Things are not well in Grand Forks.

After a Friday shutout by former UND verbal commit Cam Rowe and a blown three-goal lead defeat on Saturday, the Fighting Hawks are looking for answers as they fight for their tournament lives. Friday night was a game where North Dakota had all the chances in the world, but couldn’t find a way to bury them. Saturday night, the Hawks got on the board quickly and looked to have broken the defensive spell of Western Michigan– until their own defensive faults lead to a 7-6 loss and getting swept at home for the first time in the new calendar year. 

One story on Friday was Cam Rowe’s play in net, as he looked solid between the pipes, stopping all UND threw at him and captured his second shutout of the season. Another story was Tyler Kleven taking a major penalty and game misconduct at the end of the second period, which resulted in a Jason Polin insurance goal for Western Michigan to secure the first win of the weekend. The Kleven penalty resulted in a suspension for himself and diminished an already depleted UND roster in the blue line. 

Saturday started as a feel-good story with Grand Forks native and redshirt freshman Kaleb Johnson getting his first start for the Hawks. Johnson played well to start the game, while the Hawks were able to support him with a 5-2 lead through 43:15 of play. Then Luke Grainger came into the fold and took over, starting with his goal with 5:28 remaining in the second. Then Grainger had a hand in four of the last five Broncos goals, as they came all the way back to take the lead before an Ethan Frisch power play game-tying goal. Then Carter Berger scored with under three minutes left and UND snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. 

Not only was this a blow to the Pairwise ranking for UND, but in the NCHC standings, as well. North Dakota is looking at a playoff series on the road if they can’t run the table in the remaining conference games. With how inconsistent the Hawks have been this season on both sides of the puck, it’s a big question mark to see whether or not this team can flip the switch as the stretch run goes onward. 

“We know what we need to do,” UND captain Mark Senden said. “We talk about all the right things. We just have to go out there and execute.”

“We know our structure,” Frisch said. “We play it well most the game. Once we get on our heels, we don’t have confidence in ourselves. It creeps back in our game where we’re not being responsible. We’re not being mentally tough enough. It’s mental toughness and overall mentality of our group.” 

So with a team that has a bit of mental toughness questions– how does this team not go into full panic mode??

“We got to keep guys positive, keep guys up on the bench,” mentioned Senden. “Whether some guy makes a blocked shot or makes a nice play; we got to cheer for those little things and make sure guys know those small details matter. We just have to believe in ourselves, have trust in ourselves that we’re all good hockey players here. We just got to go out and play to our abilities.”

“It all starts with leadership,” Frisch added. “We can be better. Everyone on the bench. Just positive talk and making sure we’re addressing the things we need to be addressed and not getting down on each other.” 

Now, as the season winds down and their hope to get into the NCAA tournament starts to fade; it almost seems like it’s too late to go back to the drawing board. With Duluth coming into The Ralph this coming weekend; the mental toughness will be at the forefront and the panic button may be hovered over.

SATURDAY POST GAME VIDEO

GRAND FORKS, ND– Coming back on the tail-end of a home-and-home, the North Dakota Fighting Hawks looked to gather up a win after tying the Bemidji State Beavers in Bemidji the night before. With a battered and bruised roster, the Hawks brought any healthy body they could to the roster and found an extra gear and were able to pull out a 4-2 win in their last home game of the semester. 

North Dakota was able to get pressure early and get pucks to the net, but Gavin Enright was able to hold the Hawks, even with pucks coming through traffic. Bemidji was able to counter with some odd-man rushes the other way, but Jakob Hellsten, in his second straight start, was able to hold off the attacks and keep the sheet clean. With plenty of zone time, North Dakota struck first with Tyler Kleven taking a skate around the zone before driving to the net. While Kleven’s attempt was stopped, Dylan James came in to clean up the garbage and put home his second of the year. A late power play from the Beavers had some chances created, but Hellsten shut them down to keep it 1-0 after 20 minutes. 

Starting early in the second, the Hawks were bringing plenty of energy and having some solid looks at the net. It wasn’t until five minutes in when Riese Gaber found the puck at the side of the net and buried his 10th of the year and gave North Dakota the 2-0 lead. Moments later, coming down the wing, Louis Jamernik V let one rip from the dot under the arm of Enright to make it 3-0 and tally his first of the year, something he was struggling to find all season. 

“The first guy I want to mention is Riese Gaber. Not only is he an unreal teammate, but a real good friend,” Jamernik V said post-game. “We had a good chat (Friday) night in Bemidji. I was getting down on myself. But he said it was all mindset. He gave me a lot of pointers on just reminding yourself ‘I’m gonna score, I’m gonna score’ and he was telling me all through the 1st and 2nd period. And as soon as it went in, I pointed right at him.”

It wasn’t all grand for North Dakota, as they did have a let down towards the mid-part of the third period, first with Kaden Pickering wiring home a shorthanded goal to the top corner, then Carter Jones being left alone in the slot to pick up the loose puck and make it a 3-2 game with two goals in 1:02. 

“There were a couple of shifts that got away from us, but I thought for the most part our guys got close to a sixty minute game,” Brad Berry said post game.  “The perfect game would have been in the third to roll through the lines and doing all the right things to preserve a 3-0 lead. Obviously, a little adversity, getting hit with a shorty and right after, another one. Had to call a timeout, the guys had to take a breath. I thought the guys did a good job of getting back to where we gave up those two goals.” 

Judd Caulfield was able to chip one into the open net to make the final score 4-2, as the Hawks finished out their first half at home with a 4-4-1 record. They’ll be on the road the next two weekends with NCHC contests in St. Cloud and Western Michigan. 

POST GAME VIDEO

GRAND FORKS, ND– After a tough weekend against Denver the previous week, the University of North Dakota used the energy from another bird of prey to help boost them for Friday’s game. Eddie “the Eagle” Belfour was in town for his “One Last Shift” at the Ralph Engelstad Arena and his energy for his skate around helped the Fighting Hawks handily defeat the Miami RedHawks by a count of 7-1. 

It started 3:31 in with a solid tic-tac-toe play between Mark Senden, Louis Jamernik V, and the goal scorer Gavin Hain– a line reunited after some jockeying around the last few weeks. Hain potted his six to get the scoring going for the Hawks. At the end of the frame the Hawks again struck with Ben Strinden getting the puck out of the corner and drove to the net for his first NCAA goal to make it 2-0. What was apparent was the tenacity North Dakota showed that they may have not had the week prior. They were crisp in their own zone, they make big pushes in the offensive zone, and were buzzing around Miami goalie Ludvig Persson and putting the pressure on Miami, as a whole. 

“Right from the puck drop, I thought we had a jump,” captain Mark Senden said post game. “I thought we played really well as a five-man unit up and down the ice. That was the main point in practice this week. Being sharp in those plays, supporting each other up and down the ice, working as a five-man unit up and down the ice. I thought we executed that very well.”

“You know, what really got me going on the bench tonight was the guys started to talk on the bench,” noted head coach Brad Berry. “When guys made a good play, there was positivity there, there was encouragement, there was reaffirmation. When guys didn’t make the right play, it was the accountability side, for me, that when they came back it was, ‘You know what, you got to get that puck in. You know what, you’ve got to take a shorter shift.’ It was standing up and telling someone. And we got better.”

Things definitely got better in the second period, with four goals in the frame– two coming from a major power play and one from the shorthanded side. Jackson Blake and Griffin Ness used redirections off Miami defenders to post the power play goals for UND, while Mark Senden finished off a 2-on-1 shorthanded rush for North Dakota’s first shorthanded goal of the season. Though Miami’s Blake Mesenburg scoring late in the fame, UND battled back 18 seconds later with Judd Caulfield restoring the five-goal lead to end the second frame. 

Persson was given the rest of the night off, with Logan Neaton getting third period duties. Blake added his second goal of the game 4:43 into the frame to give North Dakota the 7-1 lead and victory. Jakob Hellsten got his second straight start and was solid when called upon, making 18 saves in the victory. 

POST GAME VIDEO

GRAND FORKS, ND– In their first big test of the season, the University of North Dakota came out of it with a mixed review. Despite the 5-5 tie against eighth-ranked Quinnipiac, the Fighting Hawks have plenty to improve on when it comes to their own game should they want to play against the heavy hitters in the NCAA. 

While they outchanced Quinnipiac offensively, North Dakota didn’t have the best of times in their own zone, with the Bobcats picking apart the defensive scheme from North Dakota. It started past the midway point, with Jacob Quillan picking off a bad breakout attempt from UND and found Joey Cipollone streaking unmarked down the slot, who put it over Drew DeRidder’s shoulder for the 1-0 Quinnipiac lead. North Dakota would try to push back, but the Bobcats would strike again with Christophe Fillion taking a shot that was blocked off Ethan Frisch’s ankle and the puck finding Christophe Tellier, who deked DeRidder– who overshot his post in his reset– and Tellier made it 2-0 putting passed the outstretched pad of DeRidder. With under a minute remaining, the Bobcats ended the period on a high as Cipollone beat out Tyler Kleven for a loose puck, pushed it to TJ Friedmann, who found Quillan in front for a one-timer to make it 3-0 at the end of the first and the end of the night for DeRidder. 

“It was pretty firm and direct,” head coach Brad Berry said post game of his talk in the first intermission. “We pulled our goaltender to maybe get a push from our team, and I thought we did that. But I wanted Drew DeRidder to know that when we’re not playing our best, it’s not just one guy. It’s everyone in that locker room who didn’t play up to the standard that we needed to do.” 

The response from UND was solid, as within the first three minutes they were on the board, as Dylan James made a great stick check in at the point to spring himself and Nick Portz on a 2-on-1 with Portz’s shot going off the post, but James following up on the play and notching his first NCAA goal. It was nearly 3-2 for UND, with Mark Senden poking in a puck in front, but a Quinnipiac challenge for offside was upheld and the goal was called back. The Bobcats took that high and got their three-goal lead back with Friedmann being able to skate around the zone and create his own space before wiring one home behind Jakob Hellsten to make it 4-1. The Hawks were pumping in the shots in the second, totaling 21 in the middle frame alone. Those chances helped with Riese Gaber getting onto the board, putting him a one-timer off a slick pass from Owen McLaughlin behind the net and the Hawks cut the lead in half 4-2 going into the second intermission. 

North Dakota benefited from a couple power play in the early part of the third, with Jackson Blake bringing North Dakota to within one with a great spin-move off the half-wall and cutting to the net to put it through Yaniv Perets and make it a 4-3 game. Less than two minutes later on a two-man advantage, Chris Jandric picked up a loose puck in the slot and wired it home to even the game. Thirty-four seconds after that goal, Gavin Hain took a loose puck in the circle and ripped on that trickled behind Perets and made it 5-4 North Dakota as the roof was close to coming off The Ralph with the hypeness from the UND faithful. The Bobcats would get it back to even as Jayden Lee skated the length of the blue line, drawing two defenders, opening up CJ McGee for a one-timer to put this game at 5s with half a period to go.

Neither team was able to get the go-ahead goal, nor the winner in overtime; thus the game would be officially a draw. However, in the shootout– North Dakota got goals from Blake and Gaber with Hellsten stopping two of three Bobcats to give the Hawks the emotional victory on Friday night. 

POST GAME VIDEO

GRAND FORKS, ND– Friday night was the opening of the regular season for the North Dakota Fighting Hawks. With a full roster after a brief illness, you could see the synergy in the first period for the Hawks with all their lines rolling throughout the first period. It took only four minutes and twenty seconds in the middle portion of the game for NoDak to get out to a 4-0 lead. 

Jackson Blake and Mark Senden scored 17 seconds apart on two wonderful cross-ice passes from Chris Jandric and Louis Jamernik V respectively. Jamernik V also created the turnover that led Gavin Hain to his first goal back since his injury back in January, as Cooper Moore capped off the scoring spree with a rip from the top of the circles and behind Holy Cross’s Jason Grande. 

Though the second period was another story. After a heavy start and despite a Riese Gaber goal in the middle of the frame, you could see UND getting a bit too relaxed. Not much hard skating through the zones, letting up on possible scoring attempts, and letting Holy Cross start to outshoot them with three straight penalties back-to-back-to-back. It was something known within.

“We had to be better in our D-zone,” Blake mentioned post game. “Bear down, getting the puck out and stuff like that. I think that’s what we did in the third.’

The third period was a little bit better in getting their strut back that they had in the first period, though Thomas Gale stepped in for Holy Cross and made some solid saves and got the benefit of some interference calls to stymie the North Dakota scoring chances. A late Jake Schmaltz goal sealed the 6-0 win for NoDak. It gave new transfer goalie Drew DeRidder his first shutout since the 2020-21 season when he was at Michigan State. 

“It’s nice to have that kind of cushion,” said DeRidder. “I’m able to relax a little bit and know I’m able to make a mistake or two and it doesn’t affect the outcome of the game.” 

North Dakota looks for the sweep on Saturday over Holy Cross.

POST GAME VIDEOS