There are no secrets when UMD is playing North Dakota. The game will likely be fast, physical, intense, and emotional. Zero pretense.
The emotions really didn’t spill like we’ve so often seen in Thursday’s 2-2 tie at the NCHC Pod, which was followed up by a three-round shootout that UMD won 1-0 for an extra point in the league standings. In fact, the five combined penalties for just ten minutes are the fewest we’ve seen in a UMD-North Dakota game going back at least 20 years, to the point where collegehockeystats.net started publishing game box scores.
That, however, doesn’t mean the game wasn’t intense or fast-paced or physical. And there’s plenty of opportunity for the emotions to boil up again when the teams meet a week from Saturday.
UMD jumped out of the gates, getting 11 of the first 14 shots on goal. One of those found the area of the ice just across the goal line (it would be inaccurate to say it found the back of the net, because it didn’t get that far).
Jesse Jacques glided over the North Dakota blue line and fired a shot that fooled UND goalie Adam Scheel just enough. Scheel got a piece of it, but the puck trickled past him and crawled over the goal line for the first goal of the game barely seven minutes in. It was a just reward for the Bulldogs, who got moving in the middle of the ice and created problems for North Dakota’s heavy, physical possession game.
UND would get that possession style going as the game wore on, wreaking havoc in the UMD zone and creating plenty of good chances on UMD goalie Ryan Fanti. The sophomore from Thunder Bay held his own consistently, making big saves on Cooper Moore and Riese Gaber, among others, but Gaber’s snipe eluded Fanti after a turnover in the neutral zone with eight minutes to play in the second period.
It was a bad turnover, and it went right to the stick of Jordan Kawaguchi, who is about the last guy you want to feed with a bad turnover. The 2020 Hobey Baker finalist and UND captain found Gaber and set him up for a near-perfect shot.
(As I pointed out with North Dakota coach Brad Berry, we haven’t had a lot of honest-to-goodness Hobey Baker Award drama in recent years, and Kawaguchi was probably the most viable candidate to not win the award in at least a little while. It’s been a slam-dunk more often than not lately. Berry had to be jumping for joy to find out he’d get that caliber of a player back for one more season.)
(Also, please don’t take this as any kind of indication I think they got it wrong. Scott Perunovich won that award and should have.)
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North Dakota took the lead with 7:36 to go after a power play goal by Shane Pinto, who let one rip off a perfect setup by Matt Kiersted, who fed Pinto in the left faceoff circle. There was much consternation on the social medias from UMD fans who did not like the slashing call on Jacques that led to the power play, but replay showed Jacques absolutely slashed UND’s Jasper Weatherby near the hands, potentially affecting an offensive chance for the Fighting Hawks.
You know me. I like to ride the officials, and I’ll stick up for UMD big-time during a broadcast and here on the blog. Yes, this was a game with a very low volume of penalties (only five total for ten minutes). Yes, there was stickwork that went uncalled, but most of that came in situations where scoring chances weren’t affected. Should that matter? Not necessarily, but it’s the standard referees Brian Hersey and Joe Sullivan set, and they mostly stuck to it.
What Jacques did there was a penalty they were right to call. It would have stunk to have Pinto’s goal decide the game, but it wasn’t a power play goal given to the Fighting Hawks. They went out and earned that.
And give the players credit. They may have pushed the envelope in certain situations, but at no point did the officials have to clamp down on the emotions or send any kind of message by calling penalties. It was a very clean game from start to finish, which is easier said than done when you have an intense rivalry like this and two teams that play this fast, heavy, physical style.
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UMD made a change to its power play units on Thursday. It was an attempt to provide more balance, because the top unit has done almost all the damage so far.
Cole Koepke took Wyatt Kaiser’s spot on the top unit, with Kaiser moving to the second group. It wasn’t really anything Kaiser had done wrong, but more an attempt to get Koepke into a spot where he might be more productive, plus give the second group — which has included Tanner Laderoute, Quinn Olson, Jarrett Lee, Matt Anderson, and Louie Roehl — a bit of a boost.
The sample size — two regulation power plays — is small, but Koepke had a season-high seven shots on goal, and that top unit, which includes the Cates brothers, Kobe Roth, and Swaney, didn’t leave the ice for the first power play. They largely held the North Dakota zone, which is a good sign.
I have a feeling we will see more of this concept, with an all-forward power play unit, going forward. It’s not a lock to continue permanently, because it does open up potential defensive issues. But it has the potential to be very dynamic for the Bulldogs as well.
If this was done to get Koepke going a little more, even at five-on-five, I’d say it worked. I thought this was Cole’s best game to this point. He was able to get his feet going with a little bit of consistency, and when Cole Koepke is moving, he’s a real problem for pretty much every adversary UMD will see. That doesn’t even take into account his shot, which continues to be an underrated part of his game. Perunovich might be gone, but there are still players on this team who can put it on a tee for Koepke.
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Faceoffs were a concern for coach Scott Sandelin heading into this game.
While North Dakota won 34 of 59 draws (57.6 percent), UMD did hold its own at even strength (29-23 UND). Top line center Noah Cates, who was playing as a center for just the tenth time in his UMD career, split the 22 faceoffs he took.
And UMD was competitive on a lot of draws it lost, which is a positive development moving forward.
Through five games, the Bulldogs are exactly 50/50 in the circle (124-for-248). That’s not great, but I do expect it will improve as Noah Cates gains more and more experience at the craft.
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And how about that shootout? Fanti stared down Kawaguchi, Gaber, and Pinto, and he gave up nothing. Kawaguchi had nothing really to shoot at. Gaber got brilliantly poke-checked before he could shoot, and Pinto got stopped by a stone-cold goalie who met his onrushing teammates with a bare-hand salute. Fanti looked as relaxed as could be in a high-pressure spot, which is another great sign for a UMD team that keeps finding goalies.
Look, we don’t gush enough about volunteer goaltending coach Brant Nicklin. He’s done amazing work at UMD, and the Bulldogs are dang lucky to have him.
But here’s another angle on UMD goaltending: The serendipity at the position is staggering.
If Kasimir Kaskisuo doesn’t leave after his sophomore season, odds are high that UMD coaches never go to Bismarck to talk to Hunter Shepard. If Hunter Miska doesn’t leave after an outstanding freshman season, does the ultra-competitive Shepard stick around to ride the pine for one more year?
And last year, Zach Stejskal appeared destined to join UMD and begin his college career backing up Shepard, who ended up starting 115 straight games. For some reason, the decision was made to keep Stejskal in juniors, a move that made plenty of sense from the hockey side because he could play in the NAHL where he wouldn’t have played at UMD. Because of that, UMD went out and found Fanti, who was playing for the Cloquet-based Minnesota Wilderness. Without the decision to keep Stejskal in juniors, there wouldn’t have been a roster spot for Fanti last season, and certainly no guarantee he ever would have ended up at UMD.
The old adage is “Everything happens for a reason.” When it comes to goaltending at UMD, it’s staggering how many things could have (very reasonably) happened at the time and altered the course of the program’s history.
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Next up is Denver on Saturday (12pm on KDAL). The Pioneers have won two straight since dropping games to UMD, North Dakota, and St. Cloud State to start play in the pod. Denver beat Miami 5-1 in the early game on Thursday, rallying after Chase Pletzke put the RedHawks up 1-0 just 94 seconds into the game.
UMD faces Colorado College on Sunday.
I’ll be back before Saturday’s game with the line charts. In the meantime, head to Twitter and feed questions for the first #AskBruceAnything of the 2020-21 season. Use the hashtag so I see the questions. If you don’t use Twitter, you can always find me via old-fashioned email at bruce(dot)ciskie(at)mwcradio(dot)com.
