Friday Gameday: On the Conference Grind

Flashback to March 7, 2015.

The UND men's hockey team gritted out a 2-1 win on Friday night over Miami in their home barn to clinch the Penrose Cup as National Collegiate Hockey Conference champions. The Green and White were presented the Penrose in the locker room, but the celebration bled out to the ice as the team posed for pictures with the regular season championship trophy.

I'm not sure how you'd feel about that, but if DDC were in the Miami home locker room, that would certainly leave him with a sour taste in his mouth.

Although the stakes may not be as high, will a bit of revenge be looked for this weekend as the Miami University RedHawks travel to Ralph Engelstad Arena to take on UND in a NCHC series?

I guess we'll find out.

Here's what to watch for in this conference showdown this Friday and Saturday in DDC's weekly "Who? What? How?" series preview.

Who?

Players to Watch

Miami

Miami Fr. F, Jack Roslovic

Fr. F, Jack Roslovic, 6 goals, 3 assists -- 9 points; Fr. F, Josh Melnick, 3g, 3a -- 6 pts; Jr. F, Anthony Lewis, 1g, 5a -- 6 pts; So. D, Louie Belpedio, 1a, 4a -- 5 pts; Sr. F, Sean Kuraly, 0g, 3a -- 3 pts; Sr. G, Ryan McKay, 5-2-1, 1.70 goals against average (10th in NCAA), .937 save percentage (11th in NCAA).

UND

Sr. F, Drake Caggiula, 3g, 8a -- 11 pts; Sr. F, Bryn Chyzyk, 5g, 3a -- 8 pts; Fr. F, Brock Boeser, 5g, 2a -- 7 pts; Jr. D, Troy Stecher, 2g, 5a -- 7 pts; So. F, Nick Schmaltz, 0g, 7a -- 7 pts; Jr. G, Matt Hrynkiw, 1.63 GAA (8th in NCAA), .933 SV PCT (14th in NCAA).

What?

Standout Stats

North Dakota leads the country in shots on goal with 375, is fourth in shots per game, averaging 37.5 and is second in plus/minus with a +16.

UND's 1.70 goals allowed per game is 6th best in the NCAA. Miami ranks 20th with 2.50 allowed.

Miami carries the third best penalty kill in the country into this weekend's series, having stopped 34 of 35 power play chances for a sterling 97.1% kill average.

UND is 7-4-1 all time against Miami. The two teams split both series last season.

How?

How did they get here?

No. 3 UND (7-1-2, 2-0-0-0 NCHC) dropped its first game of the year 3-1 last Friday at home against Wisconsin, but battled back and earned a non-conference split with a 3-1 win on Saturday. Friday night's loss haulted the Green and White's best season-opening unbeaten streak (8 games) since 1999-00.

No. 17 Miami (5-4-1, 2-2-0-0 NCHC) swept Western Michigan with a pair of 2-1 NCHC victories last weekend at home in Oxford, Ohio.

The Pick

UND celebrated with the Penrose Cup on Miami's home ice last March.
Will this fire up Miami this weekend at the Ralph? (photo: GF Herald)

UND has certainly had a great start to this season. All things considered, with a new head coach, 11 freshmen and a boatload of injuries, the Green and White have thus far exceeded expectations with a 7-1-2 start. With all due respect to Lake Superior State, Maine, Vermont, Colorado College and Wisconsin, this will be the toughest test for UND to this point in the season.

The RedHawks are loaded up front and freshman Jack Roslovic looks to be the real deal. Senior goaltender Ryan McKay has taken control of the Miami net in a battle with fellow senior Jay Williams with solid numbers.

UND experienced defeat for the first time this season at the hands of bitter rival Wisconsin last weekend and frankly, they deserved to lose on Friday night. The Badgers were tenacious defensively and had a compete level that the Green and White never really matched. UND bounced back on Saturday with a much better showing and got a convincing win. This will serve this team well as Miami will be jazzed up in front of a raucous REA crowd and will be looking for a bit of payback for the Penrose Cup victory celebration in Oxford.

This series screams split, but DDC really likes how UND responded last Saturday against Wisconsin. This team, loaded with freshmen, found out the hard way on Friday night what happens when your compete level isn't where it should be from the drop of the puck. While Miami is very talented, DDC likes the home ice advantage in this one.

UND SWEEPS IN TWO TIGHT, HIGH-PACED GAMES, 3-2, 4-3

There you have it. Come back after the series to see if DDC made the right call. Thanks for reading.

Friday Gameday: A Big Fight Feel

It's Rylan Kaip leveling Kyle Turris in the corner.

It's a 2-0 third period deficit in the 2008 Midwest Regional in Madison turning into a 3-2 OT win, sending UND to the Frozen Four on goals by Kaip, Ryan Duncan (PING!) and Andrew Kozek.

It's Dave Hakstol and Mike Eaves arguing on ice.

It's Cary Eades taking on the Wisconsin bench in the infamous Water Bottle Incident.

And for the first time since 2013, it's UND vs. the Wisconsin Badgers from the Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks.

There's a big fight feel in the air tonight.

These former WCHA foes left for the NCHC and Big 10 to start the 2013-14 season and have gone in opposite directions. The Green and White have made back-to-back Frozen Fours while Wisconsin has seen unprecedented struggles. 

Excuse the cliche, but you can throw that all out the window this weekend.

It's UND vs. Wisconsin.

Here's what to watch for in DDC's weekly "Who? What? How?" series preview.

Who?

Players to Watch

Wisconsin

Jr. F, Grant Besse 3 goals, 5 assists -- 8 points; Fr. F, Seamus Malone 2g, 5a -- 7pts; Fr. F, Luke Kunin 2g, 4a -- 6pts; Fr. G, Matt Juruski, 2-2-2, 2.84 goals against average, .904 save percentage.

UND

UND Sr. F. Drake Caggiula

Sr. F, Drake Caggiula 2g, 7a -- 9pts; Sr. F, Bryn Chyzyk 5g, 2a -- 7pts; Fr. F, Brock Boeser 5g, 2a -- 7pts (T-2 in NCAA rookie goal scoring); Jr. D, Troy Stecher 2g, 5a -- 7pts; Jr. G, Matt Hyrnkiw, 5-0-1, 1.48 GAA (11th in NCAA), .942 SV PCT (13th in NCAA).

What?

Standout Stats

UND brings in the NCAA's eighth-best scoring defense (1.62 goals against per game) and 16th-best scoring offense (3.62 goals scored per game) into this weekend's series.

UND's 6-0-2 mark is their longest unbeaten streak to start a season since 1999-00.

Wisconsin's sweep of Arizona State last weekend was their first series sweep since March 2014 against Penn State.

The Green and White are 7-2-1 in their last 10 games against the Badgers including a 4-3, 5-1 sweep last November in Madison.

How?

How'd they get here?

UND swept Colorado College last weekend 5-2, 2-0 in Colorado Springs. The No. 1 Green and White are unbeaten on the season with a 6-0-2 record.

Wisconsin got a non-conference sweep of Arizona State 5-1, 2-1 at home. In Friday night's win, the Badgers outshot the D-I rookie Sun Devil team 56-19. They carry a 2-3-3 record to Grand Forks.

The Pick

UND celebrates its comeback 3-2 overtime win over Wisconsin in the
2008 Midwest Regional final in Madison. This is easily DDC's favorite
image from that game. J.P. Lamoreux's celebration is flat out epic.

Boy does this series bring the DDC back down memory lane.

Whether it's covering the 2-0 comeback in the 2008 Midwest Regional with one of his best friends while they both had bleach blonde hair (fun story... feel free to ask), a rowdy series in Madison where DDC watched UND clinch a MacNaughton Cup with a dozen of his fraternity brothers or seeing the Green and White end Wisco's season just one week after the Badgers got UND into the tournament, DDC flat out loves watching these two teams play and he has the honor of being in Grand Forks this weekend, to watch it in person.

Outside of the Minnesota Gophers, this is the one team that DDC hates more than any other. Year after year, big game after big game, playoff battle after playoff battle, UND vs. Wisconsin brings an intensity that few other rivalries in college hockey can bring.

Despite where they are in the national standing and their records, DDC expects a game Badgers team this weekend in Grand Forks.

All of the emotion aside, UND is playing better than Wisconsin.

The Green and White are No. 1 in the country, paced by a dynamic scoring punch and a goaltender playing as well as any the country.

The Badgers got their first sweep in 18+ months at the hands of D-I infant Arizona State.

UND is the better team in every phase, this season and while this series could very well end up being a dog fight, stirring up memories of battles of the past, the talent difference between these two teams can't be ignored.

Bring it, Bucky. It's time for a fight.

UND SWEEPS THE BADGERS, 4-2, 5-3

Come back after the series for DDC's recap.

Friday Gameday: Better Dead Than Red

North Dakota and Wisconsin fans alike remember the narrative very well.

With just over seven minutes to go in the third period of the Big Ten Championship game, Wisconsin trailed Ohio State 4-2. A Buckeye win got them into the NCAA tournament with an automatic bid, effectively taking the last spot in the big dance and sending UND home to Grand Forks for the offseason.


As fate would find UND on that night, the Badgers stormed back, knotted the game at four and a Mark Zengerle game-winner in OT sent North Dakota fans into a frenzy and the Green and White back into the tournament for a regional battle with… you guessed it… Wisconsin.

In the regional semifinal, UND bested its former WCHA foe 5-2 on a goal with just under two minutes to go from Mark McMillan and two empty-netters from Rocco Grimaldi.

Hockey is a cruel game, sometimes.

There’s sure to be a bitter taste in the mouths of several Badgers this weekend as No. 2 North Dakota travels to Madison to battle with Wisconsin, however, many of this year’s version of the Badgers weren’t around for last year’s memorable meeting as UW's squad with 11 freshmen takes the ice in a crucial non-conference series tonight and Saturday from the Kohl Center.

So far this season, Wisconsin has looked like a team that has 11 freshmen.

Perennial national contenders, the Badgers have had a rough go of it this Fall, coming into this weekend 0-4 after losses to Alaska and Alaska Anchorage on opening weekend and to Northern Michigan three weeks ago.

FOLLOW THE LEADERS

With a young team struggling out of the gate, Wisconsin turns to its upperclassmen to lead.
However, the Badgers return just three of their Top 10 scorers from last year.

Senior Forward
Joseph LaBate

Senior captain, forward Joseph LaBate is Wisconsin’s highest returning scorer (11a, 11g) and Sophomore forward and former Minnesota Mr. Hockey, Grant Besse, look to provide scoring.


The Badger's strong point is between the pipes as they lean on two senior netminders Landon Peterson and Joel Rumpel.

Rumple, a Hobey Baker Top 10 Finalist last season, looks to be the one seeing more time through four games, having played in 3 of those contests with a 2.72 goal against average and .844 save percentage.

OPPOSITES ATTRACT

Junior Forward
Drake Caggiula

UND is essentially Wisconsin’s polar opposite to this point in the season. North Dakota is a team stocked with upperclassmen and is rolling on a six-game unbeaten streak.

Junior forward Drake Caggiula (2g, 6a) and Senior assistant captain Michael Parks (1g, 6a) lead the team in points.

North Dakota, too, has a solid backbone in the nets. Junior goaltender Zane McIntyre comes into this weekend 5-1-1 on the year with a solid 1.91 GAA and .931 save percentage.

THE PICK

This series is an interesting one to DDC. It’s a rivalry series, the Badgers home opener and the first time these two teams have played since last year’s crazy, fateful ending. Also, Wisconsin hasn’t played in three weeks, so, this team should have legs. Three weeks!? That’s strange.

 After an emotional, comeback OT win this past Saturday against Air Force, DDC sees North Dakota carrying that momentum into the Kohl Center.

Wisconsin has yet to show the scoring touch from its young group and UND is by far the best team they’ve played so far this year. With a dynamic blue line and leaders up front, DDC sees the Badgers being unable to handle a veteran squad at this point in the year. UND puts the Badgers on their heels on Friday for a big win and gets the sweep in a tighter battle on Saturday.

UND SWEEP, 5-1, 2-1

And, just because it’s a fond memory, here’s a clip of Andrew Kozek’s game-winning OT goal in the 2008 regional to send the Sioux to the Frozen Four over Wisconsin in the red’s home barn. A shout out to DDC’s fellow bleached-blonde haired brother for a great weekend and a pretty legendary memory.

Who’ll be the King of Queen City? NCAA HOCKEY TOURNAMENT PREVIEW

After six months of hockey, two of the four teams in this weekend’s NCAA Midwest regional in Cincinnati, their season’s final buzzer will sound.

The tournament kicks off at 3:30 p.m. CT on Friday from U.S. Bank Arena when the two teams who started the NCAA campaign way back on October 5, Ferris State and Colgate, take the ice to see who can keep their season alive.

At 7 p.m. in the other half of the regional, former WCHA conference rivals the Wisconsin Badgers and North Dakota renew past pleasantries.

The winners of the two semifinal matchups will play each other the next night for the right to head to the Frozen Four in Philadelphia.

No. 2 FERRIS STATE VS. No. 3 COLGATE

These two teams have gotten to know each other a bit this season, playing each other three times, two of which Colgate won.

The Raiders, coming off a 5-2 semifinal loss to eventual ECAC tournament champion Union, are a young team, led by a group of five sophomores with 26 or more points. Dynamic twins Tyson (10 goals, 23 assists – 33 points) and Tylor Spink (14g, 16a – 30 pts) spark the young forward corps.

Colgate is young between the pipes, as well, as freshman Charlie Finn paced the 20-13-5 Raiders with a 16-7-4 record, 2.40 goals against average and a steady .916 save percentage.

Colgate will look to slow down the nation’s 10^th ranked scoring offense in Ferris State. The Bulldogs, who fell in the WCHA Final Five championship game to MSU-Mankato 4-1 this past Saturday, are led in goals (16) and points (32), by senior winger Garrett Thompson.

Junior netminder C.J. Motte, a Hobey Baker finalist, has been a stalwart in the net for Ferris State this season, notching 27-8-3 record, good for fifth best in the country, a 2.25 goals against average and a .926 save percentage.

The Pick
DDC was impressed by the Raiders in 2-2 tie (shootout win) against then No. 2 Minnesota back in January. The Spink Twins are a heck-of-a duo. 

Ferris was among the best teams in the college hockey this year, winning the WCHA regular season title and reaching the No. 2 ranking in the country on December 30. Since then, including a 3-0 loss to Colgate, the Bulldogs are a respectable 14-8-0, but feasted on a weak WCHA schedule. DDC thinks Colgate’s youth takes over as the RAIDERS WIN, 4-2.

No. 1 WISCONSIN VS. No. 4 NORTH DAKOTA

Sweet fate finds these once bitter rivals on the same ice.

After a 5-0 win over Western Michigan in the NCHC third-place game this past Saturday, UND needed two things to happen to make their 12^th-straight NCAA tournament. 1) Have UMass-Lowell beat New Hampshire in the Hockey East final and 2) have Wisconsin beat Ohio State in the Big Ten final. 

The River Hawks downed the Wildcats, easily. Check.

But, things looked bleak for the Green and White as the Badgers trailed the Buckeyes 4-2 with just over 6 minutes left to play in St. Paul.

Twenty-eight seconds later, UND had a pulse.

Wisconsin tied it with back-to-back goals.

DDC, as many UND fans, watched this back-and-forth battle head into overtime, pacing around a downtown Minneapolis apartment with three other crazed fans, knowing that their favorite team was one bounce away from dancing or depression.

Then, with just under eight minutes gone in the extra frame, Senior Mark Zengerle scored the game-winner in a net-front scrum for a 5-4 Wisconsin win.

Cheers could be heard from Minneapolis to Grand Forks and back to St. Paul.

The win gave the Badgers the inaugural Big Ten tournament title and a No. 1 seed in the regional.

It gave North Dakota a chance.

Friday’s tilt renews a rivalry that is 163 games old. Simply put, these teams know each other very well.

Wisconsin’s Zengerle leads a trio of highly-touted forwards in Sophomore Nic Kerdiles and Senior Michael Mersch into the first-round matchup. Zengerle’s 43 points leads the team.

Junior goaltender Joel Rumpel, a Hobey Baker Top 10 finalist, paces a defensive group that allows 2.50 goals a game. Rumpel’s winning percentage this season (21-5-1, .756) is second best in the nation. His goals against average (2.03) and save percentage (.930) are both in the top 10 nationally.

For UND, sophomore forward Rocco Grimaldi leads the team in all scoring categories with 14 goals, 22 assists and 36 points.

North Dakota’s defensive scoring has been a major story this season as three 'D' men, sophomore Jordan Schmaltz (6g, 17a – 23 pts), senior captain Dillion Simpson (7g, 15a – 22 pts) and junior Nick Mattson (4g, 17a – 21 pts), have all more than 20 points on the year.

After battling senior Clarke Saunders for playing time early in the season and a short bump with an injury, sophomore goaltender Zane Gothberg has been stellar in the net for UND this season.

Gothberg’s 2.05 goals against average is 9^th in the nation and since Nov. 30, has gone 16-4-1. During that stretch of 21 starts, Gothberg owns a 1.76 goals against average, a 9.31 save percentage and his first three shutouts of his collegiate career.

The Pick
This is a tough pick. Rivals on the grandest stage – the NCAA tournament.

Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is attributed to the famous quote: “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

Although the stakes are clearly not as high as Pearl Harbor, DDC thinks the Badgers have done just this.

UND was just 6 minutes away from watching teams play this weekend. DDC thinks UND brings a new energy to the Queen City and gets a clutch performance from Gothberg in the pipes and skates to a slugfest win. UND WINS, 4-3.

TITLE GAME

Although I like Colgate and how they’ve played down the stretch and throughout this season, DDC thinks UND will be too motivated from beating their rival the night before to drop this one. Gothberg leads the charge again as NORTH DAKOTA SKATES TO PHILLY, 4-1.

THE REST OF THE DDC BRACKET

West
No. 2 Notre Dame knocks off No. 1 Minnesota in the Gophers’ backyard. DDC hasn’t seen a killer instinct from Minny yet this season, as they consistently played down to their opponents all season. Goaltender Adam Wilcox is a legitimate stud this season, but it isn’t enough. IRISH EYES ARE SMILIN’, 4-2.

East
One name to learn for this post-season run: Connor Hellebuyck.

No. 2 UMass-Lowell stymies No. 1 Boston College in Worcester behind a continued out-of-this-world effort from the sophomore netminder against the best player in college hockey, Johnny Gaudreau.

Still don’t believe DDC? Hellebuyck’s goals against average: 1.73, best in the nation. Hellebuyck’s save percentage: .943, best in the nation. Hellebuyck’s shutouts this year: 6, second in the nation. 

No more questions. RIVER HAWKS SOAR, 3-1.

Northeast
DDC has seen Union play a few times this season. Up front, they are good; defensively, they are great.

Junior Shane Gostisbehere is a Hobey finalist and senior Mat Bodie is third in the country in defenseman scoring. Goalie Collin Steven’s goals against average of 1.96 goals a game is fifth in the nation. This grouping is flat out good.

Providence’s Jon Gillies is no slouch in net, but DDC doesn’t think even he can keep pace with Union’s 'D' corps. UNION DUTCHMEN TOP THE FRIARS, 5-2.