GRAND FORKS, ND– In a very calculated game that didn’t yield too much offense, the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks got the overtime victory against St. Cloud State to sweep the weekend and finish the home portion of the first semester undefeated at 9-0-0. 

Most of the first period was played in the neutral ice with only 10 shots between both sides being shown in first frame. An errant turnover behind the net with 6:40 left in the first allowed Jack Ahcan to beat Adam Scheel and put the Huskies up first. The Fighting Hawks had a couple of chances, none that were too high of a threat to David Hrenak. 

The second started with a feeling out process before St. Cloud got into penalty trouble, including Kevin Fitzgerald getting a five minute major and game misconduct for hitting from behind. Most of that major, however, was negated by a Shane Pinto hooking call. Jacob Bernard-Docker finally got the Hawks on the power play, ripping one high blocker side on Hrenak to tie the game eight minutes into the second frame. While St. Cloud did get into more penalty trouble, the Hawks couldn’t find the right shot; opting to pass it around the zone in hopes to find a shot on goal. 

The third period was more of a chess match, with both teams only mustering seven shots total– UND with six, St. Cloud with one– and totalling 28 (UND 18-10) for the 60 minutes of regulation. More of the same in OT until Jordan Kawaguchi redirected a Matt Kiersted shot to end it in OT and give UND the weekend sweep. The win also marked head coach Brad Berry’s 100th with the Fighting Hawks. 

“Here in North Dakota, our culture and mentality isn’t about one guy,” mentioned Berry post game. “Very privlidged to be apart of 100 wins, but it’s the assistant coaches that spend hours in the Ralph Engelstad Arena, countless hours recruiting, it’s about the players and staff digging in each and every day to be part of something special.”

THEY SAID IT

“Everybody is like, ‘We’re back’– I don’t think we left. Last year we had trouble scoring goals. We haven’t change the way we played here in five years and now we’re starting to get some goal production from some guys and you know– that’s a big deal. So, I don’t think it’s a big surprise and I don’t ever think we were gone and I don’t think we’re back. We’re a good team that’s going to keep building.”– Berry on the hype about North Dakota’s quick start to the season. 

“We’re obviously rolling right now. We’re going to enjoy these wins, but I think at the same time– we’ve got to keep building. We haven’t accomplished anything yet at the end of the day. So we gotta keep getting better everyday and get back to work here on Monday.” — Bernard-Docker on the start of the season, but what needs to still be done.

“After the last two years, we’ve come in and missed the tournament two years in a row. I guess we’re the first class to do that in a long time. We kind of went into the summer and said, ‘Hey, it’s not going to be like that this year.’ We’re motivated, more than ever. We want to win.” — Kawaguchi on the junior class taking a big step this season.