GRAND FORKS, N.D. --  The University of North Dakota has its 15-game unbeaten streak end Friday night in a 6-3 National Collegiate Hockey Conference loss to Omaha.

In a strong bounce-back, UND rolled over the Mavericks 4-1 Saturday night to get back on track and build its NCHC lead to three points over two-time defending NCAA champion Minnesota Duluth.

UND collected goals from players on all four lines and clamped down with outstanding goaltending from Adam Scheel (18 saves) and tight defensive play, trademarks of this team during its unbeaten streak.

Sophomore Mark Senden, who centers the 'Grind Line' with Gavin Hain and Cole Smith on the wings, led the way offensively with a goal and assist after snapping his 13-game goal-scoring drought the night before.

"It was a great response by the whole team,'' Senden said. "We wanted, and expected, a lot out of everyone today.''

And they got it. Senior Casey Johnson stepped into the lineup for just the third time in the last 15 games and scored his first goal of the season at 8:30 of the first period to put his team ahead to stay. He became the 22nd player to score a goal for the Hawks this season. He also finished with three shots on goal to tie leading scorer Jordan Kawaguchi and Shane Pinto for most shots on net.

A series of meetings with players and coaches Saturday morning set the tone for the rebound game.

"We had a gut check this morning, with meetings and what-not,'' Senden said. "I was very happy with the way we responded, the way we came out hard.''

Scheel, who had played every game in goal for UND this season before being lifted after stopping just four of eight Omaha shots in Friday's loss, made a huge save early in the game to give his teammates time to get going. Scheel was only beaten on a fluke goal on a centering pass out of the corner by Omaha's Tyler Ward that hit UND defenseman Colton Poolman and deflected past Scheel early in the third period.

But by then, UND had built a 3-0 lead on goals by Johnson, Collin Adams and Senden in the opening period. Kawaguchi, who went into the weekend leading the nation in primary points (goals and first assists), set up Pinto on a power play in the second period to close the scoring.

Pinto took a major penalty for crosschecking seven minutes into the third period, but the Fighting Hawks were stout in penalty killing, limiting Omaha to just one shot on net in the 5-minute major.

"I thought we were clicking through all four lines and seven 'D'," Johnson said.

The goal by Johnson was just his fourth in 97 career games. He had a chance for a second goal later, but missed on a close-in chance at the end line to stuff one past Omaha goalie Isaiah Saville. 

It was suggested by Kawaguchi to Johnson that he should have drawn the puck between his legs and roof it, as Kawaguchi did at Ralph Engelstad Arena a week earlier. "That guy (Saville) came out of nowhere,'' Johnson said.

Associate head coach Dane Jackson filled in for head coach Brad Berry at the post-game presser.

"Much improved tenacity and kind of mindset," Jackson said. "We weren't terrible last night, but we weren't sharp on our execution. We weren't as hard as we've been. I thought were kind of soft defensively as well. Just kind of a good reset (Saturday). I think you get a lot of wins in a row, the guys forget a little details. We actually thought we lost some details after last weekend. We really tried to reel in the guys in practice. You have a loss, and it kind of gets the guys attention back a little bit. We were happy with the response.''

Game notes: Named the three stars of the game by the media were Senden, Johnson and Adams, in that order . . . Jacob Bernard-Docker missed the game after being injured in Friday's game and UND also lost captain and defenseman Colton Poolman with an undisclosed injury in Saturday's game . . . UND is 12-0-1 this season when scoring 4 or more goals . . . UND was 1-for-3 on the power play with 6 shots on net, Omaha 0-4 with 3 shots. . . The game was a sellout with ticket sales of 11,725 . . . UND impoved to 17-2-2 overall and 8-1-1 in the NCHC, while Omaha is 9-10-3 overall and 3-6-1 in league play . . . The Hawks play at Miami of Ohio next weekend.


Virg Foss is in his 15th season of reporting on UND home games exclusively for UNDsports.com. He covered UND hockey for 35 seasons for the Grand Forks Herald until his retirement from newspapers. This is his 50th season of covering UND.