Champs! No. 3 North Dakota captures Penrose Cup with 5-3 win over No. 4 Western Michigan

KALAMAZOO, Michigan (KNFL/KFGO/UND Athletics) – For the seventh time in program history, No. 3 North Dakota captured the Penrose Cup as NCHC regular season champions with a 5-3 win over No. 4 Western Michigan on Friday night from Lawson Ice Arena in Kalamazoo, Mich.

The victory also locks up the No. 1 seed for the NCHC Frozen Faceoff for North Dakota, which will be played entirely on campus sites for the first time in league history.

In a game which the visitors never trailed, UND (25-7-1, 17-5-1 NCHC) also grabbed its first regulation win over Western Michigan (23-9-1, 15-7-1 NCHC) in the last seven games. That regulation win on March 2, 2024 also captured the Penrose Cup for the Fighting Hawks.

Five-different players found the back of the net in the win for UND, with Sam Laurila (1), Ollie Josephson (5), Josh Zakreski (3), Will Zellers (17) and Mac Swanson (8) all each potting a goal to mark the second straight game that all four forward lines scored at least one goal.

Cole Reschny was the lone Hawk to record multiple points, as the rookie dished out a pair of assists to give him 30 points on the season. Jan Špunar finished with 22 saves on 25 shots against to improve to 17-3-1 overall and likely finishes his regular season with no regulation losses on the road.

It was a fast start for the visitors, as Laurila scored his first goal of his career when the rookie buried a centering feed from Ben Strinden to give UND a 1-0 lead just 4:40 into the contest.

After WMU quickly responded with a breakaway goal to even the game at 1-1, the Hawks went back in front late in the first period as Josephson slid a puck through the goaltender’s legs to make it 2-1 NoDak after 20 minutes.

It was back-and-forth during the second period, but WMU eventually knotted the contest on a point shot through traffic just before the midway point in the stanza. Once again, however, UND answered back, as Zakreski got behind the defense and made a great power move around the goaltender to make it 3-2 for the visitors heading into the third period.

It was another early goal in the final frame for UND, as Zellers scored off the rush on a nifty backhander to give the visitors a 4-2 lead just under five minutes into the third.

WMU made it interesting in the final moments with an extra attacker goal to bring it to 4-3, but Swanson sealed it with an empty netter to secure the 5-3 win at the Penrose Cup.

North Dakota will go for the series sweep on Saturday night at 5:00 p.m. (CT) on NCHC.tv and the Fighting Hawks Radio Network.

How It Happened 

First Period:                                                     
04:40 | UND – Sam Laurila (1) from Ben Strinden (17) and Cole Reschny (25)
06:14 | WMU – Liam Valente (18) from William Whitelaw (13) and Owen Michaels (13)
12:12 | UND – Ollie Josephson (5) from Jake Livanavage (20) and Cody Croal (4)

Second Period: 
08:10 | WMU – Zach Bookman (3) from Samuel Sjolund (16) and Iiro Hakkarainen (9)
16:00 | UND – Josh Zakreski (3) from Anthony Menghini (6) and Abram Wiebe (21)

Third Period:
04:42 | UND – Will Zellers (17) from Ellis Rickwood (24) and EJ Emery (6)
17:58 | WMU – Zaccharya Wisdom (16, EA) from Whitelaw (14) and Bookman (10)
19:40 | UND – Mac Swanson (8, EN) from Reschny (26)