GRAND FORKS, N.D. – No. 19 North Dakota broke out of a slump in a big way, rolling to a 7-1 victory over Miami on Friday night from Ralph Engelstad Arena.
UND (5-5-2, 2-2-1 NCHC) snapped a three-game winless streak with emphatic fashion, striking for a season-high seven goals from six-different players in the victory.
Five players recorded a pair of points, headlined by freshman forward Ben Strinden scoring the first goal of his career to put the Fighting Hawks in front, 2-0, in the opening period before notching an assist on the sixth tally of the night to finish with his first multi-point game at North Dakota.
Jackson Blake extended his point streak to three straight games with his fifth multi-point contest of the season, striking for a pair of goals for the first time in his young career. Gavin Hain, Mark Senden, Judd Caulfield and Griffin Ness rounded out the scoring for the hosts, as 14 of the 19 dressed skaters tallied at least one point.
Jakob Hellsten was solid in his first stretch of back-to-back starts since Jan. 28-29, 2022 against St. Cloud State, stopping 18-of-19 thrown his way to record his second victory of the season.
It once again didn’t take long for North Dakota to get on the board, scoring just 3:31 into the contest when Hain buried a 3-on-2 rush for his sixth goal of the season and an early 1-0 lead. Strinden extended the advantage to 2-0 late in the first period, as the rookie forced a turnover, bullied his way to the front of the net and slid the puck through the legs of Ludvig Persson to double the lead after 20 minutes.
UND broke it open in the second period, striking for a tetrad of goals to push the advantage to 6-1 at the end of two. Following a major penalty called on Miami (4-7-2, 0-6-1 NCHC), Blake and Ness each potted a goal with the man advantage by banking pucks off a RedHawk defenseman and into the net for a 4-0 lead.
Just 1:26 after the Ness tally, Senden struck shorthanded on a 2-on-1 play from Riese Gaber to make it three goals in under five minutes for the fourth time this season. Miami got on the scoreboard late in the stanza, but Caulfield answered back 18 seconds later to give UND a 6-1 lead after 40 minutes.
Blake finished off the offensive night with another goal on an odd-man rush, this time burying a feed from Jake Schmaltz to polish off the 7-1 victory.
North Dakota and Miami will close out the weekend series on Saturday night at 6:07 p.m. from the Ralph.
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