Last year, the University of North Dakota went 4-1-0 against the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs. During those five games, UND outscored UMD 12-6. Now, before we get ahead of ourselves, the games against the Bulldogs were hard-fought and close. The series could’ve gone either way.
The difference in the five games was the play of sophomore goalie Cam Johnson. In five games against the Bulldogs Johnson was (4-1-0, with a 1.20 GAA and a .964 save percentage).
Before last February’s series against the Bulldogs, the Fighting Hawks had returned home from Denver after they were swept by the Pioneers (4-6 L, 1-4L). For those keeping track at home, UND would lose only one more game the rest of the way. You guessed it, to UMD 2-4 in the Frozen Faceoff. In last 10 games against UMD, UND is 7-3-0 (.700).
During the series against the Pioneers, Johnson didn’t play his best and the UMD head coach Scott Sandelin made the following comment.
“Their (UND’s) goaltending was great here, so we have got to find a way to solve Johnson, like Denver, did last weekend, Sandelin said. “We saw a few weaknesses in his game, so hopefully we can exploit some of those.”
Johnson took notice of coach Sandelin’s comments and chuckled when he said this.
“I think heard something… like that he was trying to find a way to solve me – a way to find the flaws,” Johnson said. “I don’t that they picked too many of them out this weekend. I thought we played well and the team made my game easy again this weekend. Not, too many flaws this weekend.”
Looking back at the series against the Bulldogs, there was no weakness in Johnson’s game. Johnson stopped 59-of-61 shots. The final weekend line for Johnson against the Bulldogs was (2-0-0, 0.97 GAA, .967 save percentage). Will the Bulldogs find any weakness in Cam’s game?
Series Prediction
Again, it should be a high-paced series between the Bull Dogs and the Hawks. The safe bet is a 4-1 UND and 3-1 UMD series split.
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