March 4, 2012
Tickets (available Monday morning)| Tournament bracket (all times ET)
The Golden Gophers earned an automatic bid to the 2012 NCAA Championship with their win at the WCHA Final Face-off. Minnesota is the No. 2 seed in the tournament, and will host North Dakota in the quarterfinal round. The game will be Saturday, March 10 at 4 p.m. at Ridder Arena. Tickets will be available on gophersports.com or by phone at 612-624-8080 or 1-800-U-Gopher on Monday morning.
"We are excited to host this season," said Gopher coach Brad Frost. "At this point in the season, you're in a one-and-done situation, so you have to play your best every single game. We look forward to playing North Dakota."
Defending champion Wisconsin is the top seed in the NCAA Championship, and will host Mercyhurst in the quarterfinal round. Cornell is the third seed, and will host Boston University in the opening round. The fourth seed goes to Boston College, who will host St. Lawrence in the quarterfinals.
The Gophers' meeting with North Dakota will be the sixth this season, with the Gophers having a slight edge at 3-2 in the previous five meetings. The last meeting between the teams was last Friday in the WCHA Final Face-off semifinals, when Minnesota earned a 6-0 shutout win. In regular season games this season, Minnesota and North Dakota are even at 2-2, splitting the series in Grand Forks in December and the series in Minneapolis in February.
Minnesota is making its tenth appearance in the 12-year history of the NCAA Championship, and has qualified for the tournament for a fifth-straight season. The Gophers have a 9-8-1 overall record in the NCAA Tournament, with a 4-1 record in NCAA quarterfinal games. The NCAA first included quarterfinal games in 2005 after expanding the tournament field to eight teams.
"I've said this many times in the last several weeks, but our team is playing really well right now," said Frost. "This is a confident group, and we hope to continue playing strong this weekend."
If the Gophers win their NCAA Quarterfinal game, they will advance to the NCAA Frozen Four, held at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn., March 16-18.
