigan was able to hold down its one-goal lead to advance to the regional finals.  

Despite the outcome, the UND hockey team felt they could be proud of the game they played.  

“I’m just proud of the way we played today,” Schmaltz said. “I thought that we worked hard. We came out playing physical… we fought hard there in the end; it just did not come for us.”  

Now that the season has ended, Berry must begin planning next year’s team, which he says will include multiple returning players.  

“It’s tough to think about that right now,” Berry said. “Once we get back, it will be a situation where we have conversations to see what goes on. But I know the majority of our guys will be coming back and carry on with another year.” 

Maeve Hushman is a Dakota Student Sports Reporter. She can be reached at [email protected].