The inaugural day of the 2021 NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Championship opened with shocking results off and on the ice and concluded with a decisive victory for the tournament’s number one seed, University of North Dakota.

     Prior to the initial puck drop of the tournament, the NCAA announced that, “because of Covid 19 protocols, Michigan’s student-athletes and coaching staff will not be able to compete in a tournament in which they earned the right to participate.”

      The ramification of that announcement was a “no-contest” result in the Wolverines scheduled game against the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs. The Bulldogs advanced to the next round and will play the University of North Dakota.

      On the ice, the opening game of the tournament resulted in the Bridgeport Regional number one seed, University of Wisconsin, being upset by the number four seed Bemidji State University 6-3.

     The Beavers aggressive, high energy effort derailed the Badgers’ tournament aspirations. 

      Bemidji State’s Ethan Somoza scored two goals, while the nation’s regular season scoring leader, Wisconsin’s Cole Caufield, also netted a pair of goals.

     In the nightcap of the Bridgeport Regional, the University of Massachusetts Minutemen ended Lake Superior State University’s season with a 5-1 victory.

     Jake Gaudet tallied a pair of goals for the Minutemen and the Lakers were 0 for 6 in power play opportunities.

     The University of North Dakota skated to an opening period four goal lead against American International College and never looked back in their 5-1 victory while advancing to the Fargo Regional title game against University of Minnesota-Duluth.

      Jasper Weatherby and Collin Adams scored two goals for the Fighting Hawks and goaltender Adam Scheel, a Lakewood, Ohio native, earned 24 saves.

     North Dakota and Minnesota-Duluth split the two games they played during the regular season in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) “bubble” in Omaha. Each affair was a one-goal game, and one of the two games required a shoot out to determine the victor.

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