{"id":101694,"date":"2019-12-05T14:00:10","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T20:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=101694"},"modified":"2020-08-24T11:11:21","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T16:11:21","slug":"north-dakota-finding-ways-to-win-close-games-as-fighting-hawks-want-to-put-an-exclamation-point-to-finish-first-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2019\/12\/05\/north-dakota-finding-ways-to-win-close-games-as-fighting-hawks-want-to-put-an-exclamation-point-to-finish-first-half\/","title":{"rendered":"North Dakota finding ways to win close games as Fighting Hawks want to ‘put an exclamation point’ to finish first half"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"2019<\/a>
North Dakota players and coaches go over a play during a game on Nov. 22 against St. Cloud State (photo: Bradley K. Olson).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Having missed back-to-back NCAA tournaments for the first time since the mid-1990s, it\u2019s understandable that North Dakota doesn\u2019t want to get too far ahead of itself.<\/p>\n

And yet, at 12-1-2 this season with the holiday break looming, not much isn\u2019t going the Fighting Hawks\u2019 way. They would have a No. 1 regional seed if this season\u2019s NCAA tournament started now instead of in March, and UND is fresh off a road sweep of longtime rival Minnesota.<\/p>\n

The Hawks roared to a 9-3 win Thanksgiving night in Minneapolis, tying UND\u2019s single-game record for goals in the school\u2019s 289-game all-time series with the Golden Gophers. Eight different Hawks scored in the rout, with Jordan Kawaguchi finding the net twice.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s rematch provided tougher sledding, but UND grinded out a 3-2 win that bumped the Hawks\u2019 winning streak to five games. They are also now unbeaten in their last 11 after two goals 6:44 apart in the second period from Kawaguchi and Jasper Weatherby put UND over the top. Adam Scheel made 23 saves in the winning effort, including seven saves in the third period.<\/p>\n

In some ways, it\u2019s just as well that Friday\u2019s game didn\u2019t go quite the way that Thursday\u2019s did.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve learned a little bit from our team here on different ways to try to find (ways) to win games,\u201d UND coach Brad Berry told reporters during his weekly press conference Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know last year we\u2019d be on the other side of it, and this year it seems like we\u2019re finishing some plays now, like we did on the first night. On the second night, when it is a tight-checking game, a hard, physical game on a big rink like that, we\u2019re finding ways to come back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re down a goal and we come back and take the lead, and then in the third, I watched the video and I thought, the last 10 minutes, we locked it down pretty good, and people say, \u2018Well, you know, they didn\u2019t get any scoring chances in the third period,\u2019\u201d Berry continued. \u201cWell, I think we played good, sound, fundamental hockey to try to preserve a win, and by the way, the scoring chances, we outchanced them in the third period.\u201d<\/p>\n

UND\u2019s current winning streak started Nov. 16 on the back end of a road series at another big rival, then-No. 2 Denver. The Hawks then swept a pair of tight games two weeks ago at home against St. Cloud State, 4-2 on Nov. 22 and 2-1 in overtime the following night.<\/p>\n

Keeping the streak going this weekend could be a tough task, as UND hits the road again to face No. 17 Western Michigan. The Hawks get three weeks away after Saturday\u2019s series finale, though, and it\u2019s with that in mind that Berry wants his team to keep doing the things that have UND sitting pretty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the message after the (last) game in Minnesota,\u201d Berry said. \u201cIt was the message (on Monday) once we came together for practice again. We\u2019ve got momentum that we\u2019re starting to build here a little bit, and you want to keep that going through here the last two games of the first half of the season and kind of put an exclamation point to it, but again, knowing that we\u2019re going into a pretty tough environment in Lawson Ice Arena where they play very well, they play hard and it\u2019s a tough place to pick up wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a focus here this week and our guys know that, knowing that there\u2019s a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel for a little bit of a break to recuperate here.\u201d<\/p>\n

UND sweeps awards, too<\/h4>\n

On a relatively quiet weekend around the NCHC, UND swept the conference\u2019s player of the week awards.<\/p>\n

Kawaguchi was the NCHC\u2019s offensive player of the week after posting three goals and one assist against Minnesota, and Jacob Bernard-Docker earned top defenseman honors after collecting four points of his own.<\/p>\n

Scheel stopped 41 of the 46 shots he saw on the weekend, and freshman forward Shane Pinto earned the top rookie nod after his two goals and three points against the Gophers moved him into a tie atop the NCHC\u2019s rookie scoring race.<\/p>\n

Tough games for Miami, UMD<\/h4>\n

The NCHC\u2019s two other teams that played last weekend ran into difficult opponents.<\/p>\n

Miami dropped a pair of non-conferences games at Connecticut, falling 6-4 Friday and dropping a tight 4-3 decision Saturday. MU led 3-1 after Friday\u2019s first period before struggling down the stretch, and UConn never trailed in Saturday\u2019s rematch.<\/p>\n

No. 14 Minnesota Duluth also lost twice last weekend, falling at home to top-ranked Minnesota State. The visiting Mavericks scored four straight in Friday\u2019s 4-1 win at Amsoil Arena, and MSU won 3-1 Saturday in a game where Duluth outshot the Mavericks 38-24.<\/p>\n

Miami hosts St. Cloud State this weekend, and UMD visits 18th-ranked Omaha.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having missed back-to-back NCAA tournaments for the first time since the mid-1990s, it\u2019s understandable that North Dakota doesn\u2019t want to get too far ahead of itself (photo: Bradley K. Olson).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":108357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[810],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNorth Dakota finding ways to win close games as Fighting Hawks want to 'put an exclamation point' to finish first half - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Having missed back-to-back NCAA tournaments for the first time since the mid-1990s, it\u2019s understandable that North Dakota doesn\u2019t want to get too far ahead of itself (photo: Bradley K. 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