ST. PAUL, Minn. – No. 8/7 North Dakota struck six times from six-different goal scorers en route to a 6-2 victory and series sweep over St. Thomas on Saturday night from Lee & Penny Anderson Arena in St. Paul, Minn.
UND (7-3-1, 3-0-1 NCHC) picked up goals from
Ollie Josephson (1),
Garrett Lindberg (1),
Cooper Simpson (3),
Cole Reschny (6),
Keaton Verhoeff (1),
Josh Zakreski (1) to help the Fighting Hawks extend their winning streak to three and keep them unbeaten through two NCHC weekends.
Josephson and Verhoeff each also added an assist to tally multi-point games while
Hudson Malinoski dished out two helpers to also notch a multi-point outing, as 14-different Hawks found their way on the scoresheet in the win.
Sophomore goaltender Jan Špunar faced only nine shots over the 60 minutes and finished with seven saves to improve to 5-2-1 on the season.
Similar to Friday's series opener, UND wasted no time getting on the board early. Josephson was threaded a perfect pass from
Gavin Lindberg and buried his first goal of the season with a beautiful move just over four minutes into the game to give UND a 1-0 lead.
However, unlike last night, the Fighting Hawks did not stop at just one over the first 20 minutes. Lindberg doubled the lead a few minutes later when his point shot trickled through the goaltender's legs for his first-career goal and a 2-0 advantage.
Simpson joined the fun with a power play goal midway through the opening stanza, as he jumped on a loose puck in the slot and powered home his third tally of the campaign before Reschny capped off the four-goal outburst with a snipe on the man advantage to send the visitors to the locker room with a 4-0 lead.
NoDak extended its lead to five after a dominating start to the middle frame, as Verhoeff's shot from distance surprised the netminder and found the back of the net for his first of the season and a 5-0 lead. The Tommies netted their first goal of the weekend with a power play tally just over a minute later to trim the deficit to 5-1 after two periods.
The teams traded goals over the final 20 minutes, with UST pulling one back early to cut the lead to 5-2 before Zakreski scored his first of the season off a
Connor Davis forced turnover to secure the 6-2 victory and the series sweep.
North Dakota will return home to battle St. Cloud State beginning on Friday night at 7:07 p.m. from Ralph Engelstad Arena on Midco Sports, NCHC.tv and the Fighting Hawks Radio Network.
Postgame Notes
- UND improves to 4-0-0 all-time against St. Thomas and is 3-0-0 in St. Paul
- Carson Carels did not play due to injury
- The Fighting Hawks received goals from six-different goal scorers
- Garrett Lindberg scored his first-career goal in the win
- Keaton Verhoeff, Ollie Jospehson and Josh Zakreski all scored their first goals of the season
- Josephson extended his point streak to five with a multi-point outing
- Hudson Malinoski recorded his second multi-point game of the season with two assists
- Verhoeff also had multiple points for the second time this season
- Jan Špunar finished with seven saves and improved to 5-2-1 this season
- The Hawks have won 18 of their last 24 road games and are 11-3-0 in road NCHC games since 2025-26
- UND allowed just nine shots on goal – the lowest in a game since Jan. 2, 2026 vs. Mercyhurst (8)
- NoDak has allowed fewer than 20 shots on goal in four straight games – its longest streak since Jan. 2020
- UND wore its black jerseys for the second time this season and improved to 1-1-0
- The Hawks were 2-for-6 on the power play while St. Thomas was 1-for-1
- Shots were 29-9 UND
- Faceoffs were 39-23 UND, with Cole Reschny leading everyone at 11-4
How It Happened
First Period:
04:03 | UND –
Ollie Josephson (1) from
Gavin Lindberg (8) and
Cody Croal (4)
07:05 | UND –
Garrett Lindberg (1) from
Ethan MacKenzie (3) and
Anthony Menghini (1)
10:37 | UND –
Cooper Simpson (3, PP) from Josephson (5) and
Sam Laurila (6)
13:49 | UND –
Cole Reschny (6, PP) from
Hudson Malinoski (5) and
Keaton Verhoeff (4)
Second Period:
10:25 | UND – Verhoeff (1) from
Kasper Magnussen (2) and Malinoski (6)
11:34 | UST – Lucas Van Vliet (9, PP) from Jakub Altrichter (3) and Chase Cheslock (6)
Third Period:
00:18 | UST – Van Vliet (10)
13:13 | UND –
Josh Zakreski (1) from
Connor Davis (4)
For more information on North Dakota hockey, visit FightingHawks.com or follow on social media @UNDmhockey.
