GRAND FORKS, N.D.(UND Athletics) — Sophomore Adam Scheel hadn’t made a start in goal for the University of North Dakota in the last eight games after beginning the season as the team’s No. 1 goalie.
Junior Peter Thome had been outstanding in his chance in goal, but Scheel delivered big time Friday night in backstopping the Fighting Hawks to a 3-1 National Collegiate Hockey Conference over spirited Western Michigan at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
Scheel stopped 26 of 27 shots as the No. 1-ranked team in the Pairwise rankings retained that spot and kept its six-point lead over Minnesota-Duluth for the Penrose Cup as NCHC champion with three games to go.
Scheel said he made no changes to his game during his idle time behind his good friend, Thome.
“I think that’s the last thing you want to do,” Scheel said, of instead staying the course with his style. “I’m confident in my game, my ability, how I play. No need to change anything.”
Scheel had rejected 71 of 73 Bronco shots earlier this season as UND swept them in Kalamazoo, Mich., by 1-0 and 8-2 margins. UND coach Brad Berry said that factored into his decision to start Scheel again.
Though UND was outshot 27-21 by the Broncos, UND’s offense came from freshman Judd Caufield and senior defenseman Matt Kiersted in the second period, and from senior Westin Michaud on a deflection of a point shot by Gabe Bast on a power play with 1:44 remaining in the game.
“I thought we played really well as a team,” said the 6-foot-4 Caulfield, who scored his fourth of the season and his first in the last nine games. He capped a 3-on-2 rush with Harrison Blaisdell and Jackson Keane by dragging the puck across the crease with his long reach off right wing and flipping in a backhander to open the scoring at 9:52 of the second period.
“There were some times they kind of had us hemmed in our zone, but we just stuck together as a team and battled the pucks out,” Caulfield said.
Of his four goals this season, three have come against Western Michigan. “Maybe a few lucky bounces or something,” he said. “I’m not really sure.”
What was sure was that North Dakota surely had a tough battle from the Broncos, who had a 9-2-1 record in the last 12 games and outshot UND 15-7 in the third period. Dawson Dipietro scored his 12th goal of the season, knocking in his own rebound for WMU’s only goal at 4:35 of the third period to make it 2-1.
But after a Jordan Kawaguchi apparent goal at 11:31 of the third period was disallowed on a review for goalie interference, Michaud wrapped it up with his deflection in the final two minutes to move UND to 24-4-4 overall and 15-3-3 in the NCHC.
“We knew it would be a hard-fought battle, and it didn’t disappoint,” Berry said. “I’m proud of our effort. That team battled hard, and I know we did, too.”
Scheel drew high praise from Berry. “I thought Adam Scheel played outstanding tonight after not playing a whole lot in the last little while.”
Added Berry about Scheel: “You could tell, he had a fire in his belly tonight.”
Scheel made more saves in the third period (14) than he had to make in the first two periods combined (12), finishing with a .962 save percentage.
Game notes: Named the three stars of the game by the media were Kiersted, Caulfield and Scheel, in that order . . . The game drew an announced crowd of 11,214 fans . . . Senior Dixon Bowen led UND in shots on goal with 3 . . . Depietro had 6 shots on net to pace Western Michigan . . UND edged WMU in faceoff wins 31-30 with Shane Pinto winning 14 of the 19 draws he took while Paul Washe won 10 of 15 for the Broncos . . . UND was 1-3 on the power play, Western Michigan 0-1. . . Kiersted had a 2-point game after assisting on Michaud’s goal as well . . . Cole Smith missed his first game (day-to-day) since his sophomore season (80 games) . . . Adam Scheel made his first start since Jan. 24 at Minnesota Duluth . . . North Dakota set the REA wins record for a single season (17) and has a chance to break the all-time home win percentage record if it wins out (Saturday and NCHC Quarterfinals) . . . WMU came in as one of the hottest offensive teams in the new calendar year (4.00/goals per game), but has scored just 3 goals total in three games against North Dakota this season.
