GRAND FORKS, N.D. – A span of 122 seconds early in the third period Tuesday night at the National Collegiate Hockey Conference Frozen Faceoff championship game will be long remembered by both the University of North Dakota and St. Cloud State.
That electrifying span of time stretching from 3:20 into the third period to the 5:22 mark saw Gavin Hain, Jordan Kawaguchi and Riese Gaber score goals for the Fighting Hawks to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 lead and lift the Fighting Hawks to a 5-3 win over the Huskies.
“Those five minutes (first 5 minutes of the third period) just killed us,” St. Cloud coach Brett Larson said. “When they (UND) smell blood, they’re on you. That’s what good teams do.”
The Frozen Faceoff championship, coupled with UND’s Penrose Cup trophy as NCHC regular-season champion, marked the first time in the eight-year history of the league that one team has one both championships. It was also the first time UND has won the Frozen Faceoff.
UND beat Miami 6-2, Denver 2-1 and then St. Cloud State over a span of five days at Ralph Engelstad Arena to sweep to the title.
“Winning the Penrose is tough enough,” UND coach Brad Berry said. “But then when you have to condense it (the NCHC playoffs) and come into an environment where you do have to play three games in five days against top competition, it’s a feat that we’ll never forget.
“It’s one of those things, too, that melds you more tighter as a team as far as you grow to the point where you have momentum going into the NCAA regionals here (in Fargo).”
As host school, UND (21-5-1) will unquestionably be the No. 1 seed in the Fargo Regional, beginning March 26. The field of 16 chosen for the NCAA tournament, as well as UND’s opponent, will be announced on ESPN-U on Sunday at 6 p.m.
Tuesday’s victory wasn’t an easy task. For the second straight night, UND gave up the first goal of the game and rallied to win both games. Prior to this tournament, UND had only one win (1-5-1) this season when giving up the first goal, but did it twice in the last two days.
Zach Okabe scored just 2:06 into the game to stake the Huskies to the early lead, before Gaber tied it with his 10th goal of the year at 12:40.
But Michigan Tech transfer Seamus Donohue scored his first goal in 27 games for the Huskies at 16:46 of the first period, beating UND goalie Adam Scheel to the far side.
After a scoreless second period, Hain, who had the overtime winning goal on Monday to beat Denver, pounded in a cross-crease pass from Judd Caulfield on a power play at 3:20 to tie it at 2-2 and start the run of goals in 122 seconds.
Kawaguchi scored at 4:54 and Gaber added a power-play goal at 5:22 to complete the flurry.
Goals by St. Cloud’s Sam Hentges at 7:10 and from UND’s Kawaguchi into an empty net with the goalie pulled at 19:51.8 of the final period closed the scoring. UND’s top line did the bulk of the scoring with Kawaguchi and Gaber scoring two goals each and Collin Adams adding two assists.
“It’s pretty special to win our last in the Ralph,” said Kawaguchi, one of five seniors in UND’s lineup.
“Special teams were the difference again tonight,” Berry said. “We were 2-for-4 and they were 0-for-2. At the end of the day, you have to score on the power play and you have to make sure you defend well against their power play.”
Larson pulled goalie David Hrenak (30 saves) with 1:47 left in the game for a sixth attacker, but Kawaguchi, the UND captain, foiled that with his empty-netter.
“Tonight I thought he looked like he got shot out of a cannon,” Berry said of Kawaguchi. “I think that goes to the leadership side of it as far as him being a captain and showing the way.”
Notes:
*UND won the faceoff battle 50-25, led by Jasper Weatherby (18 of 24), Shane Pinto (19-11) and Louis Jamernik (4-0). All 6 St. Cloud players who took draws finished below .500 in the circle.
*UND rookie defenseman Jake Sanderson led UND in shots on goal with 7, followed by Kawaguchi with 6 and Pinto with 5.
*The game drew 3,175 fans, the largest turnout of the season.
*Gaber was named Most Outstanding Player in the tournament with 3 goals and one assist.
*Also named to the all-tournament team were forwards Adams and Gaber, defenseman Sanderson and goalie Scheel of UND. St. Cloud defenseman Nick Perbix was the lone non-Fighting Hawk on the team.
*UND seniors brought the playoff championship trophy out to center ice long after the game ended to pose for photos with it. However, the trophy stuck to the freshly resurfaced ice, and it took at least 10 minutes before help arrived to free it. “I’m not going to say it was it was our class (seniors) that did that,” Kawaguchi said, “but it was.”
Virg Foss covered UND hockey for 35 seasons for the Grand Forks Herald, including 5 NCAA title teams, before his retirement. Since his retirement, he’s written about UND hockey games exclusively for FightingHawks.com. This marks his 51st season since he began covering UND hockey in 1969.
Game Recap: Men’s Hockey | 3/16/2021 10:27:00 PM | Virg Foss, FightingHawks.com
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