This weekend, the University of North Dakota plays one of their bitter rivals the Denver Pioneers. All you have to do is look at some of the hundreds of videos of UND and DU on YouTube to realize the two teams don’t really like each other very much.
Personally, I would liken the DU and UND match-up to college hockey's version the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s feud. Ironically, the head Villain is the head coach of the Denver Pioneers George Gwozdecky. Personally, I admire Gwozdecky, I think he is a very good coach that expects a lot out of his players.
Ironically, in the modern time, I have only seen one college hockey players get into two fights in a single game and that player was former UND forward/defenseman Kyle Radke.
Whenever these two teams play against each other, it's like throwing gas on a already raging 10 alarm fire. The games are exciting, tense and ussually instant classics.
Here is one of my favorite memories in recent times between UND and DU. Matt Frattin's game winning goal during the 2011 WCHA Final Five. UND would meet Denver again in the regional finals and beat Denver again 6-1, to advance to the Frozen Four.
It's only fitting, that when the B1G made it's announcement that they would begin league play in the 2013-14 season, a new league was formed known as the NCHC. Word has it that the first call Gwozdecky made was to UND athletic director Brian Faison.
