GRAND FORKS, N.D. — (8) Omaha Hockey was defeated in two games by top-seeded North Dakota in the quarterfinal of the NCHC Frozen Faceoff as UND won 5-1 on Saturday night.
Omaha's season ends with a 12-24 record, while North Dakota (27-8-1) advances to the semifinal round. North Dakota won Friday's opener 5-3.
Saturday's game played out in a similar fashion to Friday. The Mavericks found success early, but North Dakota controlled the middle period and maintained the lead the rest of the way.
Maxime Pellerin had a goal and an assist Friday, and he put the Mavericks up early Saturday.
Pellerin ripped a shot from near the blue line that went through traffic and found the back of the net with 15:41 left in the first period. It was Pellerin's 10th goal of the season, while Jacob Guevin and
Luke Woodworth earned assists.
Omaha was up 1-0 for 10 minutes before North Dakota scored in transition, and the teams went to the first intermission tied 1-1.
But like Friday when North Dakota scored four of its five goals in the second period, the Fighting Hawks took over in the middle 20 minutes.
North Dakota scored the go-ahead goal five minutes into the period. After Omaha had a breakaway chance stopped midway through the period, UND extended the lead to 3-1 on a goal with 28 seconds left in the period.
North Dakota outshot the Mavericks 12-3 in the second period.
Simon Latkoczy made big saves early in the third period to keep it a two-goal deficit. Omaha's
Griffin Ludtke also had a shot go off the crossbar in the period.
But in the final three minutes, North Dakota scored an empty-net goal and another goal to advance to the semifinal.
Latkoczy finished with 23 saves as North Dakota finished with a 28-15 shots-on-goal advantage.
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