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<\/p>\n\t\t<\/p>\n
UND Athletics\/Russell Hons<\/p>\n
AUSTIN, Texas\u00a0 (UND Athletics) \u2013 Eighth-ranked North Dakota dropped a 5-3 decision to No. 4 Michigan State on Saturday night in the annual U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game from H-E-B Center at Cedar Park in Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n
After the Fighting Hawks (4-3-0) tied the game late in the third on a power play goal from Cooper Simpson<\/a>, Michigan State\u2019s (5-1-0) Cayden Lindstrom answered back just 19 seconds later to restore the lead for the Spartans before an empty-net goal sealed the victory.<\/p>\n Simpson put together his best offensive game as a Fighting Hawks in his young career, scoring a pair of power play goals for his first tally and multi-goal game of his career. Will Zellers<\/a> also snapped a four-game pointless skid with a \u00a0goal and an assist to give him eight points on the season.<\/p>\n Freshman netminder Caleb Heil<\/a> finished with a career-high 28 saves on 32 shots against but suffered his first defeat of his collegiate career.<\/p>\n Following a scoreless opening 20 minutes, Michigan State struck first with a power play goal just 54 seconds into the middle frame before extending its lead to 2-0 with only 3:40 played in the stanza. North Dakota was able to cut the deficit in half when Simpson wired home his first-collegiate goal on a great pass from Mac Swanson<\/a> to pull the Hawks within 2-1 heading into the second intermission.<\/p>\n Early in the third, UND brought the game level after Gavin Lindberg<\/a> won a faceoff directly back to Zellers who found the back of the net for his third of the season and tied the game at 2-2.<\/p>\n Michigan State jumped back in front on Anthony Romani\u2019s second of the night, but once again, UND was able to draw even. On a late power play, Simpson blasted home his second of the game to send the 6,483 fans into a frenzy and bring the game level at 3-3 with just under four minutes remaining in regulation.<\/p>\n The even score lasted for only 19 seconds, however, as the Spartans were able to regain the lead on a rebound tally from Cayden Lindstrom before MSU sealed the 5-3 win with an empty netter in the final minute.<\/p>\n North Dakota will return home to open NCHC play against Western Michigan beginning on Friday night at 7:07 p.m. from Ralph Englestad Arena. The contest will air on Midco Sports, NCHC.tv and the Fighting Hawks Radio Network.<\/p>\n Postgame Notes\u00a0<\/p>\n UND falls to 64-38-3 all-time against Michigan State and 6-5-0 at a neutral site How It Happened\u00a0<\/p>\n First Period:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n Game Recap: Men\u2019s Hockey | 11\/1\/2026 12:36:00 AM | Alec Stocker Johnson, FightingHawks.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UND Athletics\/Russell Hons AUSTIN, Texas\u00a0 (UND Athletics) \u2013 Eighth-ranked North Dakota dropped a 5-3 decision to No. 4…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-483075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe Fighting Hawks have lost three straight games for the first time since Oct. 26-Nov. 2, 2024
\nSaturday\u2019s game featured 13 first round picks \u2013 the most ever in a college hockey game
\nThe game was also the first collegiate hockey game played in the state of Texas
\nCooper Simpson<\/a> scored the first two goals of his collegiate career
\nWill Zellers<\/a> snapped a four-game pointless streak with a goal and an assist
\nOllie Josephson<\/a> registered his first point of the season with an assist
\nGavin Lindberg<\/a> recorded his team-leading sixth assist of the season
\nUND falls to 3-3-0 all-time in destination games that it has hosted and has lost three straight
\nThe Hawks have allowed nine goals over their last three third periods
\nUND drops to 0-2-0 this season following a loss
\nNoDak is also 0-1-0 this season against ranked opponents
\nThe Hawks have scored at least one power play goal in every game this season
\nUND went 2-for-7 on the power play while MSU was 1-for-4
\nCaleb Heil<\/a> made a career-high 28 saves and dropped to 2-1-0 in his career
\nShots were 35-33 in favor of UND
\nFaceoffs were 42-36 UND, with Josephson leading everyone at 14-8<\/p>\n
No scoring
Second Period:\u00a0
00:54 | MSU \u2013 Anthony Romani (6, PP) from Chase Reid (5) and Gavin O\u2019Connell (3)
03:40 | MSU \u2013 Eric Nilson (2)
05:25 | UND \u2013 Cooper Simpson<\/a> (1, PP) from Mac Swanson<\/a> (4) and Ollie Josephson<\/a> (1)
Third Period:
01:54 | UND \u2013 Will Zellers<\/a> (3) from Gavin Lindberg<\/a> (6)
07:41 | MSU \u2013 Romani (7) from Cullen Potter (2)
16:08 | UND \u2013 Simpson (2, PP) from Zellers (5) and Sam Laurila<\/a> (4)
16:27 | MSU \u2013 Cayden Lindstrom (2) from Ryker Lee (5) and Reid (6)
19:11 | MSU \u2013 Tommi Mannisto (2, EN)<\/p>\n