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North Dakota got goals from Nick Mattson, Troy Stecher, and Stephane Pattyn to jump out to a 3-1 first period lead on Colorado College in their decisive third playoff on Sunday night, and despite some heavy pressure from the Tigers, North Dakota was able to hang on for a 4-3 victory to keep their season alive and advance to the Frozen Faceoff.
North Dakota's win likely comes as a huge relief to the NCHC, after St. Cloud, Minnesota-Duluth, and Nebraska-Omaha all were eliminated from the NCHC playoffs, leaving the relatively light fanbases of Miami, Western Michigan, and Denver to try and fill the Target Center next weekend.
North Dakota's win means they will draw the lowest remaining seed, in this case 8th seed Miami in the semifinals. Western Michigan will face-off against Denver in the other semifinal. It has not been officially announced which game will faceoff at 4:00pm CST on Friday, and which will faceoff at 7:30pm, but it is a near guarantee that North Dakota will play in the evening game.