Sifting through the debris a day after the University of North Dakota’s 6-3 collapse against the Miami University, there are a few things that stick out. UND played well for about half of a game and then after the 5-on-3 power play was over they stopped doing the things that made them successful. Friday’s game was a tale of two games.
Entering Friday’s game against the RedHawks, UND was 77-0-5 when leading after two periods of play. Wrap your fingers around this, the RedHawks scored five goals in the third period. That hasn’t happened since January 21, 2011, when the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks scored five unanswered goals in the second period to beat UND 8-4.
I want to be clear, goaltending wasn’t the problem last night. The Hawks left their goalies high and dry for most of the second half of the game. They had a lead and tried to sit on it and it blew up on them. It sounds cliché, but it all comes back to playing a 60-minute game and playing the game the right way.
“I thought the last five minutes of the second period we got away from what we were doing,” head coach Brad Berry said. “Early in that period, we were out changing them. I thought we had some sustained OZP (offensive zone pressure) on them and then we got away from that. We tried to play laterally. We didn’t to get some pucks in. They got some momentum out of the last five minutes of the period and it carried over into the third.
Watch comments from Gage Ausmus and Brock Boeser on Friday night following UND's 6-3 loss to Miami. https://t.co/WhiX80bju8
— North Dakota Hockey (@UNDmhockey) January 14, 2017
Gave the Game Away
Senior captain Gage Ausmus was less than thrilled about his team’s effort in the third period. Ausmus thought his teammates gave the game away.
“We gave it away,” senior defenseman, captain Gage Ausmus said. “We thought we had it won. We gave it away, really. We went into the third period over confident and didn’t work for anything. They completely outworked us.”
“I can’t remember the last time we had five goals scored on us in the third period. That’s embarrassing, really. That’s something that’s not acceptable under any circumstances. We’ll have to have a short memory and get back tomorrow.
Ausmus also thought that his teammates are too comfortable playing in the Ralph and his post-game comments were very pointed.
“I think we feel more comfortable here, and feel like we have the upper hand when we really don’t,” Ausmus said. “We have to go into every game willing to work and willing to outwork the other team for every inch on the ice and I don’t think we did that tonight.”
Stats of Interest
The last three games sophomore defenseman Christian Wolanin is red-hot, (3g-3a—6pts). While Wolanin had a good night on the score sheet (1g-1a—2pts), he was a minus-three.
Sophomore forward Shane Gersich has a career-long seven-game point streak (5g-3a—8pts). Gershich also scored his league-leading 11th goal in league play.
Tough go for second line, the forward line of Rhett Gardner (0g-0a—0pts) and a minus-four, Brock Boeser (1g-0a—1pts) and a minus-four, Joel Janatuinen (0g-0a—0pts) and a minus-four had a tough night. They were a combined minus-12. A team isn’t going to win too many hockey games with that kind of an effort. You can peruse the stats from last night’s game here.
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