GRAND FORKS — UND beat Miami 4-3 in overtime
thanks to a highlight-reel play by Abram Wiebe.
Wiebe’s goal capped UND’s rally from down two goals in the third period.
Here are five takeaways from the series finale between the Fighting Hawks and RedHawks.
UND was dominant the first four periods of the weekend, outshooting Miami 58-17. UND outshot Miami by at least nine in all four periods.
But Miami came out of nowhere to flip the game for the opening 14 minutes of the second. The RedHawks outshot UND 12-5 during that stretch and scored three times.
Doug Grimes scored by whacking at a puck on a broken play. Kocha Delic found a rebound of a point shot that UND goalie Jan Špunar never saw. And Ryan Smith pulled off a toe-drag-and-snipe move.
“The first two periods weren’t what we were looking for,” UND forward Mac Swanson said. “I think they had a little more energy than us, a little more drive. I think the shots were up, but we weren’t really getting Grade-A chances. In the third period, I thought we took it to them and just played our style of game.”
In the last five games, UND has scored two goals in the first period, two in the second and 11 in the third.
A shift to kick-start UND
UND turned the tide with an impressive shift right after Miami’s third goal.
The Fighting Hawks kept the puck in the offensive zone for 2:34.
“We kind of felt the momentum coming,” Swanson said.
UND dominated the rest of the game.
For the final 37 minutes, attempted shots were 55-6 UND. Shots on goal were 22-3. And two of Miami’s three shots on goal were dump-ins from outside the offensive zone.
“That’s the best team in the country right there,” Miami coach Anthony Noreen said. “Top to bottom, they play hard, they’re physical, they’re skilled — up front, back end, goaltending. They’re as complete of a team as we’ve seen. Honestly, a lot like what we felt when we played Western last year.”
Miami only attempted one shot in the first 10:59 of the third. It was blocked by Wiebe.
“Jax just came into the room and just fueled us up heading into that third period,” Wiebe said. “Third periods have been one of our best periods throughout the season, and we knew we weren’t out of it. That’s exactly what we did. We had a great start with Swanny scoring a big goal for us a minute in. That just built a lot of confidence and momentum heading into the rest of the game.”
What did Jackson say?
He brought up that Zach Parise was in attendance.
“I referenced the fact that we had one of the best players who has ever played at North Dakota in our building and let’s show him what we’re really about, boys,” Jackson said.
UND great Zach Parise skates around the Ralph Engelstad Arena Saturday for “One Last Shift.”
Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald
Will line shuffling stick?
The Fighting Hawks have been pretty consistent with their line combinations lately, especially on the top two lines.
But Jackson shook up the top three lines for the third period Saturday.
UND had Ellis Rickwood center Ben Strinden and Will Zellers. Ollie Josephson centered Dylan James and Swanson. Cole Reschny centered Cody Croal and Jack Kernan.
“I just didn’t think we had much juice,” Jackson said. “I didn’t think we had great energy on the bench. We’ve been pretty consistent, but we were not very good through 40 (minutes).”
Don’t be surprised if there’s more line shuffling this week.
Although UND has been winning games, five-on-five production has been lacking recently.
The Fighting Hawks only scored one five-on-five goal last weekend at Minnesota Duluth. It came with 5:16 left in the weekend, when Wiebe flipped a long pass in the air, James skated under it and went on a breakaway.
On Friday against Miami, UND managed just one goal. It was the fourth line of Tyler Young, Anthony Menghini and Cade Littler, who got it at five-on-five.
On Saturday, UND had just one goal until the line shuffling occurred — E.J. Emery snapped one home from the right circle. The line of James, Strinden and Reschny was on the ice for that one.
Yes, offense is going to be harder to generate at the end of the season, but four even-strength goals in the last four games isn’t enough.
The argument for keeping lines together: UND has the second-best expected goals percentage at even strength (3.67 to 2.30, 61.5%), only behind Quinnipiac (4.04 to 2.23, 64.5%). Providence is third at 59.7% and Michigan is fourth at 59.1%. UND is controlling games at five-on-five.
If Josh Zakreski
soon — he took pregame warmups Saturday night — that would naturally force some line shuffling.
Gibson Homer finally has an easy night
Unfortunately for senior goaltender Gibson Homer, UND has had some of its shakiest performances this season when he has been in net.
Finally, he got to sit back and enjoy a dominant performance by his team.
Jackson lifted Špunar during the second intermission to try to spark the team. Homer entered the game and was only asked to make three saves.
Two of Homer’s three saves came on shots from outside of the offensive zone. The other was a wrist shot by Delic off of a faceoff.
“Nothing to do with Spoons, obviously,” Jackson said. “Gibby has been a great teammate. We hoped the guys would get a little bump, playing hard for him. So, that was not on Jan Špunar.”
Although Homer did not have to work very hard to stop pucks, he did an excellent job moving pucks to his defenders, helping breakouts. He also did a nice job to avoid freezing pucks when he didn’t have to, which allowed UND to keep its momentum.
“So happy for him to be able to get that win,” Wiebe said.
Back in November, UND was in a similar situation.
The Fighting Hawks trailed Arizona State 3-2 late in the third and got a power play with 2:13 to go. UND pulled its goalie for an extra attacker before the offensive zone draw. The Sun Devils ended up scoring an empty-netter 43 seconds later.
This time, with a little more time on the clock when UND got the power play (3:17), the Fighting Hawks started the advantage at five-on-four and kept the goalie in.
“We had a little more time this time, so we thought we’d like the power play work a little bit and see if we were sharp and generating,” Jackson said.
They were not sharp.
Miami got an early clear and denied a couple of zone entries. Once UND got full possession, Homer came out and the extra attacker came on.
UND has been sensational with the extra attacker again this season.
The first two times UND pulled its goaltender this season for an extra attacker, the opponent scored an empty-netter (home vs. Minnesota, at Clarkson).
Since then, UND has pulled its goaltender six times for an extra attacker. It has scored four times (Minnesota Duluth, Colorado College, Minnesota Duluth, Miami) and allowed one empty-netter (Arizona State). One time (Denver), neither team scored.
UND assistant coach Dillon Simpson works with the six-on-five.
Jackson on Wiebe’s overtime winner: “That was an outstanding individual play by Abram. We needed that. We didn’t have too many plays along the way. That was nice to see. Our guys deserve a lot of good stuff that happens to them. They play the right way. They play hard. I was really happy for them, in the end, to get that result.”
Despite UND’s 16-5 shots-on-goal advantage in the first, Jackson wasn’t pleased with the period and wonders if he should have been more critical during the first intermission. He said: “I think I maybe should have been a little more direct. I kind of sugar-coated it a little bit. I didn’t think we were very sharp in the first. The second, it bled into it.”
Jackson on Miami’s defending: “They were extremely hard at their net. It was hard for our guys to get tips, screens, because they were boxing out well.”
Miami’s bench was furious that no call was made 25 seconds before Wiebe’s winner. Miami forward Ryan Smith carried the puck through the neutral zone and Wiebe got his stick into Smith, who lost control of the puck. The officials didn’t call much all weekend. Miami didn’t have a power play Saturday night. UND had two.UND dominated the faceoff dot, going 46-27. Ollie Josephson led the way at 16-5. Miami’s 17-year-old rookie Ilia Morozov had a tough night, going 5-21. Morozov won a key draw in overtime, though.Last week, Jackson indicated the Fighting Hawks were going to take the longterm view with Bennett Zmolek, which
may include giving him nights off.
For the second-straight weekend, Zmolek played one game. He sat out the series finale against Miami. Jayden Jubenvill came in for him. UND mainly played its top six defenders, though. Jubenvill only played 3:03.Miami’s Matteo Giampa, who suffered an injury Friday, missed the series finale. Miami moved Morozov to the big line with Delic and David Deputy. Miami also played without its best defenseman, Vladislav Lukashevich. He has missed the last three games with an injury.Expected goals were 4.36 to 2.37 UND. Friday’s expected goals were 5.15 to 1.06 UND.In an oddity, each team hit the scoreboard with the puck once on Saturday.