Elite hockey titans clash this weekend! Catch top-ranked NCHC and CCHA semifinal matchups featuring star players and thrilling championship chases.
As the Hockey East and Big Ten kicked off their tournament yesterday, there is still a whole lot of conference postseason action to grab popcorn for. Plenty of semifinals stick out, but here are the best matchups to catch this weekend.
NCHC Semifinals: #4 UMD Bulldogs vs #1 ND Fighting Hawks
Spoiler: Both NCHC Frozen Faceoff semifinals will be on here. It definitely helps when you’re featuring four of the top eight teams in the nation according to NPI and the USCHO poll.
We just wrote about how “The Ralph” in Grand Forks is the wildest playoff atmosphere in the country, and you know it’ll be deafening when the Plante brothers and Minnesota Duluth come into town. Both Plante brothers and Ty Hanson were featured on all-conference teams.
Through four meetings, the season series is even at two, although North Dakota has overall outscored the Bulldogs 14-9.
Although UMD has the second-best power play in the nation, it was North Dakota that impressed in the most recent meeting, when the Fighting Hawks captured a 4-1 victory, with two power-play goals to open up with a pair of scores from Mac Swanson and Will Zellers.
#2 and #8 in a winner-take-all game to move to the NCHC Final. This has all the anticipation and hype it deserves.
NCHC Semifinals: #3 Western Michigan vs #2 Denver
Here is your second semifinal. Not only does it feature two of the three best in the conference, but two of the top six in the country. 26 win Western Michigan, although the lower NCHC seed, is ranked #4 by USCHO, while Denver sits two spots back at #6.
Denver gets to host this winner-take-all game inside 6,026-seated Magness Arena as the ten-time national champions will try to boost their stock even further headed into the NCAA tournament.
As of the date of this article (3/12/25), it has been 48 days since Denver has lost a hockey game, which was to St. Cloud State. They are unbeaten in eleven straight games, thanks to special goalie play from Johnny Hicks ever since Quentin Miller left just a couple of minutes into a game on January 24th. Hicks posted a 0.955 save percentage over his past five appearances.
On the other end, with the Broncos, Hampton Slukynsky is riding off national champion energy, making 59 saves on 62 shots in the first round of two games swept by Western Michigan against Colorado College.
This is also another season series, even at two, separated by each team sweeping on the road.
Heavyweight bout goaltending carries the narrative in an exciting NCHC series here.
CCHA Semifinals: #3 Augustana vs #2 St. Thomas
Of course, we cannot forget to shout out a ranked matchup for a ticket punched to the Mason Cup final. The Vikings hold the #13 spot while the Tommies are #18.
Within three meetings this season, Augustana has the only win, which came in the regular season finale for the Vikings. The previous two tilts were ties, and that won’t be an option on Saturday in St. Paul, MN.
The storyline? A strong 3.56 goals per game offense from St. Thomas meets the immovable object of the Augustana defense, allowing just a 2.00 goals against average.
All three games will feature on Saturday. Augustana-St. Thomas starts at 4:07 PM CT, WMU-Denver is slated for 5:07 PM CT, and UMD-NODAK will start at 6:07 PM CT. Your Saturday is set.