Prior to Saturday’s game against the Broncos, UND freshman forward Tyson Jost left Grand Forks to join his teammates on the Canadian World Junior team. Obviously, Jost’s absence on Saturday left a huge void in the Hawks lineup. Without Jost, the Hawks struggled mightily on the power play.
During Saturday’s game, the Broncos beat a path to the penalty box. During the third period, the Fighting Hawks had 12:35 of power-play time but were unable to get anything past freshman goalie Ben Blacker. Frankly, it’s hard to win a hockey game if you have two five-minute majors and don’t score on the power play.
Bronco’s senior defenseman Taylor Fleming was the game’s villain. Fleming, took a pair of minor penalties and was assessed two five-minute majors in the third period (one kneeing and one for checking from behind). In the end, none of this mattered, because the Hawks failed to cash in on the man advantage. For the game, UND was 0-6 on the power play. For the weekend they were 1-9 on the man advantage.
Ironically, Fleming leads the NCHC in penalty minutes with 44, there are four players tied for second place 19 penalty minutes. Fleming added 24 penalty minutes to that total in Saturday’s game.
“It was the lack of execution,” junior defenseman Tucker Poolman said. “(We’re) just not playing together, as far as making the little plays that make a power play successful – as far as getting it deep – little passes and pops, (we weren’t ) moving our feet. As a team, it wasn’t good enough.”
If the Hawks want to make a run in the second half of the season, they’re going to need to improve their special team’s play. UND is ranked 32nd nationally on the power play and 46th on the penalty kill.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
