The University of North Dakota broke a six-game winless streak by smacking league rival St. Cloud 4-0. Fighting Hawks All-American goalie Cam Johnson stopped all 26 shots that he faced and recorded his second shutout of the season. Johnson now has seven shutouts for his career to move him into fifth place all-time on UND’s shutout leaders.
It was a great win for the boys in green and black. In my humble opinion, the star of the night was sophomore forward Shane Gersich who scored the game-winning goal at the 16:46 mark of the first period. The Fighting Hawks never looked back after the first goal and rolled over the Huskies. From the fun fact department, UND has scored the first goal in the past three games and has a 1-1-1 record.
It was a full 60-minutes game for UND. There was no let up in the Hawks synergy. In the post game comments, coach Brad Berry seemed to think it was one of their most consistent games of the season.
“We’re not satisfied,” Berry said. “It’s been a long, long time since we’ve won two games in here.”
The Fighting Hawks broke open the game with a three-goal second period. On Friday night, Gersich recorded a hat trick scoring. Gersich is UND’s leading scorer with 9 goals and 17 points. Gersich has now equaled last season’s goal total.
When teams are struggling, fans tend to point fingers at the goaltenders. At times, I’ve been guilty of this myself. I think we need to give credit where credit is due. During the games against Minnesota-Duluth and Minnesota, Johnson was kind of left out to dry by the forwards and his d-core. During those four games, Johnson had to fend for himself.
Lately, Johnson has really picked up his game and I’ve seen the old Cam re-emerge, that same goalie that won All-American honors last season. In the last three games, Johnson is 1-1-1, 1.31 GAA and .946 save percentage. Friday against the Huskies, Johnson was tested early and made some great saves to keep the Huskies off the scoreboard.
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