When the public address announcer called out Riese Gaber's name for pregame introductions a quiet, empty Magness Arena, Shane Pinto skated out to the blue line. Then, Gaber skated out to Pinto's name. They looked at each other at the blue line, realizing their mix up.
It didn't get much better from there.
In the first period, UND trailed for the first time in 373 minutes, 57 seconds -- a span of seven games and more than a month on the calendar -- when Ryan Barrow's attempted pass on a two-on-one ended up in the back of the net.
In the second period, UND found itself down by four goals, its largest deficit in any game since Nov. 30, 2018 at Minnesota Duluth.
In the third period, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference's reigning goalie of the week, UND's Adam Scheel, was on the bench after allowing four goals on 20 shots.
And when it was finally over, Denver ended UND's six-game winning streak with a 4-1 victory in the opener of their two-game series.
"It's going to be a hard morning tomorrow, obviously going over video, maybe a few meetings, really talking about what we have to do, getting our minds right," UND captain Jordan Kawaguchi said. "That's the biggest thing. You can have the utmost effort in the world, but if you're not playing sharp and your minds aren't right, you're not going to accomplish much."
Ryan Barrow, Reid Irwin, Jake Durflinger and Justin Lee scored goals to hand UND its first loss since Dec. 12 to St. Cloud State in the NCHC Pod.
Tyler Kleven scored UND's lone goal on Denver's Magnus Chrona (28 saves) with just 71 seconds left, preventing UND from its first shutout loss since the 2019 playoffs in the same building against the same team.
"I thought it was an urgent team in Denver, I thought they played well," UND coach Brad Berry said. "They came out hard after being off for a bit. We didn't start on time. I didn't think we were sharp, especially in the first period. We turned some pucks over. It fed into their offense. They got a couple goals on that."
The Fighting Hawks (9-3-1) let a chance to move into first place in the league standings slip away, but they'll have one more shot at 8:07 p.m. Monday night before heading back to Grand Forks. They're currently one point back of St. Cloud State.
UND will also try to avoid losing back-to-back games, something that hasn't happened yet this season and never happened once last season, either.
In fact, the last time the Fighting Hawks lost two in a row was in Magness Arena to end the 2018-19 season in the first round of the NCHC's playoffs. That UND team had to bus to Denver from Albuquerque, N.M., after its flight was diverted due to a blizzard.
"We have an opportunity tomorrow to play a better game and have a better result," Berry said.
The Pioneers looked every bit like the team that was picked to finish second in the NCHC this season. After a 3-7-1 start to the season at the NCHC Pod and a single road game at Colorado College, the Pioneers have won back-to-back games at home, outscoring their opponents 10-2.
"They've got a pretty talented forward group on their team and anytime you give them the puck on their tape, especially in the neutral zone coming at you," Berry said. "You've got to manage pucks in the neutral zone and get it in their end and get pucks behind their 'D' and try to work it in the offensive zone a little bit. They're a good team. They're a good, structured team, but we weren't as sharp.
"I don't think a lot of guys had their 'A' games tonight as far as execution. I think our compete was good, but our execution wasn't there."
The Pioneers jumped out to the lead at 13:49 of the first period, when Steven Jandric stole the puck from UND rookie Riese Gaber, who was attempting to leave the zone. Jandric gave the puck to Barrow to start a two-on-one. Barrow attempted to pass it back to Jandric, but it hit Scheel and went in the net.
Denver added to the lead when Brink flew up the right side on a rush, getting UND rookie defenseman Cooper Moore to fall down. Brink took it in alone, pulled the puck across the crease and tried to score on the backhand. Scheel made the initial stop, but Irwin followed it up at 16:45.
The Pioneers made it 3-0 at 9:49 of the second period when Durflinger pounced on a rebound of a Kyle Mayhew point shot. Then, Lee sent a point shot through traffic at 13:57.
Berry lifted Scheel for senior goalie Peter Thome (10 saves) in the third.
UND didn't get on the board until Kleven got the puck at the point with space, walked it a few steps and snapped a wrist shot through traffic. Rookie forward Louis Jamernik, who was added to the roster midway through the season, tallied his first-career point on an assist of Kleven's goal.
"Going into tomorrow, we've just got to forget about tonight," Kawaguchi said. "Change the way we look at it."
"six" - Google News
January 18, 2021 at 11:00AM
https://ift.tt/3qmPkfw
Denver ends UND's six-game winning streak - Grand Forks Herald
"six" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3dcBbL9
https://ift.tt/2Wis8la
No comments:
Post a Comment