GRAND FORKS, N.D. — North Dakota men’s hockey coach Brad Berry and Minnesota coach Bob Motzko repeatedly expressed confidence an agreement was on the way for the longtime rivals to play future games.

That deal is now done.

UND and the Gophers have signed a four-year agreement for future rivalry games beginning in the 2025-26 season.

The teams will play in Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks in 2025-26 to start the deal.

They’ll play in Minnesota’s 3M Arena at Mariucci in 2026-27.

They’ll return to Grand Forks for a series in 2027-28.

The contract closes with a two-game set in Minneapolis in 2028-29.

This agreement will begin after a one-year hiatus for the rivalry. UND and Minnesota won’t play in the regular season in 2024-25.

The North Dakota-Minnesota rivalry was arguably the most intense in college hockey during their days as Western Collegiate Hockey Association opponents.

In 2013-14, they split up. Minnesota moved into the Big Ten and UND to the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. Initially, there were struggles to get the rivalry games back on the books. They went three years without a regular-season meeting.

Since then, they’ve played seven years in a row — minus the pandemic-altered season of 2020-21 when nobody played nonconference regular-season games.

UND and Minnesota games have been highly competitive.

The past three series have ended in splits. One of them featured back-to-back overtime games.

Since 2012, there’s only been one series sweep in the rivalry. That came in 2019-20, when the Fighting Hawks won a pair of games in Minneapolis on Thanksgiving weekend.

UND and Minnesota have both been dominant in their new leagues. They’ve each won six conference titles in 11 years.

Both finished ranked in the top 10 last season.

Future schedules filling up

UND’s future schedules are filling up.

This upcoming season, UND will play exhibitions against Augustana and the University of Manitoba. It will open the regular season with the U.S Hockey Hall of Fame Game against Providence in Ralph Engelstad Arena.

UND’s home nonconference series will be against Boston University and Robert Morris. It will play Minnesota State and Cornell on the road. The Fighting Hawks also will take on Bemidji State — one game in Bemidji, one in Grand Forks.

With the Minnesota contract signed, UND’s 2025-26 nonconference schedule is now complete.

The Fighting Hawks are set to take on St. Thomas, Minnesota and Mercyhurst in two-game home series. They’ll play at Clarkson. They’ll also play Bemidji State — one game in Bemidji, one in Grand Forks.

There’s only one nonconference slot left open for 2026-27.

That year, the Fighting Hawks will play two-game series at Minnesota and St. Thomas. They’ll play at home against Clarkson. They’ll also play Bemidji State — one game in Bemidji, one in Grand Forks.

UND has the rights to the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game in 2026 and is working on turning it into a destination game. The top candidate right now is Austin, Texas.

The last slot in 2026-27 will be a two-game home series. The opponent has yet to be determined.

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John Anderson’s remarkable and prolific career as Gophers head baseball coach will be coming to an end very soon.

And the University of Minnesota is getting out in front of his final game with another big day for Anderson on Saturday at the U’s Siebert Field, when Anderson’s No. 14 jersey will be retired in a pregame ceremony before the Gophers take on Michigan State at 2 p.m. Gates will open at 12:30 p.m. to give fans time to settle in and enjoy Anderson’s number retirement.

This will be the Gophers’ final home series with Anderson as head coach. The Spartans and Gophers play single games at 6 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.

Anderson, who last December announced his intentions to retire at the end of the 2024 season, is the longest-tenured coach in the history of Gophers athletics. This season is his 43rd leading the Gophers and his 49th overall at Minnesota including his time spent as a player, student assistant coach, graduate assistant and assistant coach.

On Saturday, a mural of Anderson will be unveiled on the left-field wall at Siebert Field during the pregame ceremony.

Anderson, affectionately known as “14” in the baseball community, is the winningest baseball coach in the history of the Big Ten. During his tenure, the Gophers have won 11 Big Ten regular-season championships, 10 Big Ten Tournament titles and made 18 NCAA tournament appearances. The first postseason trip was during Anderson’s inaugural season in 1982 and the most recent was in 2018.

This season, Anderson’s Gophers are 21-21 overall and 7-11 in the Big Ten, with one final regular-season series at Northwestern next weekend, then the Big Ten tournament May 21-26 in Omaha, Neb.

Anderson has been named Big Ten coach of the year eight times, most recently in 2018 after leading Minnesota to a Big Ten championship and the Super Regionals of the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history.

Under his watch, 115 Gophers players have been drafted to the MLB. With two selections in the 2023 draft, the Gophers extended their draft streak to 36 consecutive years. The streak is the longest in the Big Ten, with Ohio State (12 years) and Michigan (10 years) as the next closest Big Ten teams.

Anderson has coached 28 All-America selections, nine Big Ten Players of the Year, three Big Ten Pitchers of the Year and four Big Ten Freshman of the Year during his tenure.

He has had a winning record in 36 seasons.

Anderson has been inducted into four different halls of fame — the American Baseball Coaches Association, the University of Minnesota “M” Club, the Minnesota High School Baseball Coaches Association and Hibbing Community College.

Anderson’s mural will be the seventh added to the wall in left field. He will join former Gophers Paul Giel (No. 34), Dick Siebert (No. 24), Dave Winfield (No. 31), Paul Molitor (No. 11), David Chelesnik (No. 26) and Herb “Ike” Isakson (No. 5) in having his number retired.

Target is ending its janitorial contract with a major cleaning vendor, resulting in the lay-off of 75 janitors, housekeeping porters and technicians across the Twin Cities.

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development’s State Rapid Response Team received notice this week from Major Metro, a cleaning service, that Target would no longer serve as their client.

“Since Target was the only customer at which Major Metro performed janitorial work in Minnesota, this will constitute formal notice by Major Metro that as of June 1, 2024, Major Metro will cease performing any business functions within Minnesota,” reads the letter from the company’s Los Angeles-based legal representative.

The impacted stores are in Apple Valley, Burnsville, Inver Grove Heights, Lakeville, Minneapolis, North St. Paul, Stillwater, Vadnais Heights and elsewhere throughout the west metro.

The notice indicated that the employees do not have bumping rights, and a new custodial vendor had not been announced “so it is unknown if the impacted employees will be retained/rehired by the new contractor.”

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Gophers shortstop Jess Oakland has been named Big Ten Conference softball player of the year for 2024, the league announced Wednesday.

The sophomore from San Jose, Calif., is one of four Minnesota players to earn All-Big Ten honors. Oakland and junior Taylor Krapf were named to the first team, with Oakland being a unanimous first-team selection. Graduates Sydney Strelow and Morgan DeBord picked up second-team honors. Jacie Hambrick was a Sportsmanship Award nominee.

Strelow, DeBord and Oakland also were named to the Big Ten all-defensive team.

Oakland is the first Gophers player to win the Big Ten Player of the Year award since Kendyl Lindaman in 2017 and 2018 and the fifth player to win it in Minnesota softball history.

This season, Oakland made her mark in Minnesota’s record book, becoming the Gophers’ single-season leader with 68 runs scored, second all time in batting average (.455), fifth in doubles (19), third in home runs (19) and fifth in walks (38).

She is among the national leaders in multiple offensive categories, including fifth in batting average, ninth in doubles, eighth in home runs, fifth in on-base percentage (.554), fifth in slugging percentage (.915) and fourth in total bases (151).

Oakland also earned All-Big Ten first-team honors last year as a freshman.

Krapf picked up this season right where she left off in 2023. Earning first-team honors for the second year in a row as Minnesota’s catcher. Krapf batting .316 with 10 home runs and 48 RBI, and is slugging .600 with a .427 on-base clip.

This season, Krapf set multiple single-game records, including two multi-home run games, against North Carolina State and Iowa. She had three doubles against Ohio State, and drove in seven runs against Illinois.

The Gophers are 27-24 overall and 13-10 in the Big Ten this season. They are playing their first game in the Big Ten tournament today against Illinois.