Losing at home and winning on the road? Such has been the experience of the LU hockey team against Minnesota-Crookston this season. The Vikings swept the Golden Eagles 6-2 and 3-1 in an early season series in Crookston in November. However, the Vikings were swept by UM-Crookston 6-3, and lost 6-3 again in Wausau this January.
The Vikings now face the returning conference champion Golden Eagles in an MCHA semifinal series to be hosted at the Appleton Family Ice Center. It will be the first playoff action the Appleton Family Ice Center has seen since the 2002 MCHA Final Five.
Lawrence has been able to hold on to the second seed in the conference which gave them a bye in last weekend’s quarterfinal round. They must now beat a hungry Crookston team to advance to the conference finals. Crookston swept past Northland in the quarterfinals this past weekend. They won by scores of 6-2 and 1-0. The Golden Eagles are now 11-1-1 in their last 13 games.
The playoff semi-finals is a total points series. Teams get two points for a win, one point for a tie, and zero points for a loss. If the teams are tied after the two full games, a one period mini-game is played to determine the winner. If the teams are tied after the mini-game, then the teams play sudden-death overtime until a winner is decided.
Face-offs are at 4 p.m. on Friday and 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Hockey to Host Playoff Series -dlh
