Ben Strinden relishes return to Frozen Four 10 years after attending national championship
Apr. 8—LAS VEGAS — Ben Strinden sat three rows up from the ice at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla. , for UND's 2016 national championship game against Quinnipiac.
As the on-ice celebrations wound down after the Fighting Hawks' 5-1 victory, Troy Stecher skated over with a piece of the net and pointed to Strinden in the stands. Stecher tossed the piece to Strinden, but it was promptly snatched up by another fan. "I was just so pissed," Strinden said.
"That's why we've got to win one ourselves, so I can have a little bit of the net. " Strinden's path to securing his own piece of national-championship netting will begin Thursday at 4 p. m.
when the Hawks take on Wisconsin in the Frozen Four semifinals at T-Mobile Arena. Strinden and the Hawks arrived in Las Vegas on Tuesday and practiced Wednesday afternoon. Traveling to the program's first Frozen Four since 2016 has already been a surreal experience for the senior forward, who was inducted into the UND hockey fandom practically at birth.
Strinden's grandfather, Earl, was a UND alum and a close friend of Ralph Engelstad. Earl was the executive director of the UND Alumni Association for 31 years and was the founder and CEO of the UND Foundation, which merged to become the UND Alumni Association and Foundation in 2014. Ben Strinden's mother, North Dakota Lt.