UND Athletics Russel Hons
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (UND Athletics)– No. 3 North Dakota once again rallied from a multi-goal deficit to force overtime, but neither side could find a winner as the Fighting Hawks and St. Cloud State skated to a 4-4 tie on Friday night in front of a sellout crowd of 11,647 at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, N.D.
UND (23-7-1, 15-5-1 NCHC) earns a critical point in the NCHC standings to sit two points ahead of Denver and five points ahead of Western Michigan with three league games remaining. The Fighting Hawks will have to wait until next weekend, however, for a chance to win its seventh Penrose Cup as league champions and clinch the No. 1 seed for the NCHC Frozen Faceoff.
Trailing by a pair of goals entering the third period for the second straight game, NoDak rallied back once again in similar fashion by striking for an early tally and then bringing the game level with the extra attacker late in the frame. The hosts had the best quality chance in the 3-on-3 session, but neither side could find a winner as the game was officially recorded as a tie. St. Cloud State (16-16-1, 9-13-1 NCHC) captured the extra point in the league standings with a 2-0 victory in the shootout.
Two Fighting Hawks tallied a trio of points in the contest, as Will Zellers struck for two goals and added an assist while Ellis Rickwood dished out a trio of helpers. Their linemate Josh Zakreski returned the lineup after missing 26 games with an injury and struck for a goal on his first shift back to help the trio finish the night with seven points (3G, 4A).
Reigning two-time NCHC Defenseman of the Week Abram Wiebe notched a pair of assists to give him his third multi-point outing over the last four games and nine points (1G, 8A) over the last seven contests.
Freshman Jan Špunar finished with 27 saves on 31 shots against to sit 16-3-1 on the season.
It was a strong start for the hosts, as Zakreski was able to finish off a tic-tac-toe passing play with his second goal of the season and a 1-0 UND lead just 2:20 into the contest.
After SCSU tied the game at 1-1 with just over three minutes remaining in the opening frame, Zellers restored the lead for UND with his 15th goal of the season off a snipe from the circle, but the Huskies answered back just 24 seconds later to even the score at 2-2 after 20 minutes.
Much like last Saturday, the middle frame belonged to the visitors. The Huskies grabbed a 3-2 lead on a faceoff play before extending the advantage to 4-2 when a shot deflected off a SCSU player and trickled over the line to double the lead after 40 minutes.
UND came out firing in the third and quicky cut into the SCSU lead, as Cody Croal flew in down the wing and snapped a shot that rang the post and found the back of the net for his seventh tally of the year just 1:45 into the final frame.
The Hawks kept up the pressure as the period wore on and eventually found the equalizer with the goaltender pulled. It was a freshman-to-freshman connection, as Cole Reschny fired a perfect seam pass to Zellers for the one-timer to knot the contest at 3-3 with 1:47 to play in regulation.
Rickwood and Zellers nearly combined again in overtime, as the freshman found Rickwood cutting in alone, but his shot went just over the crossbar and the game ended in a 4-4 tie.
North Dakota will aim for a series victory on Saturday night at 6:07 p.m. (CT) on Midco Sports, NCHC.tv and the Fighting Hawks Radio Network.
Postgame Notes
- UND is now 85-49-20 all-time against St. Cloud State and 43-18-10 in Grand Forks
- North Dakota is now unbeaten in its last nine games against SCSU (6-0-3)
- The Hawks have collected points in six of the eight contests when trailing after two this season
- Ellis Rickwood dished out a trio of assists for the third time in his career
- Will Zellers scored two goals for his fourth multi-goal game of the season
- Zellers also had an assist to give him three points for the second time this season
- Zellers has six goals over his last seven games
- Abram Wiebe had two assists to give him three multi-point games over the last four
- Wiebe also has nine points (1G, 8A) in his last seven games
- UND went plus-2 in the third period to improve to plus-35 this season over the final 20
- Josh Zakreski returned to the lineup for the first time since Oct. 25 at Clarkson (26 games)
- Zakreski scored on his first shift for his second goal of the season
- UND scored its fifth goal this season with an extra attacker and 14th over the last two seasons
- NoDak is 12-4-1 this season at home
- Cole Reschny notched an assist to give him 16 points (2G, 14A) over his last 15 games
- Reschny is also averaging a point-per-game in NCHC play (19 PTS, 19 GP)
- UND is now 18-0-1 this season when scoring at least four goals
- Shots were 31-25 in favor of SCSU
- NoDak is 11-4-1 this season on Friday night and 16-3-1 when scoring first
- UND’s opponent was not penalized for the first time all season
- SCSU went 0-for-1 on the power play while UND did not have a power play
- North Dakota remains in first place in the NCHC standings and No. 3 in the NPI rankings
- Faceoffs were 27-25 in favor of UND, with Reschny pacing all skaters at 11-4
How It Happened
First Period:
02:20 | UND – Josh Zakreski (2) from Will Zellers (10) and Ellis Rickwood (20)
16:54 | SCSU – Adam Ingram (2)
18:33 | UND – Zellers (15) from Rickwood (21) and Abram Wiebe (18)
18:57 | SCSU – Austin Burnevik (18) from Tyson Gross (22)
Second Period:
05:15 | SCSU – Burnevik (19) from Gross (23)
10:12 | SCSU – Daimon Gardner (2) from Ingram (9) and Verner Miettinen (8)
Third Period:
01:45 | UND – Cody Croal (7) from Rickwood (22)
18:23 | UND – Zellers (16, EA) from Cole Reschny (23) and Wiebe (19)
Overtime:
No scoring
Game Recap: Men’s Hockey | | Alec Stocker Johnson, FightingHawks.com
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