GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- There's an old saying in sports that "speed kills.''
 
It certainly applied to Saturday's exhibition hockey game between the University of North Dakota and the University of Manitoba at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
 
In UND's debut to the 2019-20 season, UND showcased great speed and quickness . That enabled the Righting Hawks to down the Bisons 5-1 in front of an announced sellout of 11,760 behind a four-assist night from junior right wing Grant Mismash and a two-goal game from linemate Gavin Hain, a sophomore left wing.
 
The game was more one-sided than the final score showed. The Fighting Hawks had a dominating 49-12 edge in shots on goal and attempted 73 shots to just 16 for Manitoba.
 
Manitoba took a 1-0 lead on a rebound goal by Colton Vesolo at 13:05 of the first period, but soon UND's great edge in speed and puck control was evident.
 
On the way to mustering 18 shots on goal in the first period to just three for the Bisons, UND surged ahead on a 5-on-3 power play goal by Jacob Bernard-Docker at 15:32, on a goal by Gavin Hain at 18:12 and a power-play rebound tally from Collin Adams at 19:27.
 
Hain made it 4-1 with his second goal at 14:26 of the second period with Mismash collecting his fourth straight first assist on the score.
 
Highly-touted freshman center Shane Pinto finished the scoring on a goal-mouth deflection of a Bernard-Docker point shot on a power play at 4:35 of the final period.
 
"I haven't seen the game tape yet, but that was one of the things that was kind of obvious on the bench for me,'' UND coach Brad Berry said when asked about the speed of North Dakota's play.
 
"Our speed not only in moving pucks, but also in skating through the neutral zone, and attacking with it,'' Berry added. "That's a good sign. Anytime you have speed, it's tough to defend that. We have to keep working on that, and make sure that is a strength of ours.''
 
Another plus from this game was the power play. UND struggled with that specialty team last season, converting at only 14.2 percent. The Fighting Hawks scored on 3 of 7 chances against Manitoba (42.9 percent) under the guidance of first-year assistant coach Karl Goehring, a former UND star goalie, who is in charge of the power play this season.
 
Mismash, noted more for his heavy shot, earned No. 1 star of the game honors from the media for his expertise in setting up teammates for 4 of UND's five goals. 
 
Berry also singled out Adams and Pinto for strong play, those two playing on a line with Jordan Kawaguchi . "Those guys (Adams and Pinto) together had some chemistry coming through the neutral zone and possessing pucks. Puck management is a big in not turning pucks over, and I think they did a good job. The challenge for all of them now is that we're playing for keeps next weekend. You can't just rest on one game here.''
 
Next weekend brings Canisius to Engelstad Arena to open the regular season for non-conference games Friday and Saturday. Canisius beat UND twice at Canisius last season. losses that figured large in UND missing the NCAA tournament for the second straight year.
 
"Obviously it was a good win and a confidence boost for the whole team,'' Mismash said. "But it was just exhibition, so we've got a lot of work. Looking forward to that Canisius series. It (the two losses) is still bitter from last season.''
 
Notes: Former UND standout Lee Davidson was honored on the ice before the game for his induction on Friday into the UND Athletics Hall of Fame ... Colorado College transfer Westin Michaud had 6 shots on goal to lead UND while Mismash, Pinto and Cole Smith all had 5 shots on goal ... UND used all three of its goalies with Adam Scheel (1 goal, 2 saves) playing the first period, Harrison Feeney (4 saves) in net for the second and Peter Thome (5 saves) in the third period. Feeney stopped Manitoba's Jonah Wayslak on a penalty shot ... 19 of the 22 skaters used by UND had at least one shot on goal ... Hain and Adams were named the second and third star, respectively.
 
Virg Foss is in his 50th year overall of covering UND hockey. He reported on UND hockey for 35 years for the Grand Forks Herald and is now in his 15th year of writing about Fighting Hawks hockey for FightingHawks.com.