FARGO, N.D. -- More than a few UND hockey fans expressed great worry whether UND's two losses in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference tournament last weekend would carry over into the NCAA Division I West Regional here tonight.

UND coach Dave Hakstol said his team never even talked about suffering two straight losses for the first time this season and dropping from the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament.

"We turned the page right after last weekend,'' Hakstol said. "We came here to win a hockey game."

Call it Mission Accomplished.

Backed by shorthanded goals from Drake Caggiula and Luke Johnson and stout 29-save goaltending from Zane McIntyre, North Dakota moved into the championship game of the regional at 8 p.m. tomorrow with a 4-1 victory over Quinnipiac.

In the finals tomorrow, UND will meet St. Cloud State, which beat UND 2-1 in the NCHC tournament one week ago in Minneapolis.

UND showed no evidence of that tournament hangover blues, on top of its game right from the start.

"I thought the first shift set the tone for the game,'' Caggiula said.

UND didn't hit the scoreboard until a power-play wrist shot from center point found the net at 12:59 of the opening period to put UND ahead to stay. The goal, 30 seconds into the power play, came with freshman right wing Poolman positioned at the point on the power play unit.

His goal was his eighth of the season but just his second in the last 18 games.

UND broke it open in the second period with a pair of goals from junior left wings.

Bryn Chyzyk caught a break when he whipped a shot from the end line left corner to the front of the net. The puck hit the skate of Bobcat goalie Michael Garteig (21 saves), went off the far post and crossed into the net to make it 2-0 at 7:09. The ninth goal of the year for Chyzk was his first in the last 15 games with defenseman Gage Ausmus assisting on it.

Nearly three minutes later, UND's shorthanded magic came into play. Defenseman Troy Stecher led a 2-on-1 rush with teammate Connor Gaarder serving an interference minor. Stecher went wide up left wing and fed Caggiula perfectly at 9:55 to make it 3-0 on Caggiula's team-leading third shorthanded goal of the season and his 17th goal overall.

Quinnipiac, champions of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference in both the regular season and playoffs, broke the shutout bid of UND McIntyre at 18:34 of the third period. Andrew Taverner drilled a slapper from the right faceoff circle past McIntyre on a power play to chop the margin to 3-1.

But at 19:44 of the final period, UND sophomore center Luke Johnson added UND's second shorthanded goal with UND defenseman Paul LaDue still serving his 5-minute major for checking from behind.

Johnson's first shorthanded goal of the season was UND's 11th of the year, tops in the nation, one more than UMass-Lowell. UND had just two shorthanded goals in its last 28 games, but doubled that in a key game tonight. His goal came into an empty net after Garteig was pulled for an extra attacker on the Bobcat power play.

"We played well tonight,'' Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said. "I was happy how we played. North Dakota played well. They deserved to win.''

In a game that featured 17 penalties for 56 minutes between the two teams, play was physical throughout.

"It was a fast-paced game, it was a hard-nosed game, and it was a good tight battle,'' Hakstol said.

Pecknold pointed to all the shots blocked by North Dakota as a key in the game. Quinnipiac had 73 shot attempts to 47 for UND, but UND blocked 28 shots attempts in protecting McIntyre.

"To a man, we really worked hard together,'' Hakstol said. "That was our goal coming in.''

With a sellout crowd of 5,283 jamming Scheels Arena, it felt very much like a home game to UND, Caggiula said, and the team fed on that.

"Especially in this envirornment, it was like a home game for us,'' Caggiula said.

Saturday's region championship game will mark the sixth time UND and St. Cloud State have met this season. UND owns a 3-2 edge.

UND notes: Saturday's game will mark the ninth time in Dave Hakstol's 11 years as head coach UND will play in the regional championship ... Quinnipiac outshot UND 30-25 in shots on goal, including a 13-8 margin in the final period with UND carrying a 3-0 lead ... UND was 1-4 on the power play with just 4 shots on goal, Quinnipiac 1-for-8 with 13 shots ... Caggiula led UND in shots on goal with 4, followed by Chyzk and Johnson with 3 each ... Quinnipiac leading scorer Sam Snas, who was a game-time decision to play because of a leg injury, tied with Travis St. Denis in shots on goal with 5 ... Pecknold said Anas, who came in with 23 goals, was about 50 to 60 percent of his physical ability ... McIntyre fired two shots the length of the ice at an open net at the Quinnipiac end while UND was killing a penalty late in the game. One one his attempts went wide of the net after being batted out of mid-air by a high stick, the second was knocked down before it cleared the UND defensive zone.

Virg Foss covered UND hockey for 35 years for the Grand Forks Herald until his retirement. He's in his 10th year of reporting on UND games exclusively for UNDsports.com.