GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Winless North Dakota has outshot its opponents by 39 shots in three games (0-2-1) to open the season, but the biggest shot to its chances for its first victory Friday night might been fired into its collective foot.
With the Fighting Hawks leading Minnesota State 2-1 on goals by
Collin Adams and
Zach Yon less than three minutes into the game, a costly penalty on senior center
Rhett Gardner swung the game the other way.
Gardner was given a 5-minute major for checking from behind and a game misconduct at 6:59 into the opening period, igniting a hat trick night for Maverick captain Max Coatta, who evened the game at 2-2.
Without Gardner for the rest of the game, and needing to shuffle lines to cover his absence, UND never recovered after Coatta potted his second goal at 1:38 of the second period, putting the Mavericks ahead to stay 3-2. He added a power-play goal in the second period for the second collegiate hat trick for the 24-year-old, the oldest player on the Minnesota State roster.
UND outshot the Mavericks 38-21 in shots on goal and 75-37 in shot attempts and cranked in four goals after scoring just two in two games last weekend against Bemidji State. But the major penalty on Gardner seemed to deflate the Hawks early.
"We got off to a good start, then we took a 5-minute major, which took us out of the game, which took one of our better players out of the game,'' UND coach
Brad Berry said. "That put us on our heels a bit. The start we wanted, but not the result we wanted, due to a few different things."
Though UND found plenty of offense this night, defense was a problem after the Fighting Hawks had given up just three total goals in 125 minutes last weekend. Tonight, UND gave up four goals in the second period to turn a 2-2 tie into a 6-4 deficit entering the final period.
UND started
Peter Thome (4 goals, 6 saves in net) but pulled him for freshman
Adam Scheel (2 goals, 8 saves) after the Mavericks' Parker Tuomie scored his second of the game just 2:07 into the second period.
Coatta, the grandson of former Minnesota State football coach John Coatta, stamped his name on the program as well with his hat trick.
He lead his team to a big road win, just Mankato's 12th in 57 overall games (12-38-7) against UND. The victory for the 7/8-ranked Mavericks (3-0 after sweeping Boston University last week) came against a program that has eight national championships. UND is ranked No. 16 in one national poll after seeing its 15-year string of NCAA tournament appearances snapped last season.
"North Dakota is obviously a great team year-in and year-out,'' Coatta said. "It was a fun challenge tonight. We're happy to get the first one.''
It wasn't as fun on the other bench. Goals finally came, but more against than for.
"I thought we took care of stuff offensively,'' said UND defenseman
Matt Kiersted, who had a goal and an assist and was voted the game's No. 2 star. "We worked on that this week in practice. I just think we've got to bear down in the 'D' zone and take care of that. Work from the 'D' zone out.''
Kiersted said with the work on offense all week, some guys were trying to create offense. "There's a couple of pinches where they got around us, and we've got to lock out in front of our net,'' Kiersted said.
As for the shooting advantage every game, but no wins? "Just keep shooting the puck,'' he said. "I think it will come. We've got to start hitting our spots and crashing the net for rebounds.''
Minnesota State freshman goalie Dryden McKay finished with 34 saves, 26 of them in the last two periods when UND pressed hard with strong forechecking pressure.
But much of that frustration goes back to losing a leader and one of two senior centers on the roster early in the game.
"It taxes a lot of guys trying to get the kill, No. 1,'' Berry said of Gardner's major. "The rest of the game, you're mixing lines and you don't have the continuity that you would if you had four lines.''
Adams scored on UND's second shot of the game at 1:57 of the opening period after Bismarck product Jared Spooner took one of his three penalties in the game. Spooner did assist on two Maverick goals, but also saw UND score twice on the power play when he was in the penalty box.
Tuomie and Yon traded goals 10 seconds apart at 2:34 and 2:44 of the first period before Coatta tied it after one with his first power-play goal midway through the period.
Coatta and Tuomie staked the Mavs to a 4-2 lead with goals 29 seconds apart early in the second period, leading Berry to lift Thome in goal for Scheel.
Kiersted cut the Maverick lead to 4-3, scoring on a screen shot with
Nick Jones camped in the crease at 7:25 of the second period. The goal was reviewed by officials for possible goalie interference, but Jones, though in the crease, never touched McKay.
The Mavericks came back with goals by Nick Rivera and Coatta for his hat trick in the middle of the second period before
Ludvig Hoff slapped home a Kiersted shot off the pipe to make it 6-4 after two periods. Marc Michaelis wrapped it up with an empty-net goal with 1:06 left.
Game notes: Coatta was named first star by the media and Tuomie third star ... Michaelis had 6 shots on goal and was a plus-3 for the Mavericks ... Jones had 5 shots on goal to lead UND while Hoff,
Grant Mismash and rookie defenseman
Jacob Bernard-Docker all had 4 shots on goal. Bernard-Docker picked up his first college assist, drawing a helper on Hoff's 8th goal in 63 career games ... UND was 2-for-5 on the power play with 8 shots after going 0-for-8 against BSU last weekend ... Mankato was 2-for-3 ol the power play with three shots, two of them coming on the major on Gardner ... UND won the faceoff battle 31-221, led by Jones (16 of 23) ... The game drew 11,304 fans, shy of a sellout ... The Mavericks had 25 blocked shots, led by Edwin Hookenson with 7.
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 reported on UND hockey games exclusively for FightingHawks.com. This marks his 50th season since he began covering UND hockey in 1969.
