GRAND FORKS — Jacob Guévin took two different major penalties with two minutes to go Saturday night and was ejected from the game.
The Omaha senior defenseman made sure he didn't have to stick around to see the same ending again.
UND knocked Omaha out of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference playoffs for the third time in four years by beating the Mavericks 5-1 on Saturday in Ralph Engelstad Arena.
It completed a two-game sweep in the best-of-three quarterfinal series.
"It's huge," UND defenseman E.J. Emery said. "Obviously, we want to get as much rest as we can for next week. So, closing it out in two is awesome. You get Sunday to rest."
The Fighting Hawks (27-8-1) advanced to the NCHC semifinals, where they will host Minnesota Duluth at 6:07 p.m. Saturday in The Ralph. Denver hosts Western Michigan in the other semifinal.
If UND wins, it will host the final on March 21.
Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald
The Fighting Hawks continued to light up the scoreboard. They tallied 10 goals on the weekend and are averaging more than four goals per game since Christmas break.
Sophomore Mac Swanson scored twice to eclipse the double-digit mark for the season. He's now at 11.
Will Zellers, who missed Game 1 due to an illness, returned to the lineup to score a goal and tally three points.
"He came in this morning and announced he was ready to go," UND coach Dane Jackson said. "He took a little skate and said he felt fine. He said he felt much, much better today and he was ready to go. I don't think we were going to be able to hold him out."
Tyler Young scored the go-ahead goal in the second period and Dylan James iced it with an empty-netter — his 10th-career goal against Omaha.
Forwards Ollie Josephson and Ellis Rickwood each had two-assist games. Josephson finished the series with five points. His freshman classmate Jack Kernan had four.
UND rookie netminder Jan Špunar allowed a goal on the first shot he faced, then stopped the next 14.
"They're not easy to play against, especially when we're trying to end their season," Swanson said of the Mavericks. "That's kind of the hardest thing to do in sports."
UND has made a habit recently of ending Omaha's season.
The Fighting Hawks did it in the 2023 and 2025 NCHC quarterfinals. Those matchups occurred in Omaha's Baxter Arena — and were a bit more nail-biting.
In 2023, UND used three late third-period goals in Game 3 to clinch a trip to the semifinals. Last year, UND survived a Game 1 without getting a shot on goal in the third period and used a third-period rally in Game 2 to find a way past the Mavericks.
The Fighting Hawks went 6-0 against the Mavericks (12-24) this season, outscoring them 28-9. Overall, UND has beaten the Mavericks eight times in a row.
"They have a lot of strong, good players," Jackson said. "You look at their lineup and they have three lines with a lot of guys close to 20 points. So, when we were pre-scouting them, you knew with a good goaltender and a solid forward group, they were going to be hard to beat. They always are. I respect how hard these guys compete. They always check well. We knew it was not an easy matchup."
UND continued to dominate playoff games in The Ralph.
The Fighting Hawks have now won 18 in a row, going back to a Game 2 loss to Colorado College in the 2014 NCHC quarterfinals.
"We had to play hard and win all the little small areas of the game to get those little battles to add up to win the war," Jackson said. "I thought we did a good job of that tonight — of not giving them too much and then slowly taking over some parts of the game to create some offense."
Schlossman has covered college hockey for the Grand Forks Herald since 2005. He has been recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors as the top beat writer for the Herald's circulation division four times and the North Dakota sportswriter of the year twice. He resides in Grand Forks. Reach him at bschlossman@gfherald.com.
