UND beats Miami 2-1, wins NCHC title outright

By Brad Elliott Schlossman
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Updated: March 7, 2015

Earlier this season, UND freshman Nick Schmaltz accidentally called the National Collegiate Hockey Conference championship trophy the “Penne Rosa” instead of the Penrose Cup.

No worries, he’ll have a chance to get much more familiar with it now.

UND will be bringing the Penrose Cup back to Grand Forks — and it won’t be sharing it with anyone — after downing Miami 2-1 on Friday night to secure its 16th overall conference title and first as a member of the NCHC.

Moments after the victory, NCHC commissioner Josh Fenton presented the team the large trophy in the locker room.

First, captain Stephane Pattyn held it high over his head as the team roared. He then handed it off to fellow senior Connor Gaarder, who scored the game-winning goal for the third consecutive game Friday night.

“Penne Rosa, boys!” Gaarder exclaimed.

The team laughed, then continued passing the trophy around the room.

After learning that the arena had cleared out, UND returned to the ice to take a team photo. The only people remaining in Steve Cady Arena were a smattering of UND fans, who stuck around hoping to catch a glimpse of the trophy.

“It was our mindset coming in,” UND coach Dave Hakstol said of winning the title outright. “It didn’t mean it was going to be easy. I’m really proud of this group. I think our entire staff is really proud of this group. To win this regular-season championship was tough. It’s a great league.

“Our guys battled at a real high level. That’s what it has taken. We have a real good group of players, but we also have great people that have worked hard and sacrificed to become a great team and that’s what this is all about.”

While teams are usually allowed to travel with only two extra players, UND asked the NCHC if it could bring its entire team in case it did win the trophy outright. The league said that as long as UND declared which two players were the extras, that it could take the whole team.

The only player missing was senior alternate captain Mark MacMillan, who had surgery on Wednesday and could potentially miss the rest of the season. He watched the game from Grand Forks.

“That’s the only tough part,” Hakstol said. “He had surgery two days ago. We didn’t want to add any risk to that surgery time period. I really appreciate the league allowing us to bring everybody. The tough part is that Mark’s not here. He’s an awful big part of this. But you know what? We’ll take the Cup home and we’ll deliver it back to him.”

Gaarder said that MacMillan already texted the seniors after the game. He also congratulated the team on Twitter.

“Hard not to be there playing with them, but extremely proud of the boys for clinching outright,” MacMillan wrote.

UND will hold the No. 1 seed for the NCHC tournament and host last-place Colorado College in a first-round series beginning Friday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena.

The Penrose-clinching game was indicative of UND’s season. It wasn’t easy, but UND got great goaltending, played strong in the defensive zone and received timely goals from around the lineup.

Junior Zane McIntyre made 43 saves, one shy of his career high, in slowing down Miami’s potent forwards. McIntyre hasn’t allowed an even-strength goal in 319 minutes, 28 seconds — a stretch spanning six games.

Miami’s lone goal Friday came on the power play by Sean Kuraly and it wasn’t enough to beat a North Dakota team that extended its unbeaten streak to eight games. UND (25-6-3 overall, 16-5-2 NCHC) is 12-1-1 in its last 14 games, the only loss coming in overtime at Omaha.

UND built a 2-0 lead on goals early in the first and second periods.

Defenseman Keaton Thompson scored his second goal of the year just 2:43 into the game on a shot from below the goal line that banked off of Miami goalie Jay Williams (25 saves). Gaarder added to the lead at 1:56 of the second period , finishing off a feed from linemate Austin Poganski.

Kuraly’s goal came at 7:49 of the second period, but that’s the only one that Miami got past McIntyre, who stopped 38 shots in the final two periods alone.

“Obviously, last year, we fell a little short, losing to Western in the last game,” said McIntyre, a junior who missed league championships by one game in his first two seasons. “To know we can win a big game, it gives a lot of confidence to our team and our players. This feels good. It was a lot of hard work. It made it worthwhile. It brought us a little closer. We’re one step closer to our ultimate goal.”

UND players celebrated the conference championship and the fact that they are going to be able to hang a new banner in Ralph Engelstad Arena, but they made it clear that they feel there’s more work to be done this season.

“It feels good getting the win tonight,” Gaarder said. “It’s fun to celebrate right now, but we have to refocus. We start playoffs next weekend and we still have more to do. We’ll celebrate here tonight. But it’s back to business tomorrow morning.”