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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Despite some occasional defensive lapses, No. 1 North Dakota breezed to a 5-2 win over Colorado College in the first NCHC league play for both teams. North Dakota was paced by two goals from freshman Chris Wilkie and 19 saves from goalie Matt Hrynkiw, who recorded his fourth consecutive win since stepping in for the injured Cam Johnson two weeks ago.
All five North Dakota goals were scored by freshmen.
“They’ve been good, they’ve contributed, and tonight was an example of them contributing offensively,” said North Dakota coach Brad Berry. “I thought the (Johnny) Simonson line did a really good job with (Shane) Gerisch and Wilkie, and it’s nice to see young guys having success at the start of the year.”
CC came out flying and had the better of the play for the first five minutes, but North Dakota gradually took control. At 4:11, North Dakota struck first when Shane Gerisch picked up a rebound in the crease and picked top corner stick side past Colorado College goalie Jacob Nehama for a 1-0 lead.
“Again, the first shot against BC goes in, this first one goes in here, and you can’t have that,” said Colorado College coach Mike Haviland. “We’re a team that we come out, we’re ready to go, and something happens and we kind of hang our heads a little bit when there’s a full game left. It’s something that we can continue to work on each and every day with them about the mental side of the game.”
The middle of the period saw three penalties in succession, with North Dakota capitalizing on the first when Wilkie, stationed in the crease in front of Nehama, deflected Bryn Chyzk’s shot in at 10:14.
CC had a late power-play chance that carried over into the second period, but couldn’t convert, as its anemic power play continued to struggle.
Of course, you can only give up so many power-play chances, and CC finally made North Dakota pay at 2:03 of the second. Teemu Kivihalme got the puck at the blue line off a faceoff and made a perfect shot from the middle of the blue line that beat Hrynkiw top corner stick side. The goal broke a scoreless streak that had reached 170:46, back to the second period of the game on Oct. 17 against Mass.-Lowell.
CC then had a golden chance to tie it with another power play, and then 30 seconds of five-on-three. However, North Dakota killed the two-man disadvantage, and then Rhett Gardner came out of the penalty box and rushed into the zone. After CC was caught pinching down low, Troy Stecher broke the puck up along the right-side boards and raced up ice three-on-one, passing back to Gardner at the top of the slot, who rifled a shot top corner stick side past Nehama at 12:03.
“Any time you go down five-on-three that’s a critical time of the game and if you can get a kill off that it usually gives you pretty good momentum, and to start that Luke Johnson did a good job of winning the draw and battling and getting the puck out on the initial clear, so he did a good job there,” said Berry. “Troy Stecher, he always is contributing on the penalty kill and did again there with Rhett Gardner. It seemed like we got a little momentum there. We didn’t have a lot of momentum in the second period because we took a lot of penalties. We have to get better on the discipline side of it tomorrow.”
“You got some momentum going in the second there and you give up the short-hander,” said Haviland. “We got the five-on-three, called timeout, we draw up a play, we don’t win the draw, which we were pretty good at at times tonight, but when we needed it we didn’t get it, and then kind of a bad decision on some of our older guys and it ends up in the back of our net. I felt we were starting to get a little momentum from that and you have to make something happen on a five-on-three, and even on those power plays.”
Wilkie gave North Dakota a three-goal lead at 6:29 of the third when he got a weak-angle shot off from the right-side boards near the hashmarks that surprised Nehama and went in.
North Dakota poured it on and made it 5-1 just a few minutes later when Brock Boeser got in on a breakaway and flew down the slot with speed, rifling a snap shot by Nehama glove side at 8:34.
CC got that one back only a couple of minutes later on a goal Hrynkiw probably wants back. Cole McCaskill got the puck at the left point and let go a quick wrist shot as he took a stride toward the net. The shot beat Hrynkiw top corner glove side at 10:17.
“He battled hard again tonight,” said Berry. “I thought he did a good job of holding down the fort when things got kind of a little bit scary in our end of the rink. He’s done a good job. He’s pretty confident back there, and I’m glad he’s having success.”
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