ST. PAUL, Minn. -- When anything related to North Dakota was shown on the giant video screens inside the Xcel Energy Center during Thursday's second national semifinal between Michigan and Minnesota, the Gopher fans -- dominant in number and voice -- made it clear their neighbors to the west weren't welcome.

"Outsider" Grant Potulny might be the exception -- the sophomore winger from Grand Forks, N.D., is the only player on the Golden Gophers' roster from out of state.

But without his two goals in Minnesota's 3-2 win over Michigan, the Gophers wouldn't be preparing for Saturday's national championship game against Maine (7 p.m. ET, ESPN).

"He's a mucker and a grinder," Gophers coach Don Lucia said. "He's not pretty, but he's got great character and he seems to come up big in games like this. It's more his type of game."

A testament to that is Potulny has scored a goal in all three NCAA Tournament games he's played in, including another multiple-goal effort in last year's regional loss to Maine.

"Grant's not the flashiest player, but he's good around the net," Lucia added. "And I don't think there's too many people that are concerned whether he's from the state of Minnesota right now."

Potulny opened the scoring at 4:20 of the first period with a rebound that beat Michigan goalie Josh Blackburn to give the Gophers a 1-0 lead.

"The puck bounced free and I was fighting with (Eric) Werner for the puck and he went down so I just had a wide-open net backhander," Potulny said. "There was the whole left side of the net so if I missed it I would have been in big trouble."

His second goal came on the power play at 4:33 of the second period and put Minnesota up 2-0.

"I'm not going to go up and down the rink and beat anybody one-on-one, so the way for me to be productive is banging into people and trying to get open and get my stick free," Potulny said. "People forget about me in front of the net … Games like this are great for me."

And having Potulny to mix it up in the slot is great for the Gophers -- even if he isn't from Minnesota.

The winger is the first out-of-state player on the Minnesota roster since goaltender John Blue (Anchorage, Alaska) back in 1987. And his teammates don't let him forget it.

"Once in a while we have scrimmages with out-state guys and metro guys. He's always on the out-state side but he really should be on the out-out-state," captain Jordan Leopold said with a laugh.

"Being the first guy in 15 years to play from out of state is a big deal and I think he's handled it well -- and we're glad to have him," Leopold added. "Most of the guys are from Minnesota … The other guys that aren't, they wear the "M" too. And they're part of our family."

Even Potulny now feels like he belongs in Minnesota.

"I'm a Gopher now. I wear the "M" on my jersey and I'm a Gopher for life," Potulny said. "There's no hard feelings. The guys in here are my 20 best friends. It's a relationship that you couldn't ask for anything more."

Except maybe the school's first national championship since 1979.

David Albright is a senior editor for ESPN.com.