Frozen Four capsules

The field for the Frozen Four is set, and two familiar WCHA teams will be there.

There will be a maroon and gold team after all, Minnesota Duluth, and the Gophers' top rival, North Dakota. Those teams are in opposite semifinals for the Frozen Four, which will be held on April 7 and 9 at Xcel Energy Center.

The other two teams coming to St. Paul are Notre Dame, led by two high-scoring freshmen, and Michigan, another CCHA team, guided by coaching legend Red Berenson.

Hockey East, which had won the previous three NCAAs titles -- Boston College in 2008 and 2010 and Boston University in between -- has been vanquished. Same too for the ECAC, which means no Eastern teams will be represented.

The Frozen Four is a virtual sellout, although there might be some tickets available if the participating schools return any from their allotments.

A look at the four teams coming to St. Paul:

Minnesota Duluth (24-10-6): Coach Scott Sandelin's Bulldogs were picked to finish second in the WCHA in a media preseason poll, third in a coaches' poll. They actually placed fourth, but were only two points behind second-place Denver.

UMD started the season 6-0-1, played 12 overtime games (6-2-4) and opened a new rink, the AMSOIL Arena, on Dec. 30.

This is the Bulldogs' seventh NCAA tournament and fourth trip to Frozen Four. They have reached the championship game once, losing 5-4 to Bowling Green in four overtimes in 1984.

In the playoffs this season, UMD lost 3-2 in overtime to Bemidji State in the Final Five quarterfinals, then in the East Regional beat Union 2-0 and Yale, the No. 1 overall seed, 5-3 on three power-play goals and one short-handed goal.

Notre Dame (25-13-5): The Fighting Irish, who were picked to finish fifth in the CCHA by the coaches and media in preseason polls, finished second in the regular season and lost 4-2 to Michigan in the third-place game of the CCHA tournament.

Anders Lee, a freshman from Edina, leads the Irish with 24 goals, and T.J. Tynan, also a freshman, has 22.

This is Notre Dame's fifth NCAA appearance; four have come in the past five seasons. The Irish have played in one Frozen Four before, losing to Boston College 4-1 in the championship game in 2008.

North Dakota (31-8-3): The Fighting Sioux were the No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA tournament and won the West Regional by routing Rensselaer 6-0 and Denver 6-1.

Led by Matt Frattin, the nation's leading goal-scorer with 36, the Sioux have won 11 games in a row and are unbeaten in 14 games (13-0-1). North Dakota's last loss was to Colorado College 4-2 on Jan. 28. North Dakota won the regular-season WCHA title and the conference tournament.

UND has appeared in 26 NCAA tournaments and reached the Frozen Four 20 times. The Sioux have won seven NCAA titles, the first in 1959, the most recent in 2000. This is the fifth time Dave Hakstol has taken a team to the Frozen Four in his seven seasons as Sioux head coach.

Only his first team made it to the championship game, losing 4-1 to Denver in 2005.

Michigan is 10-1 in its past 11 games, losing to Western Michigan 5-2 in the CCHA semifinals. But the Wolverines beat Notre Dame 4-2 in the CCHA third-place game. In the West Regional, Michigan edged Nebraska Omaha 3-2 in overtime on a controversial goal and Colorado College 2-1.

Carl Hagelin leads the Wolverines in scoring with 18 goals and 30 assists for 48 points. Goalie Shawn Hunwick is 21-8-4 with a 2.26 goals-against average and .922 save percentage.

The Wolverines won the CCHA regular-season title.