North Dakota finishes off month-long homestand by besting Colorado College

GRAND FORKS – Late Saturday night, University of North Dakota players circled around center ice and gave the fans a stick salute.
That sight is becoming awfully familiar.
UND finished off its month-long homestand with a 5-3 win over Colorado College on Saturday night, sweeping an opponent in Ralph Engelstad Arena for the third time in the last four home series.
Luke Johnson, Stephane Pattyn, Mark MacMillan and Bryn Chyzyk scored goals, while Drake Caggiula tacked on an empty-netter for a UND team that went 5-1 on its January homestand and is 9-1-1 in its past 11 games in The Ralph.
“We took advantage of it,” UND coach Dave Hakstol said of playing at home. “We weren’t happy with the first game of it. We felt like we left a little bit on the table there. We didn’t play the way we wanted to play and we lost at home. From there, we turned it. We took advantage of being here at home. That’s real important. There aren’t many points left here at home. It’s very important to do that.”
After splitting with Minnesota-Duluth, UND earned back-to-back sweeps of Niagara and Colorado College. The latest sweep vaulted UND to No. 2 in the Pairwise Rankings and it sits just one point back of Nebraska-Omaha atop the National Collegiate Hockey Conference standings. UND travels to Omaha next weekend.
“It was kind of a unique thing being here for so long,” said UND defenseman Nick Mattson, who had two points on Saturday. “We kind of got in a groove a little bit and we played our best hockey. So, it’s something that was good to take advantage of.”
During the homestand, UND racked up 25 goals in six games, running its overall record to 18-5-2. Only Minnesota State-Mankato (19-5-2) has more wins in the country.
For the season, UND is 11-3-2 in The Ralph, the best mark in the NCHC.
“In college hockey, it’s really big to get home wins,” MacMillan said. “Our maturity and character showed over the last three or four weeks here. We took another step forward this weekend and we have to keep moving forward.”
UND was able to sweep both series against the Tigers this season. It marked the first time since 1988-89 that UND has gone 4-0 against Colorado College during the regular season.
The games in The Ralph were much more difficult for UND than the sweep in Colorado Springs, Colo., earlier this season.
After winning a tight 2-1 game on Friday night, the series finale wasn’t over until Caggiula dunked a puck in an empty net with less than 30 seconds to go.
“They’re a lot different than they were in the first half of the year,” MacMillan said. “Their first-year coach has got them playing the right way now. They are loose enough to not worry about making mistakes, which makes them a force out there.”
The teams traded goals a couple of times in the first period.
Johnson scored a power-play goal on a point shot through a MacMillan screen at 3:50, but the Tigers evened it when Charlie Taft buried a rebound at 12:41. UND promptly regained the lead when Pattyn buried a rebound of a Colten St. Clair shot at 13:58, but Colorado College got another power-play marker at 18:24 when Teemu Kivihalme’s point shot went off of the shinpad of Scott Wamsganz.
MacMillan gave UND the lead for good when he buried a feed from Michael Parks late in the second period.
Chyzyk made it 4-2 on a blast from the top of the right circle at 8:41, but the Tigers put the 11,860 on edge again with an extra-attacker goal.
UND now has to go on the road for three of its final five series of the regular season. Hakstol said he’s fine with the challenge.
“We’ll be fine,” he said. “With the leadership in our room, our mentality doesn’t change. Obviously, it’s such a great thing to be able to play here in front of our fans, but the group goes on the road, you tighten up a little bit and you just go play hockey.”
MacMillan agreed: “We’re excited. It will be a good challenge. We’ve got a bunch of road warriors in there. Those are situations we love to be in. It will be a good test and we’ll enjoy it.”
FIRST PERIOD: 1, UND, Johnson (LaDue, Mattson) 3:50. 2, CC, Taft (Stoykewych, Aman) 12:41. 3, UND, Pattyn (St. Clair, Schmaltz) 13:58. 4, CC, Wamsganz (Kivihalme, Bradley) 18:24.
SECOND PERIOD: 5, UND, MacMillan (Parks, Mattson) 17:19.
THIRD PERIOD: 6, UND, Chyzyk (Thompson, Caggiula) 8:41. 7, CC, Harstad (Hansen, Slavin) 18:07. 8, UND, Caggiula.
SAVES: CC, Marble 7-15-8–30. UND, McIntyre 9-4-10–23.