First, I don’t think that UND assistant coach Brad Berry gets enough credit for his work with the UND defensemen. Here are some of the reasons why. A hockey season is a body of work and you can’t really accurately evaluate a season until it’s over. Here are some of the things that stick out, at least for me.
Over the course of the past two seasons, the defense has been the strength of the UND hockey team. During the 2014-15 season, UND was ranked 10th nationally in goals against per game. UND also lead the NCHC in team defense and blocked shots with 575.
This past season, UND’s defensive led the nation in points (119). The UND blueline also led the nation in points per game (2.90) and assists (90) by defensemen. This was also the second year in a row that UND has led the nation in scoring by defenseman.
Three UND defensemen were ranked among the top 10 highest-scoring defensemen in the NCHC. Three of their defensemen had 20 or more points: Jordan Schmaltz (4g-24a—28pts), Paul LaDue (5g-17a—22pts) and Nick Mattson (4g-17a—21pts).
Next season, UND should return a majority of the d-core that led the NCHC in goals against per game and scoring. With that in mind, another long offseason awaits us.
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