Fighting Hawks strike for trio of goals in first, claim third straight Friday win
GRAND FORKS, N.D. — Only four college goalies in history have shot a puck the length of the ice into the opposing net.
Only 12 NHL goalies have been credited with that, making it a rare feat for a goalie, at any level.
Just a few inches separated UND senior goalie Zach Driscoll from joining that elite company Friday night when his attempt at an empty-net goal with 90 seconds left in a 3-2 victory over Colorado College slid just wide of the net.
The last college goalie to do that was Northern Michigan’s Atte Toivanen, against Michigan Tech in 2018.
Driscoll’s attempt, which resulted in an icing on UND and brought the puck back into the Fighting Hawks’ zone, was okay, in the eyes of UND coach Brad Berry.
“As long as there’s nobody in his lane and nobody kind of checking him from behind, if he can reef it out and get it down the ice, absolutely,” Berry said.
That bid to become the first goalie in North Dakota history to score a goal aside, No. 12 UND built a 3-0 lead after one period, allowed two quick power-play goals to the Tigers in the second period, then hung on to win the opening game of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference series. It was UND’s third win in three tries this season vs. the Tigers (7-17-3, 4-12-1-0-1-0 NCHC) while UND improved to 11-5-1-0-1-1 in league play, 16-11-1 overall.
With a lineup missing four players to injuries and a fifth (defenseman Jake Sanderson) to the Winter Olympic Games, the Fighting Hawks took a major hit 8 minutes into the game when defenseman Cooper Moore was given a 5-minute major for contact to the head and a game misconduct, taking him out of the lineup the rest of the night.
But junior forward Judd Caulfield came to the rescue with a shorthanded goal, just UND’s second of the season. He bulled his way past CC defenseman Bryan Yoon at the blue line, then powered to the net and fluttered the puck past CC goalie Dominic Basse (18 saves) at 9:02.
Two minutes later, Caulfield had another chance on a shorthanded breakaway, but was turned back by Basse. Only two UND players, Mike Burggraf (1978) and Russ Romaniuk (1990), have scored two shorthanded goals in a game. The goal was Caulfield’s seventh of the season, and third in the last three games.
Defenseman Ethan Frisch scored his seventh of the season and fourth in the last five games at 15:46 of the opening period, his goal from the faceoff circle coming one second after a UND power play expired.
Sophomore Riese Gaber made it 3-0 at 17:41 with his rocket of a wrist shot on a power play to the far corner at 17:11. It was his team-best 14th of the season, and fifth in his last five games.
But in the second period, numbers turned upside down on UND. The best faceoff man for the Fighting Hawks, graduate transfer Connor Ford, lost faceoffs twice just seconds after UND took minor penalties.
Stanley Cooley scored his third of the year on a center point wrister at 9:39 of the second period, five seconds after UND’s Nick Portz drew an interference penalty. Then seven seconds after UND’s Jackson Kunz was called for cross-checking at 14:44, CC’s Nicklas Andrews scored his fourth of the season as the Tigers roared back to within 3-2.
But Ford righted himself in the faceoff circle as UND held CC scoreless the rest of the way. After going just 12 for 22 on faceoffs the first two periods, Ford won 13 of 15 faceoffs in the third period to help shut down the Tigers.
“Our guys got back into the locker room after the second period and we felt it wasn’t our best period to a man,” Berry said. “We needed to be better. I think that’s where leadership talked a little bit. As coaches, we talked with them, and said, ‘hey, we got to get this back going again, and I thought out guys did.’ ”
Rookie defenseman Luke Bast, thrust into extra playing time with the defensive corps depleted by injuries and the Olympics, was fascinated by Driscoll’s bid to score a goal. “I’ve never seen it in person,” Bast said. “It would have been pretty insane.”
NOTES: CC was 2-for-3 on the power play with 4 shots on goal, UND 1-3 with 3 shots . . . Frisch led UND in shots on goal with 5, followed by Caulfield and defenseman Brent Johnson with 3 . . . UND finished with a 41-25 edge in faceoffs, led by Ford (23-12), Jake Schmaltz (8-4) and Griffin Ness (7-3). . . Named the three stars of the game by the media were Frisch, Caulfield and Gaber, in that order . . . UND is 169-84-11 all-time vs. CC, the most wins for UND over any college in the history of the program.
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 written about UND hockey games exclusively for FightingHawks.com. This marks his 52nd season since he began covering UND hockey in 1969.
Game Recap: Men’s Hockey | 2/12/2022 12:11:00 AM | Virg Foss, FightingHawks.com