In an important National Collegiate Hockey Conference matchup, the University of North Dakota tied St. Cloud State 2-2 in St. Cloud on Friday night. UND would go on and get the extra point in the shootout. With the two points, UND is now tied with SCSU for first place in the NCHC standing with 19 points.
In the last 11 games against SCSU, UND is 7-3-1 (.681). On Friday night, UND went 6-for-6 on the PK and o-for-2 on the power play. Speaking of UND’s penalty kill, they’re ranked fourth nationally on the penalty kill killing (73/83) 88.0%. With the tie, UND is 10-4-5, 5-2-2 NCHC. SCSU is 11-2-1, 6-2-1 NCHC.
Junior defenseman Christian Wolanin was solid all game long. Wolanin assisted on both UND goal and then scored the game-winning goal in the shootout.
“Team first. Blocking shots. Making sure you’re playing hard against the five guys that are on the other side. We found a way to get it done tonight and Cam (Johnson) was outstanding,” head coach Brad Berry said. “I thought we did a good job of handling the adversity the right way – adversity meaning the penalties – but we can’t take that many tomorrow, that’s for sure. It taxes too many guys and doesn’t let guys get into the flow of the game, but I thought our guys battled through. There was a response tonight and that was a big deal.”
First period — No scoring.
Second period — 1. SCSU, Easton Brodzinski 5 (Patrick Newell 7, Kevin Fitzgerald 6) 11:31; 2. UND, Rhett Gardner 4 (Christian Wolanin 10, Colton Poolman 7)
Third period — 3. SCSU, Ryan Poehling 5 6:15; 4. UND, Cole Smith 3 (Johnny Simonson 1, Wolanin 11)
Senior All-American goalie Cam Johnson was solid in net and stopped 31-of-33 shots. With the tie, Johnson is 7-2-2, 1.72 GAA and .923 save percentage. In the last three games Cam is (2-0-1, 1.95 GAA, .919 save percentage).
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
