North Dakota
Bulldogs blast North Dakota to reach NCHC championship
GRAND FORKS, N.D. — Minnesota Duluth will go for its fourth NCHC Frozen Faceoff championship next weekend following a 5-1 victory over regular season champion North Dakota in the league tournament semifinals before a crowd of 9,902 fans at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
The fourth-seeded Bulldogs — who last won an NCHC postseason title in 2022 — will travel to second-seeded Denver, which beat third-seeded Western Michigan 2-1 in overtime Saturday. UMD and the Pioneers will play for the league title at 7 p.m. CDT Saturday at Magness Arena.
“I don’t think there are much bigger feelings,” said sophomore wing and UMD’s leading scorer, Max Plante. “Biggest game we played in yet in college hockey. We got it done, so one more stepping stone to achieve our first goal.”
Sophomore forwards Callum Arnott, Max Plante, Jayson Shaugabay and Harper Bentz scored for the Bulldogs, as did senior center Kyle Gaffney.
Senior wing Dylan James scored for North Dakota’s lone goal less than two minutes into the third period.
Bulldogs sophomore goaltender Adam Gajan made 33 saves — 17 in the opening 20 minutes — while North Dakota freshman Jan Spunar — the NCHC Goaltender of the Year — finished with 17 stops.
“This guy was great,” Bulldogs coach Scott Sandelin said, pointing to Gajan in the chair next to him at a news conference Saturday. “All game, but especially in the first period. He made some key saves for us.”
Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald
Scott Sandelin broke up his top line Saturday. He jumbled all the forward lines, and it led to five goals by his forwards.
“We tried it,” Sandelin said. “It’s great when it works.”
Sophomore wing Harper Bentz played alongside the Plante brothers, Zam and Max, while Shaugabay and freshman Luke Bibby were centered by Arnott.
Freshman wing Hunter Anderson took Arnott’s spot on the wing alongside seniors Scout Truman and Kyle Gaffney — a trio UMD has used this season, at times. Freshman Daniel Shlaine returned to the lineup, but at wing with senior center Kyle Kovich.
Redshirt freshman wing Trevor Stachowiak dressed for just his fourth game of the season and sixth game in two years at UMD after missing most of last year to a leg injury.
Sandelin said he wanted to create more balance in the lineup — having a good idea who North Dakota would try and match up against the Plantes — and it’s possible he returns to the usual combinations next weekend.
Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald
“There’s always conversations,” Sandelin said about mixing up the lines, including breaking up the top line of Shaugabay and the Plantes. “How can we make our team better? I think we felt good with Cal in the middle. He played there last year, played there early. Not easy to take Shaugs off the top line — doesn’t mean he can’t go back with them.”
Sandelin broke up his top line one other time in 2025-26 in two losses at Denver, separating Shaugabay and Plantes for the third period of a 4-3 loss on Friday. They started Saturday’s 1-0 loss apart, but were back together by the 10-minute mark that night.
The changes stuck on Saturday, and considering the results, there were no complaints by UMD’s forwards.
“I don’t think it’s much of a change,” Bentz said. “We got a lot of good players who can play with anybody. Obviously that top line’s been special all year, so being able to go up there, is a big slot to fill.
“But Shaugs and that third line, they had a great night, too. Spread it out and get more lines going.”
Bibby got his first two college points and his line got rave reviews. Bibby sprung the attack that led to Shaugabay’s goal in the second period to make it 3-0, and made a pass to Gaffney for the fifth UMD goal of the night.
“I thought Bibby played really well tonight,” Bentz said.
Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald
Bibby, Shaugabay and Arnott finished a combined plus-6 in Saturday’s semifinal.
“Bibbs plays a physical game, it was nice to see him get a couple points there,” Arnott said. “Shaugs is skilled, so you just have to get open to shoot and it makes my life pretty easy.”
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead via goals by Arnott and Max Plante, with Arnott scoring just over two minutes into the game. Gajan said that lead was important after UMD spent both quarterfinal wins over St. Cloud State at Amsoil Arena chasing the Huskies and only leading at the very end of the OT wins.
“It was key to play with the lead the whole game,” Gajan said of Saturday’s win. “They made it 3-1, two goals is kind of tight, and then huge goal by Bentz. That helped us so much. It was a great game.”
Arnott cashed in a rebound created by senior captain and defenseman Joey Pierce, who recorded just his second assist and fifth point to give UMD a 1-0 lead.
Plante was sprung loose for a breakaway by sophomore defenseman Ty Hanson — he’s now got 34 points — to put UMD ahead by two 7:16 into the game. His goal came 13 seconds after the Bulldogs killed off a controversial minor penalty that had been reviewed for a major.
UMD dodged an early major penalty on Bibby for spearing. The referees called for a video review themselves after the blade of Bibby caught the groin region of North Dakota freshman Keaton Verhoeff. They came away with just a minor for slashing. The Bulldogs were able to kill off the penalty and Plante put UMD ahead by two off the kill.
“I was ready to kill Bibby after he took the penalty,” Sandelin said, “especially if it was a major. But he felt bad. As the guys talked about on the bench, we have to kill it off whether it is two or five (minutes). Just dig in and help him out. Our guys did that.”
Two-goal leads are the most dangerous leads in hockey, dontcha know? And that has been the case this season for the Bulldogs against North Dakota.
UMD has now scored the first goal in four of its five games against the Hawks and led by two goals in two of the four regular season contests, winning both, but only in 3-on-3 overtime after North Dakota rallied to tie and force OT.
Shaugabay, of nearby Warroad, gave UMD its first 3-0 lead over the Hawks just 86 seconds into the second period by coming from behind to put away a rebound off the scoring chance of Arnott.
“The tale of the tape was a little different than the first couple times we played them,” Max Plante said. “We got up early this time, so we had to learn to play with a lead. The biggest part of that was blocking shots. Gajan played big in between the pipes.”
It was a good day for Section 8. In addition to Warroad’s Shaugabay — from the current Class A state champion Warriors — Moorhead’s Bentz also gave the Bulldogs a three-goal lead on Saturday, making it a 4-1 lead with 11:51 left in regulation. He tipped through a shot by sophomore defenseman Adam Kleber after North Dakota had pulled within two early in the third period.
“Being an hour away from home, I had a lot of family here,” Bentz said. “Being able to put one in felt great, and it was in a big part of the game.”
Gaffney somehow snuck a puck through the smallest of holes with 7:11 left in the game to make it 5-1, and send the non-sellout crowd in green for the exit early in what wound up being the last game of 2025-26 at The Ralph. North Dakota would have hosted the championship next week with a win.
“It feels amazing,” Arnott said of the win. “They don’t like us, we don’t like them. It’s nice to do it in their home barn.”
Minnesota Duluth 2-1-2—5
North Dakota 0-0-1—1
First period
1. UMD, Callum Arnott (Joey Pierce), 2:14
2. UMD, Max Plante (Ty Hanson), 7:16
Second period
3. UMD, Jayson Shaugabay (Arnott, Luke Bibby), 1:26
Third period
4. ND, Dylan James (Cole Reschny, EJ Emery), 1:59
5. UMD, Harper Bentz (Adam Kleber, Zam Plante), 8:09
6. UMD, Kyle Gaffney (Bibby, Riley Bodnarchuk), 12:49
Saves — Adam Gajan, UMD, 33; Jan Spunar, ND, 17.
Power plays — UMD 0-1; ND 0-3. Penalties — UMD 3-6; ND 1-2.
FARGO — It’s not over yet for the long-standing co-op of Four Winds-Minnewaukan in northeast North Dakota. The two communities will be packing their suitcases one more weekend for a trip to the North Dakota Division A state boys basketball tournament.
They won’t have to go far from the Scheels Center, where the Indians defeated Fargo Oak Grove 60-50 Saturday afternoon in a state play-in game. The state tourney is across the street March 19-21 at the Fargodome.
It’s the final year for the Indians, with Four Winds going on its own and dropping to Division B while Minnewaukan will pair up with Warwick. It’s turning this season into somewhat of a going-away party.
“Most of these kids, they’re all friends, they’ve all grown up together,” said Indians head coach Rick Smith. “It’s a little sad in a way that we won’t get to see their kids anymore. It is what it is. It’s something out of our control but we have to move on and keep our focus on Fargo again next weekend.”
At 22-3, there have been plenty of victory celebrations.
It was looking easy for another one leading 48-34 early in the fourth quarter, until the Grovers scored seven straight to make things interesting. It was still a seven-point game with 3:15 left.
Anna Paige / The Forum
But Oak Grove went scoreless from that point until Ryder Soper’s steal and dunk with 29 seconds remaining. It was a double-digit lead at that point for the Indians.
“Too big of a hole in the first half and they won some battles and hit some shots when they had to,” said Oak Grove head coach Kyle Card. “We came out the second half and took it to them a little bit but they stretched it out too much.”
The last state appearance for the Indians was 2022 when they won the Class B championship, before getting moved to Division A the last three seasons. No longer will they have to watch teams on TV in the state tournament they’ve beaten during the season.
“We thought there might be a Class A jinx for a bit,” Smith said. “You have to be playing your best basketball come region time. Every region game is going to be a dogfight. The key tonight was to come out with a quick start and that’s exactly what we did. You can’t take these for granted because they don’t come around too often.”
Marial Deng, a 6-foot-5 University of North Dakota football recruit, led the way with 22 points. Four Winds-Minnewaukan showed some balance with eight players scoring.
Anna Paige / The Forum
Oak Grove finished 15-10, with the Grovers winning six of its previous eight heading into Saturday. Four Winds-Minnewaukan beat Oak Grove by 30 in the first game of the year, so there was that gauge of improvement.
“Just the way this team battled all year, from where we were when we got beat by 30,” Card said. “It’s a testament to our seniors and how hard they worked but we have a good group coming back.”
FW-M 19 36 47 60
Oak Grove 12 24 34 50
FW-M: Deng 22, Dubois 5, Black Jr. 2, Alberts 4, Delorme 7, Jackson Jr. 9, Lohnes 9.
OAK GROVE: Saunders 19, Koenig 6, Thomsen 2, Olson 8, Meidinger 4, Soper 11.
Anna Paige / The Forum
The season isn’t over yet for Wahpeton, who put the clamps on the Spoilers with a relentless defensive effort in the second Division A play-in game of the day. The Huskies advance to next week’s state tournament at the Fargodome holding Grafton to a season low in points.
“That says a lot of how we like to guard,” said Wahpeton head coach Jeff Ralph. “We don’t always guard that way but tonight we did.
Wahpeton won 13 of 15 heading into the game including defeating Valley City in the Region 1 third place game to reach the play-in game against the Spoilers, the Region 2 runnerup.
A 20-point second quarter boosted the Huskies to a 31-18 halftime lead with the trio of Brayden Steffens, Cooper Koolmo and Jack Gilbertson with eight points each.
A Steffens 3-pointer halfway through the third quarter made it an 18-point Huskies lead. The 6-foot- senior guard led the way with 19 points.
At one point 5-4 and not much going right, Wahpeton heads back to state where it was last year with momentum with a 19-6 record.
“We couldn’t make a basket, we couldn’t make a free throw and we really didn’t guard or rebound for a while in the beginning of January,” Ralph said. “But we got all that stuff fixed.”
Wahpeton 11 31 45 61
Grafton 6 18 30 43
Anna Paige / The Forum
Jeff Kolpack, the son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he’s covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995. He has covered all 10 of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written four books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough,” “Covid Kids” and “They Caught Them Sleeping: How Dot Reinvented the Pretzel.” He is also the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” April through August.
North Dakota
West Fargo’s efforts fall just short as Bismarck Century returns to ND Division AA boys title game
BISMARCK — Down 14 points at halftime, West Fargo didn’t quit.
The Packers made Friday’s North Dakota Division AA boys basketball state tournament semifinal game against Bismarck Century interesting late, but were unable to complete the comeback in a 69-67 loss to the Patriots at the Bismarck Event Center.
“This is a great team over here that we just played,” said Century junior Gibson Kinnebrew, who finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Patriots to the state title game for the second straight year. “We’ve been through this before, we just had to stay aggressive. We knew (West Fargo) was going to keep fighting. We just had to stay gritty, keep the aggressiveness up and play as a team.”
David Samson / The Forum
With the win, West No. 2 Century (22-4) will get a chance to defend its 2025 state title. The Patriots will play West No. 1 Bismarck (25-1) at 8 p.m. Saturday back at the Bismarck Event Center.
Century dealt Bismarck its lone defeat this season, a 73-64 result in January. The Demons won the other regular season contest over the Patriots, as well as last weekend’s West Region championship game.
“We’ve just got to talk on defense and keep our guys in front of us,” Kinnebrew said. “We’ve got to calm down on offense too, but we’ve just got to play solid.”
East No. 1 West Fargo (19-7) will play West No. 3 Dickinson (18-8) in the third-place game at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
Down 38-24 at half, the Packers clawed away at the deficit over the final 18 minutes. With 1:19 left, an Aiden Samek bucket brought West Fargo as close as it had been all night — bringing the margin to just four at 65-61.
Later, AJ Brackins hit a late jumper to pull the Packers within two points at 69-67 with 0.7 seconds remaining on the clock.
On the ensuing Century inbound, the Patriots heaved the ball to half-court where West Fargo’s Beckett Pfau picked it off. One final desperation shot from Pfau was off the mark and, regardless, didn’t make it out of his hands before the final horn.
West Fargo shot just 27.6% in the first half and were unable to recover from an 11-0 Century run to open the game.
“You’ve got to make your layups, we were a little bit cold from 3, and we shot too many early ones,” West Fargo head coach Adam Palczewski said. “So the shot selection was rough, but sometimes they go in. I have 100% confidence in my guys and I’ll never not believe in those guys.”
David Samson / The Forum
Zavion Harildstad opened the scoring for Century with a two-point bucket. He was followed up by three consecutive triples from Braylon Aldinger, Kinnebrew and Aldinger again.
Brackins stopped the early bleeding for the Packers with a pair of free throws, but the Patriots utilized the momentum from the early scoring sequence and never relinquished the lead.
“We had a layup to start the game and we didn’t shoot it,” Palczewski said. “There was no shell shock (to start). We just didn’t make our shots.”
The Packers finished the night 23 of 59 (39%) from the floor including 7 of 23 (30.4%) from range.
Samek paced West Fargo with 18 points. Haakon Seymour had 13 points to go with seven rebounds. Brackins and Wyatt Knudsen each had 11 points and six boards while Stephon Booth led the Packers in rebounds with eight.
West Fargo’s roster consisted of nine seniors this season.
“They’re amazing,” Palczewski said. “They did everything and they expect nothing. I just don’t want to let those guys down. I’m so happy to coach those young men.”
David Samson / The Forum
Century finished 25 of 60 (41.7%) shooting including 8 of 25 (32%) from three. Kinnebrew’s double-double was followed up by 12 points from Garrett Nissley. Harildstad collected eight rebounds.
Halftime: Bismarck Century 38, West Fargo 24
BC: Kinnebrew 25, Nissley 12, Aldinger 8, Kraemer 7, Zakai Harildstad 7, Kraljic 6, Zavion Harildstad 2, Spears 2.
WF: Samek 18, Seymour 13, Brackins 11, Knudsen 11, Booth 8, Pfau 3, Glandt 3.
David Samson / The Forum
David Samson / The Forum
David Samson / The Forum
David Samson / The Forum
David Samson / The Forum
Wayne Clarence Ostlund, 80, of East Grand Forks, Minnesota passed away at Luther Memorial Home in Mayville, North Dakota on March 9, 2026.
Wayne Clarence Ostlund was born on November 28, 1945 in Warren, Minnesota to Clarence and Martha (Jedeke) Ostlund. He was raised in East Grand Forks, Minnesota. During high school, Wayne was an athlete, playing football, hockey, track, and American Legion baseball. In his first year after high school, he played hockey for the Grand Forks Warriors, which consisted of prior Fighting Sioux players and locals. Wayne had considered playing hockey for either the University of Minnesota or the University of North Dakota, but was drafted into the military before he could enroll.
He served in the Navy at Naval Schools Command, Quonset Point, Rhode Island and Carrier Wing 21 at Naval Air Station, Lemoore, California. He was deployed in Vietnam for 10 months. During his tour of duty, Wayne played on the Navy baseball team in Rhode Island, where they competed against college teams from Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and Massachusetts. On January 5, 1973, Wayne married Sue Langie in Crookston, Minnesota. After his release from duty, Wayne attended college then accepted a loan officer position at Valley Bank and Trust Co., spending 25 years in banking and retiring as Vice President.
In his free time, Wayne enjoyed hunting, fishing, baseball, golf, hockey, and football. He was also a member of the East Grand Forks American Legion and a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
He is preceded in death by his parents, Clarence and Martha Ostlund; his sister, Roselle; and his brothers-in-law, Bryan Milling and James Aamodt.
Wayne is survived by his wife, Susan (Langei) of 53 years; daughters, Lisa Hagen of Troy, OH, Nicole (Josh) Grinde of East Grand Forks, MN; sons Keith (Anne) Ostlund of Grand Forks, ND, Ryan Ostlund of East Grand Forks, MN; grandchildren, Shantay (Lance) Furrow of Troy, OH, Lanie Hagen of Bemidji, MN; great-granddaughter, Ava Furrow of Troy, OH; and sisters, Carol Aamodt of Grand Forks, ND and Barb Milling of East Grand Forks, MN.
MEMORIAL SERVICE: Private family service to be held at a later date
MEMORIALS TO: The American Diabetes Association
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