Western Michigan entered the 2012 NCAA hockey tournament with quite a bit of momentum. The Broncos won the 2012 CCHA tournament and were on a five-game winning streak. While they knew it would be a challenge to upset North Dakota, the No. 1 seed in the West Region, the unpredictable often seems to happen in the NCAA hockey tournament, as Cornell showed on Friday night.
Unfortunately for Western Michigan, there was no upset on Saturday. North Dakota jumped out to a 2-0 lead, and although the Broncos made things interesting by cutting the lead in half, North Dakota went on to win by a score of 3-1.
North Dakota took a 1-0 lead only six minutes into the first period. Michael Parks scored the goal, and only three minutes into the second period, Corban Knight made it 2-0 in favor of North Dakota. Western Michigan cut the lead down to one goal when Kyle O'Kane scored 10 minutes later, but that was as close as this game got. North Dakota's Brock Nelson scored an empty-netter with less than 30 seconds to go, sealing the victory for North Dakota.
With the win, North Dakota is moving on to the West Region final, where it will take on either Minnesota or Boston University for a trip to the Frozen Four.
You can check out a full bracket for the NCAA hockey tournament on the NCAA's official website.
For more on the 2012 NCAA hockey tournament, check out SB Nation Detroit's StoryStream.
