SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The NCAA men’s ice hockey Sioux Falls regional came to a close Saturday night as North Dakota claimed a 5-0 win over Quinnipiac to punch the program’s 23rd trip to the Frozen Four and first in a decade.

The Fighting Hawks jumped on the board early with three goals in the first and added two more in the second.

“It’s one thing to give guys a game plan, but they had to execute it,” North Dakota head coach Dane Jackson said. “You got enough sharp guys that have hockey sense and puck poise and selflessness. We have high-end players. They kind of want to do better because they can, but we just said, ‘hey, let’s take what the game gives us and kind of let the puck do the work.’”

The Fighting Hawks open the Frozen Four against Wisconsin on April 9 in Las Vegas.

IRVINE, Calif. — Team North Dakota (ND) coach Jared Cowan didn’t have many words to share after he had just witnessed his program’s first title.

“Not many words so far here, it was a great tournament,” Cowan said. “The kids played hard, resilient and they put in the work. They deserve it.”

His kids played nearly perfect in the 1A title game of the 2026 Chipotle-USA Hockey Youth Tier II 16U National Championship at Great Park Ice, taking down Team Wyoming 9-0 on Sunday.

A four-goal second period helped North Dakota take control of a game that featured 36 total penalties.

Asher Straus scored twice for North Dakota, while Nathan Fogarty, Ray Sjule, Tyler Dub, Carson Hogness, Keegan Brenno and Colton Lehn rounded out the team’s goals. There was one goal unaccounted for on the final stat sheet.

Balanced scoring has been a theme for North Dakota in this tournament. Sjule and Lehn became the 13th and 14th players to score a goal for North Dakota at nationals. Lehn led the tournament with eight assists, while Straus and Hogness tied for the team lead with five goals.

Unlike some other teams at nationals, the North Dakota roster came back together following the high school season and made a run to the national championship, just the third in state history.

“You’ve got to relearn how people play,” said Hogness, a co-captain. “People play differently in high schools, different systems, all that. So it’s a different aspect when you come back together and play. But it was fun.”

North Dakota’s 32-9 advantage in shots didn’t leave much work for goaltender Alex Straus, who had a nice kick save during a Wyoming power play midway through the first period that might have been the toughest he had to make Sunday. It was his second shutout of the tournament.

“It means a lot,” Alex Straus said. “Three weeks ago, I was on the other side, losing in the state championship, so this means a lot to me.”

Alex Straus gave a lot of the credit to his defense, which was fantastic throughout nationals. North Dakota allowed four goals in five games.

“I think they’re pretty good,” Alex Straus said. “They block a lot of shots. Get the puck out deep and I think they listen to me pretty well when I give them some communication.”

Cowan said he had to shift two forwards back to defense for this tournament due to injuries and they kept the standard high.

“They put pressure on everything, and they don’t give up too many odd-man rushes and they block shots when they need to,” Cowan said.

It’s just a good system to play in.”

Fogarty got the scoring started when, after the Wyoming goaltender had seemingly stopped the puck following a point-blank shot, he stuffed the puck into the goal 2:18 into the game.

“That’s what we try to do,” Cowan said. “We try to get that first one quick, and then just keep building on that with pressure and playing our position and playing connected in all three zones.”

Wyoming had two shutouts en route to the championship game, the second straight for several members of this roster. Wyoming dropped the Tier II 14U national championship game a year ago.

“I can’t give enough props to two teams from the Northern Plains both being here and that one of us gets to walk away a national champion,” Wyoming coach Kasey Kiel said. “But the fact is, out of everybody across the whole country, we’ve got two Northern Plains representatives. That’s fun.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

Today in History revisits the Friday, March 29, 1940, edition of the Grand Forks Herald and highlights a story of the organization of the Minn-Kota Electric Power Co-operative.

Organization of the Minn-Kota Electric Power Co-operative, to direct farm electricity units in Minnesota and North Dakota counties along the Red river was completed at a meeting here Thursday night.

P. J. Donelly, Grafton, a director of the Nodak co-operative, was named president. Other officers will be S. E. Hunt of Thief River Falls, a director of the Red Lake Rural Electric association; vice president; Victor Edman of Alvarado, Minn., P K and M co-operative, secretary – treasurer; Einar Johnson of Lakota, attorney and A. L. Freeman of Grand Forks, acting superintendent. Engineers will be Ellerby and Co. of St. Paul.

Power co-operative directors who attended were Hugh M. Trowbridge of Comstock, Minn., Red River Valley Electric association; O. P. Refling, Fertile, Minn., Wild Rice Rural Electric co-op; Harry Branigan, Shelvin, Minn., Itasca-Mantrap REA; M. D. Butler, Grand Forks, F. C. Chandler, Whitman, N. D., L. C. Odegard, Buxton, N. D., and Donelly, Nodak Rural Electric co-operative, Hunt and Edman.

Besides the nine directors, those in attendance included George J. Long of Washington, D. C., assistant engineering head of the rural electrification administration; G. B. Ellerbe & Co., engineer, St. Paul; W. T. DePuy, Nodak attorney, Grafton.

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