Friday Gameday: As Must See As Must See Can Be

College hockey rivalries in the west have taken a bit of a hit over the last two years with the berth of the Big 10 and National Collegiate Hockey Conference.

Rivalry series like Michigan vs. Miami and of course, UND vs. Minnesota have taken a hit with realignment.
Other rivalries are budding with the likes of Nebraska-Omaha, Western Michigan and St. Cloud State.

However, with all of this change, one rivalry has certainly stayed the same.

Heated foes in No. 10 Denver and No. 1 North Dakota renew pleasantries tonight and Saturday from Magness Arena in Denver in a bout of teams that have a history of epic battles and bad blood.



Here’s a quick refresher to remind DU and UND fans alike what this rivalry has been like over the years.

From Feb. 16, 2008, UND forward Kyle Radke annihilates Denver forward Brandon Vossberg. A couple things to note here: At 12 seconds of the video, Radke hears the crowd roar and runs back out of the tunnel to pummel Vossberg. Just a vicious beat down. One not to be forgotten. Starting at 1:37, you can see DDC waiving DU off the ice on the very far left of the row. Vintage sweater. Oh, college.

Powerful Pios

Denver comes into this weekend’s series on a roll offensively. The nation’s 11th-best scoring offense (3.38 goals per game) has been particularly lethal with the extra man.

Sr. D Joey LaLeggia
paces DU's blueline

The Pioneers boast the No. 4 power play in the country, converting at a stellar 27.6% clip.

Leading the charge for Denver offensively are a couple of old faces and one new one.

Senior defenseman, and preseason all-NCHC pick by both the media and DDC, Joey LaLeggia (5g, 6a – 11pts) leads the attack from the blueline while fellow senior Daniel Doremus (4g, 11a – 15pts) takes care of the forward group.

Freshman forward Danton Heinen leads the Pioneers in points with 16 (6g, 10a).
Denver (9-4, 3-2 NCHC) has seen two netminders emerge to replace all-world goaltender Sam Brittain.

Sophomore Evan Cowley (6-4, 1.98 goals against, .922 save percentage) leads the Pios statistically, however, the last two Denver wins have been backstopped by freshman Tanner Jaillet, including a 3-1 at Cornell last Friday. Cowley took the loss 4-1 on Friday.

UND Finds Depth

UND Jr. F. Drake Caggiula leads
the nation's No. 10 offense

Leading the way for UND’s No. 10 ranked offense (3.41 goals per game) has been junior Drake Caggiula.

The dynamic forward’s 21 points (7g, 14a) puts him in the top ten in the country while senior Michael Parks (6g, 13a – 19pts) and freshman Nick Schmaltz (2g, 12a – 14pts) also provide scoring spark for North Dakota.

UND (12-3-2, 5-2-1 NCHC) showed its depth last weekend in a 7-4, 3-1 sweep over Lake Superior State as defenseman Jordan Schmaltz (5 points) and Tucker Poolman (3 points) both took home National Collegiate Hockey Conference weekly honors.

Schmaltz earned defensemen of the week with a three-assist night on Friday, adding a goal and an assist on Saturday. Poolman was named the NCHC rookie of the week after notching two huge power play goals on Friday and coming back with an assist in Saturday’s win.

Backstopping the UND attack, junior Zane McIntyre earned the Green and White’s third NCHC honor of the week.

McIntyre allowed two goals this past weekend en route to earning conference goaltending weekly honors.

The Pick

UND will be without arguably its best defenseman this weekend in sophomore Troy Stecher who went down with a leg injury in Saturday night’s win over LSSU. This loss hurts North Dakota greatly, but it’s next man up for UND. Veterans Nick Mattson and Andrew Panzerella could both be thrusted into action against a team who knows how to put the puck in the net.

North Dakota seemed to get its power play back on track in last weekend’s sweep, going 5-for-8 and will likely have its chances with the extra man as Denver’s 16.9 penalty minutes a game is the fifth-highest in the country. The Pios have struggled on the penalty kill, as well, stopping just 84.7% of their opponent’s power plays.

This weekend should provide some high-octane energy and passion and is as much as can’t-miss-TV as college hockey has going today.

UND will look to score in bunches against an average defensive attack, but the loss of Stecher could deter that a bit. As much as it pains him to make this call, DDC sees a split this weekend at Magness in what should be two extremely competitive games.

UND wins 4-2 on Friday, Denver earns the split 3-2 on Saturday.

Rose and Thorns: Don't Be a Liar

Raise your hand if you thought UND would be down 4-1 at any point to Lake Superior State this weekend.

Anyone? If your hand is up, you’re a liar.

Despite a stunning first half of the game on Friday that silenced the home crowd at Ralph Engelstad Arena, the No. 1 team in the country showed precisely why they earned that distinction coming into the weekend, ripping off six unanswered goals en route to a crazy 7-4 win.

In the series finale on Saturday, UND’s performance wasn’t its prettiest of the year, but North Dakota took care of business and earned a non-conference sweep with a 3-1 victory over LSSU. 

Here’s what stood out to DDC against the Lakers in this week’s edition of Roses and Thorns:

Roses

No. 1 – Tucker Poolman

Injuries to Drake Caggiula and Colton St. Clair forced the freshman defenseman to move to forward on Friday night and Poolman paced UND’s furious comeback win with a dynamic two-goal performance. Poolman netted his first on the power play to make it 4-2 and reignited the REA crowd and his second goal, again on the power play, knotted the game at 4-4. From there, the route was on. This freshman has a unique blend of size, skill and scoring touch and his versatility led UND to the win on Friday.

UND senior forward Michael Parks celebrates his third period power play
goal on Friday night. The Green and White were lethal with extra man this past
weekend, going a combined 5-for-8. Photo credit: UND Sports.

No. 2 – UND’s Power Play

After struggling mightily over the last handful of weekends, UND got back on track this weekend going a combined 5-for-8. Freshman Nick Schmaltz makes this unit go and they went all weekend.

No. 3 – Zane McIntyre

What else can be said about this kid? The junior netminder made two huge saves, one with UND still trailing and another while tied on Friday night after coming in cold after a tough start for freshman goaltender Cam Johnson. On Saturday night, McIntyre wasn’t very busy, but kept LSSU at bay, especially during a late push by the Lakers with UND nursing a tenuous 2-1 lead. As McIntyre goes, so goes the Green and White. Two more wins for the all-world North Dakota goalie. 

Honorable mention – LSSU’s Jerseys

Classic and timeless. Great colors and a solid logo. Simply put, those sweaters are a thing of beauty.

Thorns

No. 1 – Injuries

UND has been bitten by the injury bug a lot this year and the Green and White may have had it’s biggest one to date when sophomore defenseman Troy Stetcher went down with a leg injury on Saturday. Arguably UND’s best d-man so far this year, Stetcher went leg first into the boards in the third period and his status is unknown going forward. UND lost St. Clair on Friday as well, but saw Caggiula come back to the ice on Saturday night after missing a large portion of Friday night’s game. Injuries are part of the game, unfortunately, and it’s next man up for the Green and White. 

No. 2 – Cam Johnson

DDC didn’t want to pick on the freshman netminder’s shaky first-career start on Friday, but it showed UND fans a nervous side to life without an experienced backstop. Johnson fought the puck as LSSU jumped out to a 3-0 lead that saw the freshman get yanked, but lucky for UND, they never really lost control of the game. If something were to happen to McIntrye injury-wise for North Dakota, Johnson would be the man running the show. Johnson needs to fix whatever jitters he was plagued with on Friday. Depth at all positions is key to a deep run.

No. 3 – Dumb Penalties

UND kept the Lakers from scoring a power play goal all weekend, however, dumb penalties stymied an early UND comeback just a minute after scoring a huge 3-1 goal on Friday night after a slashing call on Luke Johnson. It didn’t stop the comeback, but those kinds of penalties can’t happen against more talented teams. Saturday night, UND couldn’t get any offense rolling in the first due to penalties. Again, ultimately, it didn’t matter, but this needs to be a point of emphasis going forward.

Check back later this week as DDC takes a look at UND’s series with conference foe and longtime-rival Denver.