GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Don't try telling the University of North Dakota hockey team about the old saying that a tie is like kissing your sister.
The official 3-3 overtime tie Saturday night in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference battle between the No. 13 ranked Fighting Hawks and preseason league favorite and sixth-ranked St. Cloud State ended in a tie for the record, but with one big difference maker.
In the shootout to decide which team got two points in the league standings and which one got just a single point, the tiebreaker took four rounds to decide something. UND earned the two points in the standings when Lake Superior State transfer
Ashton Calder beat St. Cloud State goalie David Hrenak with a wrist shot to the stick side and SCSU's Kevin Fitzgerald hit the goal post on his corresponding chance.
That gave North Dakota five of a possible six points in the weekend series, when coupled with Friday's resounding 7-1 victory for the Fighting Hawks. It kept UND (14-10-1, 9-4-1-0-0-1 NCHC) in second place behind Denver in the NCHC with 10 league games remaining.
UND had to rally from a 3-1 deficit after one period with defenseman
Chris Jandric's first goal in a UND jersey in the second period, and a sensational deke and goal by sophomore defenseman
Jake Sanderson at 11:02 of the third period to bring about the 3-3 tie.
It was a rewarding weekend for UND, which came into the series on a four-game losing streak after being swept by Cornell and Western Michigan.
Driscoll replaced freshman goalie
Jakob Hellsten after he was touched for three goals in the first period, on a power-play snipe by Veeti Miettinen and breakaway goals by Nick Perbix and Micah Miller (shorthanded) that wiped out UND's early lead on defenseman
Ethan Frisch's goal on UND's first shot of the game.
The former St. Cloud State netminder stopped all 20 shots he faced in the second and third periods and overtime to improve to 1-1-2 all-time against his old club.
Much of the talk was of Sanderson, who is set to join the United States Men's Ice Hockey Team in the Winter Olympic Games, with his sick move to score the tying goal in the third period.
"He's stud,'' Driscoll said. "There's a reason why he's going overseas this week. Big-time players make those kinds of big-time plays.''
UND nearly won it in regulation time.
Riese Gaber's shot from in close went through the legs of Hrenak in the final seconds, but the puck hit his back leg pad and slithered inches wide of the net.
After a scoreless 5-minute, 3-on-3 overtime, Sanderson, Gaber and
Jackson Kunz missed on shootout chances as did Easton Brodzinski, Jami Krannila and Miettinen for the Huskies before Calder found net and Fitzgerald hit iron in the fourth round of the shootout to decide the extra point.
There was a lesson buried in all that drama for UND. "I really hope this is something we can learn from,'' Driscoll said. "That if we have resolve, and stick to the game plan, we're a really good team.''
Both teams showed stretches of excellence. St. Cloud State defenseman Nick Perbix, who is headed to the Olympics along with Sanderson and SCSU's Sam Hentges, had a goal and two assists to figure in on all of the offense for the visitors. He also dove in front of the net to block a shot by UND defenseman
Tyler Kleven into what appeared to be an open net late in the second period and the Huskies holding a 3-2 lead.
"The first period probably wasn't our sharpest of the weekend,'' Berry said. "But the resolve, the resiliency and character in the locker room came out in the second and third. We found a way to get a couple of points out of it. We'll keep building on that. I'm proud of the guys for handling adversity through the last couple of weeks and trying to get back on track. I thought our guys did a great job this weekend.''
Since shootout statistics only determine the extra point in the league standings and do not show up in official individual or team statistics, it left UND with an oddity.
All three UND goals were scored by defensemen Saturday with Frisch, Jandric and Sanderson the blueliners who officially scored goals. Sanderson even led UND in shots on goal with five, while Jandric had three and Frisch two to account for one-third of UND's 30 shots on goal for the game, a shot number matched by St. Cloud State.
North Dakota remains home to battle Omaha next weekend from Ralph Engelstad Arena.
NOTES: Named the three stars of the game by the media were Sanderson, Portz -- a St. Cloud native -- who finished with a team-best two points on a pair of assists from his fourth line wing position and Driscoll . . . The announced crowd for tickets sold was a sellout of 11,876. UND leads the nation in attendance . . . St. Cloud State was 1-4 on the power play with 5 shots on goal, after coming into the weekend averaging a nation-best 38 percent on the power play. UND was 0-4 on the power play with 5 shots . . . UND won the faceoffs 35-26, led by
Connor Ford (16 of 26) and
Louis Jamernik (9 of 13) . . . UND stays at home to face Omaha and Colorado College the next two weekends and will play without Sanderson for those games as he will leave for the Winter Olympics. . . UND has given up a shorthanded goal twice in the last 3 games after Western Michigan's Max Sasson scored one in a 2-0 win over UND the previous Saturday . . . UND's last shootout game was against Minnesota Duluth on Dec. 10, 2020 in the NCHC pod with the Bulldogs gaining the extra point that time . . . UND won the season series from St. Cloud State 2-1-1.
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 written about UND hockey games exclusively for FightingHawks.com. This marks his 52nd season since he began covering UND hockey in 1969.
