DU vs. UND, College Hockey's Hatfields and McCoys

I was checking out youtube.com today and found few blasts from the past. This week, UND plays their heated rival, the Denver Pioneers. Ironically, this will be UND first series against the Pioneers as the Fighting Hawks. Under the new nickname, UND is 3-1-0.

While George Gwozdecky is gone, the Pioneers and the Fighting Hawks still hate each other. As of Late, the Pioneers have probably become UND's top rival. The players from both teams look forward to playing in this series.

Some will ask, why is this series so heated? Well, there have been a lot of high-stakes games between the two teams.

During the 2010-11 season, UND beat DU 3-2 (2ot) in the Final Five and then turned around and beat DU 6-1 in the NCAA regional the next weekend.  Last season, UND lost to DU in the third-place game of the Frozen Faceoff 5-1. I imagine UND might be looking for a little payback.



This is by far the oddest thing that I have ever seen happen in a college hockey game. Gwoz was thrown out of the game and then walked across the ice to talk to the officials. After being tossed from the game, Gwoz was caught in the press box communicating with the DU bench.



Lately, there hasn't been a lot of after the whistle stuff between the two teams. Honestly, I don't' think you're going to see any of the big scrums or fights after the whistle this weekend. There's way too much to lose and no-one wants to get thrown out of the game and suspended for the next game. Fighting in hockey is kind of going the way of the dodo bird.

When the Fighting Hawks play the Pioneers you will see some good up and down the ice action. Both teams have very active defense and this weekend's series should be exciting.



For some reason, on-ice official Todd Anderson has officiated a lot of the UND vs. DU series. For whatever reason, whenever he's reffed the DU vs. UND series, it has been like throwing gas on the fire. There was going to be some action on the ice.