UND Hockey: Sifting Through the Numbers

North Dakota Fighting Hawks (10-2-2, 5-1-0 NCHC)

UND Last Time Out: Split with St. Cloud (4-3 W, 1-6 L)
UND Offense: 12^th, 3.43 GPG
UND Defense: 12^th, 2.21 G/GM
UND Scoring Margin: 14^th, 1.21
UND Power Play: 38^th, (9/55, 16.4 %)
UND Penalty Kill: 49^th, (41/53, 77.4%)
UND Penalty Minutes: 29^th, 11.4 PIM/G
USCHO Ranking: 4
Corsi Ranking: 59.9%
Pairwise Ranking: 9^th
(s/t College Hockey Stats Net)

North Dakota Fighting Hawks: Forwards: Nick Schmaltz (2g-15a—17pts), Drake Caggiula (7g-9a—16pts), Brock Boeser (7g-7a—14pts), Bryn Chyzyk (6g-3a—9pts), Luke Johnson (3g-4a—7pts), Johnny Simonson (2g-4a—6pts), Austin Poganski (2g-4a—6pts). Defense: Troy Stecher (3g-9a—12pts), Christian Wolanin (3g-4a—7pts), Tucker Poolman (0g-5a—5pts), Gage Ausmus (0g-4a—4pts), Keaton Thompson (1g-3a—4pts). Goaltenders: Cam Johnson (1-0-1, 2.50 GAA, .881 SV%), Matt Hrynkiw (9-2-1, 2.11 GAA, .911 Sv%). (UND Stats)

My Observations

So far this season, the Achilles Heel of the Fighting Hawks hockey team has been the play of their special teams (I am still not used to the Fighting Hawks nickname).

This past weekend, UND’s power play went (2/6, 33.3%). That’s acceptable, in my humble opinion. If we break it down further, over the past two weekends combined, UND has scored (3/13, 23.1%). That’s pretty good in my opinion.

On the penalty kill, UND was (3/10, .70%). UND’s penalty kill is ranked 8th overall in the NCHC. This is unacceptable in my opinion. UND has to improve their PK if they want to be successful. I predict they will.

Now, that being said, we might need to be patient, UND is replacing veteran penalty killers like Steph Pattyn, Connor Gaarder, Michael Parks and Mark McMillian with freshmen forwards and sophomore forwards. That group scored 12 short-handed goals last season. I don’t think this group is going to come close to that number this season.

Looking at this weekend, I would say that goaltending and defense were an issue. If I had to make a guess, I would bet that will be addressed by the coaching staff this weekend in practice. Overall, I thought Matt Hrynkiw played well enough to win on Friday night and was left out to dry on Saturday night.

One of the goals on Saturday night went off Keaton Thompson’s skate, from my perspective, the puck looked as like it might have been going wide of the net. Speaking of Thompson, he was a team worst -3 this past weekend against the Huskies.

Some perspective

I was monitoring twitter after Saturday’s game and I think there one thing to remember. UND has taken 5 of the last 8 games in the series. So, as of late, I don’t think UND has played badly against SCSU. UND won the game when it mattered the most last season.

I have been following UND hockey for a very long time and I can say with great certainty that I have never witnessed a UND sweep in St. Cloud. They just don’t happen.