GRAND FORKS, N.D. — As Dorothy said in the film “The Wizard of Oz,” there’s no place like home.
The vagabond University of North Dakota hockey team return to its home in palatial Ralph Engelstad Arena Saturday night after 14 games on the road to beat Colorado College 4-1, its third straight over the Tigers in National Collegiate Hockey Conference play this season.
With 2,008 fans looking on, the Fighting Hawks collected goals from freshman defenseman Cooper Moore (first collegiate goal), sophomore center Shane Pinto, senior wing Jordan Kawaguchi and junior wing Gavin Hain.
The victory boosted UND’s record to 11-3-1 and kept it in within one point of first place in the league with two games in hand.
UND hadn’t played a home game since Feb. 29, 2020, when the Fighting Hawks beat Western Michigan to clinch the Penrose Cup as NCHC champs.
With only a few thousand fans (2,008) allowed in the building because of the Covid-19 pandemic, they saw UND raise the championship banner in the pre-game ceremony, then took care of business in pursuit of another title.
UND outshot the Tigers 19-8 in the first period after mustering just 18 shots the entire game on Jan. 10 in a 3-0 win in Colorado Springs.
The excitement of returning to home ice factored in, no doubt.
“Second to none,” is what UND head coach Brad Berry said when asked what it was like to be back in REA. “When you’re away from this place, game-wise, as long as we have, it just gives you more appreciation and being grateful for what you have. It wasn’t maximum capacity for fans, but the ones who were here were loud.”
What the Fighting Hawks also demonstrated they have this year is a team worthy of contending for league and national honors.
Moore one-timed a slap shot on a Kawaguchi feed at 14:26 of the first period to put UND ahead to stay. Post-game, Kawaguchi tipped his hat in proud fashion to Moore, who like Kawaguchi, played junior hockey for the Chilliwack Chiefs of the British Columbia Junior Hockey League.
North Dakota penalty killers stole the show before Moore entered the spotlight.
The Tigers had a 5-on-3 power play for one minute, 55 seconds midway through the first period, but didn’t get a single shot on goal, as UND cleared the puck from the zone five times and squashed everything else.
Pinto tapped in a goal-mouth feed from Collin Adams for his sixth goal of the season on a power play just 32 seconds into the second period to make it 2-0.
Jacob Slavin tipped a Ben Copeland shot out of the air and past the catching glove of UND goalie Adam Scheel (18 saves) to cut the margin to 2-1, but Kawaguchi went 5-hole on CC goalie Donovan Baas (36 saves) on a breakaway to make it 3-1 at 11:23 of the second period. It was the 5th of the year for Kawaguchi, who had a two-point game along with Pinto and Adams (2 assists).
Berry didn’t have to dig deep to find the difference between the 19-shot first period tonight and the 18-shot complete game two weeks ago. “I think just playing faster,” Berry said. “Playing quicker, playing faster, playing North, just having a mindset of everybody’s the same, whether you’re a point producer offensively, or you’re a guy who’s a PK (penalty killer) or a role player .”
That concept worked perfectly. Hain completed the scoring at 11:09 of the third period, his fourth goal of the season coming unassisted after a Tiger misplay in the defensive zone.
As to the difference between tonight and two weeks ago at Colorado College, Kawaguchi kept his answer plain. “We kept things simple, kept moving pucks North,” he said.
And, the bottom line, moving enough of them into the Tiger net to drop Colorado College to 3-10-2 in league play.
Notes: UND killed all five CC power plays and has now killed off 38 of the last 39 … Jasper Weatherby won 10 of 14 faceoffs to lead UND to a 34-23 overall edge … Pinto’s 5 shots on goal led UND, followed by Moore with 4 and Weatherby, Riese Gaber, Jake Sanderson and Jacob Bernard-Docker with 3 apiece … The teams complete their regular-season series with a 6:07 start Sunday night … Grant Mismash, who sat out Saturday’s game with a league-imposed one-game suspension, will return to the lineup Sunday … Pinto, Kawaguchi and Adams were name the three stars of the game by the media, in that order. Pinto’s goal stood up as the game-winner.
Virg Foss covered UND hockey for 35 seasons for the Grand Forks Herald, including 5 NCAA title teams, before his retirement. Since his retirement, he’s reported on UND hockey games exclusively for FightingHawks.com. This marks his 51st season spanning 7 decades since he began covering UND hockey in 1969.
