Friday Gameday: Penrose Champs Until We Ain't

One of the NCHC's most-storied rivalries renews this weekend in Grand Forks 
as Denver travels to take on UND. Photo Credit: GF Herald.

Welcome to November and welcome, in earnest, to the start of our University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks' defense as the back-to-back Penrose Cup champions. The rest of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference has to chase down the green and white if they plan on taking the cup as regular season champions and that chase begins this weekend as hated rival Denver travels to Grand Forks for a two-game series.

UND, ranked No. 8/10 this week, hasn't had a terrific start to the season going just 4-3 in their first seven games including a last week's disappointing loss to Penn State in Nashville, but DDC believes that reigniting the rivalry with the Pios could certainly be a catalyst for the Hawks as conference play kicks off.

DU, ranked No. 11/13, has had a solid 4-2 start to their campaign and is led by a dominant first line of sophomore Carter Savoie, junior Bobby Brink, and senior Cole Guttman. The trio has tallied a whopping 30 points in the Pioneers' six games. 

As UND fans, we all well know what these battles are all about overall and what it means this weekend. Here's what to look for in DDC's weekly "Who? What? How" series preview as NCHC play begins as one of the conference's most bitter rivalries renews inside Ralph Engelstad Arena.

Who?

Players to Watch

University of Denver Pioneers

So. F., Carter Savoie, 6 goals, 6 assists -- 12 points; Sr. F., Cole Guttman, 3g, 6a -- 9pts; Jr. F., Bobby Brink, 3g, 6a -- 9pts; Fr. F., Massimo Rizzo, 5g, 3a -- 8 pts; Jr. G., 3-1-0, 3.12 GAA average, .868 sv%; Fr. G., Matt Davis, 1-1-0, 2.36 GAA, .911 sv%

University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks

So. F., Riese Gaber, 3 goals, 6 assists -- 9 points; So. D., Jake Sanderson, 3g, 5a -- 8pts; Fr. F., Jake Schmaltz, 4g, 4a -- 8pts; Jr. F., Ashton Calder, 4g, 3a -- 7pts; Jr. F., Judd Caulfield, 3g, 3a -- 6pts; Sr. G., Zach Driscoll, 4-3-0, 2.74 GAA, .890 sv%

What?

Standout Stats and Notes

Denver

DU So. Carter Savoie

Denver's top line of Brink (No. 3, +9), Savoie (t-No.8, +8), and Guttman (t-No.8, +8) all rank near the top nationally in plus/minus rating.

Savoie's 6 goals is tied for sixth in the NCAA and his 12 points has him tied for 9th. He is also second in the NCAA with 34 shots on goal.

DU's penalty kill has been a struggle this year with a paltry 59.3% kill rate on the year, 56th out of 59 in NCAA, but their 27.6% power play is 12th in the country. 

Former UND commit, freshman Massimo Rizzo has had a hot start in his first year in college hockey with five goals on the season.

UND

The Fighting Hawks' power play has been solid so far this season, scoring at a 30.8% clip, good for No. 4 in the NCAA. Their 81.3% penalty kill is 28th.

This weekend marks games number 301 and 302 in the long-storied history of UND versus Denver. Those 302 games is the most played against any opponent in the team's history.

UND lost a 6-4 tilt to Penn State last weekend, dropping just their fourth game since 2018 when scoring at least 4 goals. The Hawks are 44-4-2 in that span when scoring four.

How?

How'd they get here?

The Pioneer's last action came two weekends ago when they dropped two games on the east coast, one to Providence College 6-5 and the next night to Boston College, 5-1. Denver (4-2-0) was 4-0 to start the season prior to those back-to-back losses.

UND (4-3-0) returns home after a stinging 6-4 loss to Penn State last Saturday in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game in Nashville. After starting the season with three-straight wins, the Fighting Hawks have lost three of their last four. 

Both teams are playing their first NCHC action of the season and this will be the only series between the two teams this year. 

Oh, the memories. Photo credit: Sports Illustrated

The Pick

Ahhhh. Good ol' Denver. The memories are endless and the hatred is real. Nick Schmaltz, Robbie Bina, Jesse Martin, Brad Malone, Peter Maninno, and so on, and so on, and so on... To say these teams know each other well is an incredible understatement.

These are always fun, but DDC is nervous for this weekend. These nerves come from two things -- DU's 5 goal a game scoring clip and UND's lack of team scoring and cohesion so far this season. The Green and White lack depth scoring and playing against a team like the Pioneers who is scoring in bunches, DDC fears a shootout, run-and-gun type series. With all of that said, UND's weekend split against Quinnipiac, particularly in their Saturday night win, gives DDC confidence that the Hawks can slow down a solid offensive team. Containing the top line of Brink, Savoie, and Guttman will obviously be the key. These three men have had a dominant start, so UND must find a way to make other players on the ice score goals against them. 

One of those other players, former UND recruit, freshman Massimo Rizzo has shown the ability to pot goals, so this will need to be a defensive performance for the Hawks this weekend. If they can hold the fort like they did against QU, they will be fine this weekend. 

Chemistry, flow, and team gelling has been the bugaboo for UND so far as the development of these pieces just hasn't gotten there. Skating at home, kicking off the NCHC schedule, against a massive rival, there's no better time for this to happen then in this series. DDC is picking a split.

UND takes one Friday, 4-2 and DU rebounds for Splitsville on Saturday, 5-3.

As always, thanks for the read! Check back early next week for DDC's look at how it all went down from the Ralph.

Roses and Thorns: A Hall of Fame Weekend in Smashville

The UND Fighting Hawks fell 6-4 to Penn State in Nashville, but the story of the weekend was the Green and White faithful supporting their team. Photo Credit: Russell Hons

As the seconds ticked down on Saturday night, DDC sat down in his seat at Bridgestone Arena and looked around the rink in silence. The Penn State Nittany Lions had just beaten our University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks 6-4 in front of 14,659 nearly-all green (add in white, black, pink, etc.) fans and DDC was, frankly, just bummed out. At the apex of a wild trip to Nashville where the UND faithful painted the Music City in our colors, the Green and White came up short.

While DDC was definitely disappointed with the loss, there were too many good things to come out of the weekend to call this road trip anything but an absolute blast. 

So, let's take a look at the weekend that was from Nashville, Tennessee and the 2021 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame game. If you're looking for a lot of hockey analysis in this article, fair warning, this isn't DDC's focus on this one. But, if you're looking for a laugh and a good story or four, check it out.

Roses

1) Overall Experience in Nashville

It's really hard to quantify how this whole trip went down because, yes, it was about hockey, but in so many ways, the 6-4 loss became an afterthought. Yes, DDC understands, UND lost and that sucks, but this weekend was just another showcase of what this program is to the college hockey world. The little town of Grand Forks, North Dakota is the pivot point of the sport. Like it or not, no other college hockey fanbase brings the amount of fans to a neutral site like UND did. The sheer numbers of this experience was flat out insanity. 

Whether it was the Wildhorse Saloon, the pregame event in front of Bridgestone, or on every single rooftop bar in Nashville, the Green and White faithful turned out in massive droves. DDC was waiting in line at Hattie B's Hot Chicken on Saturday afternoon and three comments were consistent by passerbys in the nearly hour-long wait -- 1) "Wow, look at the line" (it was wild)... 2) "This line isn't worth it, the chicken isn't that good" (PROPOSTEROUS! BLASPHEMOUS! It was phenomenal and well worth the wait) ... 3) "Where the hell are all of these Sioux/North Dakota fans coming from?"

Personally, this weekend was such a blast for DDC. On Thursday, DDC rode on The Nashville Tractor and it was so damn fun. Partaking in a few adult beverages while chugging up and down the streets around Broadway, which hosts the party bars in Nashville (think third street in Grand Forks times 5.5 million), DDC was floored by the sheer amount of people walking around. Every time one of those clad in green and white saw us, an immediate cheer went up. What a blast. The ride then led to a five-hour, late-night convo with some of college hockey's premier minds (not kidding 😃) on the rooftop of Tootsie's. Just an all-timer night. 

Simply put, the trip to Nashville was incredible. What a terrific showcase of what UND means to the college hockey world and what the Fighting Hawk faithful mean to UND. So happy to have been there.

2) The Atmosphere at Bridgestone Arena

Sea of green. That actually feels like an understatement. An ocean? A galaxy? Whatever, DCC believes you get the picture -- the rink was LOADED with UND fans and my goodness did that place explode when we scored. Take a listen:

Other than Holy Cross knocking off Minnesota in the Ralph, this may be the loudest event DDC has ever experienced. Absolutely awesome -- chills. DDC was so ready for the Hawks to tie this game and this may be his biggest regret from this weekend -- we all missed a chance to hear that roar had we knotted it up late. C'est la vie. 

3) Dayn "Not Ed" Belfour

For comparison sake, Ed is on the left, Dayn the right.
Photo credit: Dallas Morning News

The funniest moment of the weekend for DDC came over two parts and from a non-UND alum. For those not at the arena, throughout the game, the media crew spotlighted on the big screen former UND greats for a quick cheer from the faithful. Dean Blais' waive was great. Evan Trupp's appearance, which saw the former forward chug his beer and pump up the crowd with a "let's f***** go!", was fantastic. Then, what was supposed to be Ed Belfour's moment actually showed Ed's son, former Omaha goaltender Dayn Belfour. 

So, to many, this young man definitely shared a striking resemblance to his father, but when looking at the two side by side, this was clearly not Ed. Dayn rode the waive as the crowd went bananas, from what DDC perceived, as most of the crowd realizing it wasn't Ed, which made it funny, but more so because Dayn went nuts. This young man was waiving his arms, jumping up and down, laughing, pointing at the screen -- just having a ball. This would have been a funny story as is, but got way funnier later. That night at one of the Nashville establishments, DDC ran into the Belfours and he had to ask -- Dayn, what were you thinking when that happened. With a belly laugh that lasted several minutes, Dayn simply said... "I was four seats away and I was just dying laughing. It's as famous as I'll ever be." A heckuva former goaltender in his own right, Dayn Belfour became his father, for just a fleeting moment and soaked it up. It's been a long time since DDC laughed that hard for that long.

Thorns

1) The Game

The only thorn of the weekend (well, other than hangovers and horse throats) comes from, unfortunately, the most important part. After falling behind 2-0 early and giving up three power play goals, throughout the game, North Dakota just didn't get it done. DDC is not one who thought that UND got dominated in this one like many scattered throughout the internet, as that was absolutely not the case. The game on Saturday night was up and down, high-paced, and for the most part, fairly even. DDC would go as far to say that North Dakota controlled play in the second half the game (UND outshot PSU 32-23). But, as has been the case essentially all season, the Hawks lacked cohesion. The Green and White had turnovers, missed passes, and added silly mistakes that cost them goals. This team has really yet to gel and until that happens, UND will be an average team. On the plus, the power play was absolutely clutch in this game, going 3-for-6 overall and buried two massive, late goals in both the first and second period to keep the game close. However, the Green and White just couldn't overcome a the quick, first period hole and were never able to tie the game. Like DDC said earlier, the crowd at Bridgestone Arena was just begging for the tying goal, but North Dakota could not finish when it mattered most.

DDC believes this team is talented and that the pieces are there for this team to make a run at home ice in the NCHC playoffs and eventually at the national championship, but right now, this team just hasn't reached that level. With the NCHC schedule coming heavy, the Hawks need to right the ship. Will this team be a second-half, Hakstol-type squad that comes together down the stretch to make a run? We'll see. Work needs to be done and it frankly needs to happen soon.

Spinning back to a more positive note, this was a fantastic weekend and DDC is glad to have gotten a chance to share his experience with you. Thanks for the read and check back later this week as the hated Denver Pioneers travel to The Forks for UND's first NCHC action of the season.