The Wolverines want you to know something, Sioux fans. They aren’t afraid of you. <\/p>\n
There’s a lot being made in this Frozen Four of Michigan’s underdog status, something a bit unusual for the Wolverines. Not only is North Dakota the No. 1 seed in the tournament and heavily favored, but St. Paul is practically the Sioux’s backyard. Even though Michigan fans travel well, there’s no doubt that Thursday’s semifinal game will be a hostile environment for the Wolverines.<\/p>\n
But they don’t care.<\/p>\n
“North Dakota’s going to have a lot of fans there, but we’re not concerned about the rink or who’s coming,” said forward Louie Caporusso. “We’re just going to be concerned about how we’re going to play. <\/p>\n
“We’ve played in those types of atmospheres before where the other team’s bringing a lot of noise and a lot of cheers and whatnot, but I don’t think it’s affected us before. We like playing on the road. It’s a road-style atmosphere, so be it.”<\/p>\n
“It doesn’t matter where we play,” said Carl Hagelin. “We’re just focused on our task, and our task is to win that game tomorrow. Every guy on the team is excited. <\/p>\n
“We know it’s going to be packed tomorrow, and we don’t know if we’ll have more fans than them, but we’ll just go out and play our game.”<\/p>\n
Matt Rust said that the key to playing in a sea of green will be remembering something that coach Red Berenson has been preaching to the Wolverines since the West Regional in St. Louis. <\/p>\n
“Obviously, there’s a lot of lights, glamour, and all the madness behind the Frozen Four,” said Rust, “but like Coach says every single day, it’s still a hockey game. <\/p>\n
“It’s still like playing back at Yost. It’s the same sized rink, playing against an opponent that wants to win just as much as North Dakota does.”<\/p>\n
Berenson said that he thinks the Wolverines may get a bit of a boost from Minnesota fans. “I know the animosity between Minnesota and North Dakota. If it was a game at Michigan State, they would be cheering for North Dakota.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Wolverines want you to know something, Sioux fans. They aren’t afraid of you. There’s a lot being made in this Frozen Four of Michigan’s underdog status, something a bit unusual for the Wolverines. Not only is North Dakota the No. 1 seed in the tournament and heavily favored, but St. Paul is practically the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1426],"tags":[677],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n