EAST LANSING, Mich. -- It's likely that if it were up to Cam Johnson, the University of North Dakota men's hockey team would travel to Michigan more often.
Playing just a short drive from his hometown of Troy, North Dakota's sophomore goaltender stopped a career-high 33 shots this afternoon to lift his Fighting Hawks to a 4-1 win and series sweep over Michigan State.
Just two nights earlier in the series opener, Johnson had matched his previous career high with 24 saves while making his first start in over a month.
Johnson's performance improved the fifth-ranked Fighting Hawks to 12-2-2 on the season heading into their final two series before the Christmas break.
His head coach, Brad Berry, said Johnson's sharp, 14-save performance in the first period allowed UND to shake off the team's early struggles.
“It was a bit of a slow start our behalf,” said Berry. “We were a little sloppy in the first but got better as the game went on. Cam Johnson was sharp early on. That kept us going and was a big reason why we won today.”
“It was good to see my family. And good they finally got a chance to see me play,” said Johnson. “Playing close to home and getting two wins is awesome. This was the first time everyone got to see me play in a UND jersey.”
Johnson's lone blemish was a Michael Ferrantino power-play deflection of a point shot of the second period that opened the scoring. However, Johnson slammed the door the rest of the way and held the Spartans off the board despite their 15-8 edge in shots on goal through the opening 20 minutes.
“Actually, I kind of prefer that,” said Johnson of his early workload. “It gets you into the game right off the go. I don't mind those high-shot periods because then I'm mentally dialed in. I felt good and it felt good to get a few saves in there early to get some confidence.”
That allowed UND's offense to get rolling and it broke through with goals by Joel Jantauinen and Drake Caggiula 61 seconds apart later in the period.
First, Janatuinen pulled the Fighting Hawks even at 13:03 with his first career goal. The Espoo, Finland, native came off the bench on a line change and streaked into the offensive zone. Defenseman Tucker Poolman was stationed in the right corner with the puck and hit Janatuinen in stride, and the freshman made no mistake in depositing his milestone goal.
“I just came off the bench and Tucker Poolman just threw it to the back post and found me. It felt good to get it out of the way, for sure. Pretty good situation to get it too,” said Janatuinen, who hadn't scored in his first eight collegiate games.
Just one minute later while killing a penalty, Nick Schmaltz set up Drake Caggiula's first of two goals on the night, and just like that UND owned a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission.
That unit of Schmaltz, Caggiula and freshman Brock Boeser – red-hot over the past three weekends – struck two more times to put the game away. Boeser fired a wrist shot from the dot past Jake Hildebrand while on the power-play at 5:11 of the second period, and Schmaltz sprung Caggiula for a short-handed breakaway effort six minutes later.
With six more points on the night, UND's 'CBS' line has racked up a jaw-dropping 13 goals and 33 points since being reunited six games ago.
“They are good. I can't find words to describe how good they are. They're just a joy to watch,” said Janatuinen, unable to contain his grin.
“As much as they're scoring, they're playing good away from the puck too,” offered Berry. “That's creating a lot of their offense, creating turnovers by the other team and going the other way. You kind of get caught up in the one-dimensional side of scoring goals, but they're playing the right way away from the puck, which is creating offense.”
Berry was effusive in his praise of Johnson, calling his weekend performance “huge.”
“Obviously with his injury, he hasn't had a big body of work. He came in here, in his home environment, and won the first game,” said Berry. “Now, what do you do in the second game? The big thing is consistency. He had a very consistent weekend and that's very positive from that standpoint.”
The Fighting Hawks were outshot 34-27 and took 10 penalties for 28 minutes, the latter of which Berry noted had to be cleaned up by his young team. But despite the flaws, UND will return home with just two losses in its first 16 games and a 6-1-2 non-conference record. Said
Janatuinen: “It was a slow start for us and not the best game for us – we've got a bit of work to do when we get back to Grand forks – but huge to get a win.”
Notes: Caggiula, Luke Johnson and Tucker Poolman were named the game's three stars … UND went 1-4 on the power play and Michigan State went 1-5 … Twelve of the Spartans' 34 shots came with the man advantage … UND was unable to score on a 5-minute power play after MSU's Villiam Haag was given a checking-from-behind major and game misconduct late in the second period … Schmaltz was a plus-2 and leads the country with a plus-23 rating.
