It's a familiar destination and a familiar goal for the UND hockey team

Oct. 7—TAMPA, Fla. — The game ended and UND was the NCAA national champion.

The Fighting Hawks beat Quinnipiac 5-1 in front of a reveling crowd in Amalie Arena, and the players started cutting the nets, a longtime basketball tradition that recently made its way to hockey.

Once all the players had a piece of the net — a keepsake of that unforgettable 2015-16 season — they started giving pieces to the fans who traveled to Tampa and turned that Frozen Four into de facto home games for the Fighting Hawks.

Defenseman Troy Stecher skated toward the glass with a piece of the net, saw a 13-year-old boy wearing a UND jersey, pointed at him and tossed it in his direction.

It sailed a little long, though, and someone behind the kid snagged it.

That kid was Ben Strinden.

"I remember being upset about that," he said.

That was about the only downside to the weekend for Strinden, a Fargo native who watched his favorite team win its eighth national championship in person.

"It was one of the coolest moments of my life," he said. "You grow up cheering for them. That's your team. You take pride in your team. To see them win, with that support, it was so electric. That whole game was, by far, the coolest game I've ever been to."

Seven years later, Strinden is now a freshman forward at UND. The Frozen Four is scheduled back at Tampa in April. And maybe, just maybe, if all things fall into place, he might be able to grab a piece of netting for himself this time.

Of course, there's a long road to get there.

It's a long regular season in college hockey with no guarantees of even making the NCAA tournament. Just ask traditional powerhouse Boston College, which has missed four of the last five national tournaments.

If you do make the NCAAs, there are also no guarantees, no matter how dominant of a regular season you put together, of winning it. Just ask traditional powerhouse Michigan, which has fewer NCAA titles than Lake Superior State in the last half century.

But it's impossible to look at this year's schedule and not take notice that the Frozen Four is in Tampa after what transpired in 2016. UND players and fans had a memorable week in Tampa, soaking up the sun and watching one of college hockey's best teams of the last 20 years lift the grand prize.

"I think everybody kind of sees that on the schedule as far as where that's at and how we had success there," UND coach Brad Berry said. "Our message is that like anything else, we're trying to go through a process and trying to have the ability to earn our way there. We have our goals — home ice, the Penrose, the Frozen Faceoff, regionals, the Frozen Four and winning a national championship. All those things are in front of us, but there has to be a process. Each and every year is a new team trying to find their way.

"The teams that win at the end of the year are usually the tightest teams — the ones who get through good times and adversity together. Our biggest thing right now is growing and building and identifying our roles, but it's also getting as tightly woven together as we can, so we can replicate what we did before (in Tampa)."

UND hasn't been to the Frozen Four since Tampa.

It has been heartbreak after heartbreak in the NCAAs since then: an overtime loss in 2022, a double overtime loss in 2017, a five overtime loss in the NCAA tournament's longest game ever in 2021. And UND's best team of them all never even got a shot. The 2020 tournament was wiped out because of the COVID-19 pandemic when the Fighting Hawks were the No. 1 team in the Pairwise Rankings and the Vegas favorites to bring home the title.

"My freshman year was cut short," UND senior forward Judd Caulfield said. "We didn't get that experience. The last two years, losing in overtime, it's definitely heartbreaking, knowing you're that close and one bounce is all it takes. We've got to work our way toward having a successful season."

UND might be good enough, and experienced enough, to make it back to the Sunshine State.

"I think back on the last few years here and we've had some really talented teams and we've had a lot of fun," UND senior defenseman Ethan Frisch said. "But we haven't finished that last thing. We haven't checked that last box. That's something we've definitely circled. We want to make it to Tampa. We're going to take it game-by-game. But I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that's one of our main goals this year."

There won't be a CBS line terrorizing opponents on a nightly basis the way Drake Caggiula, Brock Boeser and Nick Schmaltz did in 2015-16. But there are some similarities between that squad and this one.

Junior Riese Gaber is an excellent shooter and UND is bringing in some younger, skilled players who are more noted as setup guys in Jackson Blake and Owen McLaughlin. Both are potential complements to Gaber and could give the Fighting Hawks a dangerous top line.

"They are smart players and they know the next play," Berry said. "They have a high-end ability to do that."

UND can put together one of the country's best shutdown lines with numerous options. It was Rhett Gardner, Luke Johnson and Austin Poganski in 2016. It could be any combination of Gavin Hain, Mark Senden, Louis Jamernik V, Dylan James or Strinden this time.

"Some of those guys are bigger bodies who can play heavy and fast," Berry said.

In 2016, UND had a defensive core with considerable experience and a wide variation of styles. It was Stecher, Tucker Poolman, Paul LaDue, Gage Aumsus and Keaton Thompson holding it down with rookies Christian Wolanin and Hayden Shaw chipping in. This time, it is Frisch, Tyler Kleven, Ty Farmer, Chris Jandric, Cooper Moore and Ryan Sidorski anchoring it as upperclassmen. Youngsters like sophomores Brent Johnson and Luke Bast will chip in.

"We have a good blend of everything," Caulfield said. "We have experienced guys — a lot of guys who played in the tournament last year — as well as some really high-end freshmen coming in to help us. We also have some good transfers. It's a perfect blend of size, skill, gritty players and guys who can play shut down in the defensive zone. We have all of those things working for us. We have to put it together and have a good year."

The Fighting Hawks also have a large group of local players who understand the expectations of the program and have a strong desire to add to the long legacy of titles. In 2016, it was Poolman, Thompson, Ausmus, LaDue, Johnson and Johnny Simonson. This time, it's Frisch, Kleven, Caulfield, Strinden, Kaleb Johnson, Jackson Kunz and Dane Montgomery. Blake and Jake Schmaltz had relatives play at UND.

"There's a real sense of togetherness," Frisch said. "We didn't have a lot of turnover. We only have seven new players. Everyone is focused on winning and being a part of a team. It's not a bunch of individuals. You get the sense that everyone is here for a common goal, a common purpose, and that's to win a national championship. I'm really excited to hit the ice with these guys."

Caulfield and Johnson were together the night UND won the NCAA national title in Tampa.

They were freshmen at Grand Forks Central at the time and watched the game at Johnson's house with some friends.

"After the game, we drove around campus just to see how crazy it was," Caulfield said. "The fans were going wild. It was crazy to see the uproar it caused here in Forks."

It was the same in Tampa, where UND fans celebrated across the street from Amalie Arena at a bar called Ferg's Live. The players even brought the national championship trophy over there.

That bar is now gone. But other things remain the same — the destination and the end goal of winning a national championship.

"To go back to where I was able to experience that from a fan perspective, and to do it from the other side would be absolutely incredible," Strinden said. "That's the goal. The coaches and everyone holds each other and ourselves to a very high standard. We expect success. Obviously, we're going to do everything we can to try to make it happen."