GRAND FORKS – Losses never sit well with the University of North Dakota men’s hockey team.
They stew until their next game. They make coaching adjustments. And in the last two-and-a-half years, they’ve responded remarkably well.
The latest example was UND’s 5-1 win over Nebraska-Omaha on Friday night in front of 11,888 in Ralph Engelstad Arena.
A night after UND’s eight-game winning streak came to an end on an overtime goal by Omaha’s Austin Ortega, the Fighting Hawks answered with a complete effort in gaining the series split.
Since November 2013, North Dakota is now 23-1-1 after a loss or a tie and 18-1 following a loss.
“They are hard days,” UND coach Brad Berry said following losses. “I’ll tell you, today, around the rink, was a hard day. We demand excellence here at North Dakota and there’s a high bar. After a loss, it doesn’t sit very well and guys know that. Even if you play well and lose, it hurts. If you don’t play well, it hurts even more. I just think there’s a high bar and it’s a hard day after you lose a game. I’m very proud with the way our guys bounced back today and responded.”
Drake Caggiula, Coltyn Sanderson, Brock Boeser, Troy Stecher and Luke Johnson all scored goals for UND, which improved to 19-3-2 overall and 10-2 in National Collegiate Hockey Conference play. Omaha dropped to 15-6-1 and 5-6-1.
UND made several adjustments for the series finale.
Berry inserted senior forward Coltyn Sanderson into the lineup at center on the fourth line. The Saskatchewan native answered by scoring the first goal of his career – a tally that stood at the game winner.
Berry mixed three of its forward lines, moving Luke Johnson to right wing on the third line for the first time this season. Johnson responded with an goal and an assist, his first two-point game of the season.
He also put Cam Johnson back in goal one day after the sophomore allowed a season-high four goals. Johnson answered the bell, stopping 28 of 29 shots for his 11th win of the year.
And instead of matching just defensive pairings against Omaha’s potent top line, led by Jake Guentzel, UND paid more attention to which forwards were on the ice against them. The Guentzel line, which was in on all four goals on Friday, was only able to tally a power-play marker in the first period.
“It’s just a will to win,” Stecher said. “We expect excellence here – the coaching staff does, the fans do and we do out of ourselves as well. You come to the rink and it’s not a good atmosphere. The guys are pretty quiet. Tonight, it’s a complete opposite emotion in the dressing room.”
The only downer from the game was an injury to Caggiula, UND’s leading scorer. He left the game after his first shift in the second period, finishing a big hit on a Nebraska Omaha player in the neutral zone.
Berry did not know how long the injury may sideline Caggiula. UND hosts Colorado College next week.
“We’ll see,” Berry said. “He’s a pretty tough kid, but we’ve been pretty good all year about trying to handle injuries the right way with (trainer) Mark Poolman and handling evaluations. But if he’s ready to play, we’ll play him.”
The Mavericks got off to a good start when Tyler Vesel buried a feed from Guentzel (five points on the weekend) at 17:55 of the first period, but UND answered on the power play with just 6.5 seconds left. Caggiula took a pass from Stecher, made a spin move, and buried one on goalie Kirk Thompson.
Sanderson scored from the top of the crease at 3:33 of the second period and Boeser extended his goal-scoring streak to seven games with a snipe at 6:08 of the second. That goal chased Thompson, who got the start one day after freshman Alex Blankenburg beat UND.
Stecher and Johnson added goals in the final five minutes of the contest as UND pulled away.
“I thought we were a lot better managing pucks in all three zones,” Berry said. “We weren’t very good at that yesterday. We played a 200-foot game.”
FIRST PERIOD: 1, O, Vesel (Guentzel, Snuggerud) 17:55 (pp). 2, UND, Caggiula (Stecher, Boeser) 19:53 (pp).
SECOND PERIOD: 3, UND, Sanderson (Thompson) 3:33. 4, UND, Boeser (Ausmus) 6:08.
THIRD PERIOD: 5, UND, Stecher (Chyzyk, Johnson) 15:45 (pp). 6, UND, Johnson (Chyzyk) 16:31.
SAVES: UND, Johnson 6-12-10–28. O, Thompson 4-2-x–6, Blankenburg x-8-4–12.
