The Twin City Thunder have qualified for the USPHL National Collegiate Development Conference playoffs and are two wins away from the league’s final four.

A unique format was created for this unique season by the United States Premier Hockey League for the NCDC’s Northern Division. The Thunder and the two New Hampshire-based teams, the New Hampshire Junior Monarchs and the Northern Cyclones, played a two-game round-robin qualification round that concluded Monday. The top two teams now move on to a best-of-three series later this week.

The Thunder won both of their qualification games, defeating the Cyclones 3-1 on Friday and the Monarchs 3-2 on Monday.

The Cyclones beat the Monarchs in the round robin and will be the Thunder’s opponent in the best-of-three series that will send the winner to the NCDC final four. Dates and times of the series have yet to be determined.

“Just like everything else the rest of the year, it has been crazy,” Thunder co-owner and coach Dan Hodge said. “You just read and react on the situation as much as you can. Whoever wins the next round, will go to the (final four) of the league playoffs.”

In Monday’s victory over the Monarchs, Valeri Rykov, Alex Rivet, who recently committed to Division III Stevenson University, and Gabe Potyk each scored for the Thunder.

“Even though we won Friday, we had to win today to (head to) the next round,” Hodge said. “It was a good game, a good test character-wise. It was tough not playing any games the last two weeks, but it is what it is. They have all answered the call all year long and they have done a great job with it.”

Last year the Thunder lost a tiebreaker for the eighth and final playoff spot last year to the Monarchs.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Northern Division — the four Massachusetts team — are playing in a more normal playoff format. The top-seeded Junior Bruins defeated the No. 4 Boston Advantage in three games, while the third-seeded Islanders Hockey Club beat the No. 2 South Shore Kings, also in three games.

The Jr. Bruins and Islanders HC will meet in the second-round playoff series for the chance to go to the final four.

Hodge said that the reason for the separate formats in the North Division is to keep teams as close as possible.

“It helps on travel and (keeps teams regionalized),” Hodge said. “We play the New Hampshire teams and the Mass. teams (will play against each other).”

For the majority of the season, the Massachusetts-based teams mostly played only against each other because of different coronavirus protocols, such as the interstate hockey ban that included the six New England states and New Jersey that has been in effect since November and has been extended through March.

The Massachusetts-based teams did go to Tampa, Florida, with the rest of the league for the Hub City event that ran from January through mid-February.

The Thunder continued to play through the interstate hockey ban as they were looking for clarification from Maine Department of Human Services on what defines a club sport in the Community Sports requirements. DHHS did say junior hockey falls under the interstate hockey ban. In November and December, prior to going down to the Hub City event, the Thunder played only the Cyclones and Monarchs.

In the six-team South Division, the top two teams — the Jersey Hitmen and Rockets Hockey Club, both based in New Jersey — received first-round byes. The two first-round series ended in sweeps: No. 3 PAL Islanders over No. 6 seeded Philadelphia Hockey Club and No. 4 Connecticut Jr. Rangers over No. 5 seeded Utica Jr. Comets.

The winners of the Jersey Hitmen-Jr. Rangers and the Rockets Hockey Club-Pal Islanders series will advance to the final four.

The site and dates for the NCDC final four have yet to be determined.

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