GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- No. 12 North Dakota offered no excuses Saturday night after the Fighting Hawks lost a 2-0 lead in the third period and fell 3-2 in overtime to the 18th-ranked Omaha Mavericks in the back end of a National Collegiate Hockey Conference series.
It didn't matter that star defenseman
Jake Sanderson was in California, awaiting clearance on COVID-19 tests to head to China to play for the United States in the Winter Olympic Games.
It didn't matter that UND lost sophomore forward
Louis Jamernik and team captain
Mark Senden to injuries early in the second period, and neither returned to the game.
What did matter is that the sting of losing a two-goal lead at home and then losing in a 3-on-3 overtime on a goal by Omaha's Brandon McManus left the Fighting Hawks frustrated and digging for words to explain the setback.
"A little bit of blown coverage and it's in the back of our net,'' said UND graduate student center
Connor Ford, who assisted on both of UND's goals. "That's 3-on-3 hockey.''
UND had a golden chance to win it in overtime, but junior wing
Ashton Calder was unable to lift a rebound chance over Omaha goalie Isaiah Saville (28 saves) early in the overtime session.
McManus didn't miss when he took a pass from Taylor Ward at the right faceoff circle and beat UND goalie
Zach Driscoll (27 saves) high to the glove side at 2:27 of the extra session to give the Mavericks the victory. UND did get one point in the standings and took four of the six points from Omaha in the weekend series.
"We just got to find a way to win,'' Ford said. "It doesn't matter who, what, when, where, why, you just got to do it. You got to put the puck in the back of the net.''
So, for the first time in the last 19 meetings of these two teams, the team that scored the first goal of the game didn't win. UND scored first when sophomore wing
Riese Gaber collected his team-leading 13th goal,. He jumped on an Omaha turnover to deke Saville with a move to his backhand at 7:07 of the first period. It was Gaber's fourth goal in the last four games.
Judd Caulfield's power-play goal at 12:16 of the second period staked UND to a 2-0 lead heading into the third period,. A nifty one-touch pass from Ford to Caulfield set up the junior wing for his second goal of the weekend and his quick blast from close range gave him his sixth of the season.
Driscoll made a key save on a breakaway by McManus with 8 seconds left in the second period to preserve the 2-0 lead, but it was not one UND could protect.
"Yesterday we found a way to win (4-1) but it really wasn't our best,'' Ford said. "It was a situation (Saturday) when we lost a few guys about halfway through the game, but at this point in the season, there's no excuse. We have the guys in the locker room. we've got to be able to close out those games.''
But instead, UND lost at home in overtime for the second time this season after falling to Bemidji State 4-3 in OT early in the season.
Omaha rallied with a power-play blast by defenseman Davis Pennington at 5:43 of the third period and a deflection by Kevin Conley of a Nate Knoepke point shot at 8:39 to bring about a 2-2 tie.
But then came the overtime, a UND miss on a golden chance, and Omaha's conversion by McManus to send a crowd of 11,632 at Ralph Engelstad Arena home stunned.
"We're up by two, in our home building, Saturday night, in the third period,'' Ford said. "That's not acceptable. We've got to be better. That's what every game is going to be like from here on out.'''
Driscoll stopped 53 of the 57 shots he faced for the weekend and was not the reason why UND lost. "I thought Driscoll played an outstanding weekend of hockey,'' Berry said. "He kept us in a game to win a game yesterday, and he played well enough to win a game tonight.''
But failure to close out the lead and win at home didn't sit well with UND players or coaches.
"For the most part I thought we played better than yesterday, and didn't get the result,'' UND coach
Brad Berry said, "Disappointed that we didn't get the win with a two-goal lead in the third.''
UND remained in second place in the NCHC with 33 points, one point ahead of Western Michigan but now five points behind league-leading Denver with 38 points after a Pioneer sweep over St. Cloud State.
NOTES: UND was 1-for-3 on the power play with 7 shots, Omaha 1-4 with 7 shots . . . Gaber led UND in shots on four with 5, followed by freshman
Matteo Costantini with 4 . . . Ward, son of former UND great Dixon Ward, led Omaha with 6 shots on goal . . . Named the three stars of the game by the media were McManus, Gaber and Conley, in that order . . . UND had a 28-19 edge in faceoff wins, led by Ford (20 of 25) . . . UND fell to 10-5-1 in the NCHC and 15-11-1 overall. Omaha improved to 7-9 in the NCHC and 17-11 overall . . . UND remained in 12th in the PairWise Rankings while Omaha moved up one notch to 20 . . . The two teams meet again in Omaha on March 4-5 . . . UND defenseman
Ethan Frisch had his string of goals in three straight games snapped. He wasn't credited with a shot on goal Saturday. The last UND defenseman to collect a goal in three straight games was Chay Genoway in 2009 . . . Berry said he is unsure of the injury status of Senden and Jamernik for next weekend's series at home against Colorado College, but that the injured
Brendan Budy should be available to rejoin the lineup ... UND falls to 62-3-2 since 2018-19 when leading after two periods ... Two of those three losses have come in 2022 ... A pair of those losses have also come to Omaha ... The Mavs have beaten UND three straight years at home.
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.
