GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- With a nation-best 17 league championships now to its credit, the University of North Dakota knows how to celebrate an outright title with style and class.
It was why the post-game celebration with National Collegiate Hockey Conference commissioner Josh Fenton presenting the league championship trophy, the Penrose Cup, was a bit subdued.
While UND's second straight NCHC championship was indeed recognized by the team and a sellout crowd of 11,848 at REA following an 8-1 dismantling of Western Michigan, it's clear that UND, ranked No. 2 nationally and now 27-5-3 overall, has the big picture in mind.
That would be dead aim on the school's eighth NCAA title, the last one for UND coming in 2000.
"I thought the guys from the drop of the puck, they were ready to go,'' UND coach Brad Berry said. "They knew what was in front of them. Sometimes those games are a little bit tough.''
Thanks to monster nights from their top line of Nick Schmaltz, Brock Boeser and Drake Caggiula and their fourth line of senior Coltyn Sanderson flanked by rookies Chris Wilkie and Shane Gersich, the Fighting Hawks rang up their highest goal total of the season.
On the defensive side, UND was backstopped by a strong 31-save performance from goalie Cam Johnson.
Boeser, bidding to become the first UND rookie to lead a league in scoring, had two goals and two assists to push his NCHC point total to 33 with one game remaining. Denver's Danton Heinen and Dylan Gambrell trail him by four points. Boeser also leads the NCHC in goals with 19.
Schmaltz had his second four-point game (goal, 3 assists) of the season while Caggiula had one assist for a 9-point game for the CBS line.
The Sanderson line contributed four goals and three assists. Wilkie joined Boeser and Schmaltz with his first four-point game (2 goals, 2 assists) while Sanderson had two goals and Gersich one assist for a 7-point night for that line.
"I like those guys. They got a little speed on that line,'' Berry said. "They got the old guy (Sanderson) with a couple young guys out there; it seemed to be good tonight for those guys.''
While UND's seniors took a turn hoisting the Penrose Cup after the presentation by Fenton, there was no raucous celebration or laps around the ice with the hardware.
"Very excited, very excited,'' Berry said of receiving the trophy. "We were very honored. This is a tough league. It's so tough to win that trophy once, let alone back-to-back.''
But the focus was down the road, toward the NCAA tournament.
"The guys were humbled and honored, but at the same time,'' Berry said, "I think there was a little bit of quietness there in the fact this was one goal we wanted to get to, but we want to get to something a little bigger, and to get to that end prize at the end of the year.''
The Fighting Hawks certainly took a step toward that goal with the 7-goal win against a team that has played a string of close games against UND of late. Berry, in his first year as head coach at UND, finished his post-game comments with a shout-out to Philadelphia Flyers' coach Dave Hakstol, who coached UND last year.
"He was a big part of constructing this group, coaching this group'' Berry said. "The players who are here earned it, deserved it, and it was all about the players, but Coach Hakstol was a big part of this group, too.''
For Wilkie, it's his first taste of a title at UND.
"It's pretty special,'' he said. "All the guys talked about how cool it was last year winning that. It's just the regular season right now and there's obviously a lot of big games left.''
The Schmaltz line scored the first three goals of the game to set the tempo. Boeser scored his 23rd of the season at 12:20 of the first period, and Schmaltz followed with his fifth at 14:07. Boeser's second goal came just 30 seconds into the second period to make it 3-0, more than enough for UND tonight.
"We wanted to get off to a hot start, play well, and play a hard 60 minutes,'' Sanderson said. "I thought we accomplished that tonight.''
Sanderson, too, chose to look ahead while enjoying the title.
"We can be happy with that,'' he said, "but the same time, this program hasn't won a national championship in a long time. That's been on our minds the last four years. With the opportunity and the skill within our room, I think that's the only thing we will be satisfied with this year.''
Game notes: Two former Hobey Baker Award winners were in attendance, Tony Hrkac of UND and Tom Kurvers of Minnesota Duluth. Both are pro scouts for the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning ... Hrkac took part in the trophy presentation to UND after the game, along with Andy Schneider and Tim Skarperud ... Sheldon Dries scored Western Michigan's goal on a power-play deflection in the second period.
Virg Foss reported on UND hockey for 35 years, including 5 national championships, for the Grand Forks Herald until his retirement. He now covers games exclusively for UNDsports.com. He can be reached at virgfoss@yahoo.com.
