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North Dakota scores late, beats Denver 4-2
- Updated: April 8, 2016
The University of North Dakota men’s hockey team has almost worn out a trail to the Frozen Four in recent years.
Thursday, the Fighting Hawks did something they have not done since 2005: advance to a national championship game.
Nick Schmaltz scored with 57 seconds left in regulation and North Dakota added an empty-net goal to beat Denver 4-2 in the semifinals of the NCAA Division I Frozen Four before a crowd of 18,037 on Thursday at Amalie Arena.
“It was kind of a big thing that we’ve talked about in our (locker) room with the guys coming back, talking about the last two years and the heartbreak of losing in the semifinal game,” said North Dakota senior center Coltyn Sanderson, whose team had recently lost to Boston University (2015) and Minnesota (2014), respectively. “We didn’t want to have to go through that again in that locker room.
“Guys really battled back. Maybe it wasn’t our best performance, but there was never any doubt in our mind that we were going to keep battling and fighting to try to get to Saturday night and we did that.”
The third-seeded Fighting Hawks (33-6-4) play top-seeded Quinnipiac (32-3-7) at 7 p.m. Saturday for the national title. Quinnipiac defeated Boston College 3-2 Thursday to advance to its second national championship game in four years.
The Fighting Hawks had lost their last six semifinals games since losing 4-1 in the national championship game to Denver in 2005.
North Dakota has not won a national championship game since it beat Boston College 4-2 in 2000.
“When you first step onto the campus of the University of North Dakota, the first thing you talk about is winning a national championship,” North Dakota senior left wing Drake Caggiula said. “This senior class wants to leave this program with a national championship and we’re one step closer to being there.”
Schmaltz, a sophomore center from Verona, Wisconsin, is on North Dakota’s top line with Caggiula and freshman right wing Brock Boeser. Schmaltz, a Chicago Blackhawks draft pick, scored the game-winner after North Dakota won a faceoff in the Denver zone. Boeser was able to push the puck on net and Schmaltz pulled the rebound back and got it past goalie Tanner Jaillet for the game-winner.
“We drew up the play where I take the draw and get the puck to Cagg,” Boeser said of getting the puck to Caggiula. “We wanted him to get the shot through, but it dropped and it trickled to me, so I just tried to get it to Nick and Nick put it in the back of the net.
“It came on my forehand and I took it forehand to backhand and got it on a pass to the net and Nick put it in.”
Rhett Gardner added an empty-net goal with 1.8 seconds left for North Dakota.
In the course of a minute, the Pioneers were left to think about the play on a faceoff that ultimately ended their season.
“They won the battle and they put the puck in the net,” Denver captain Grant Arnold said. “We came out and we played so hard in that third period. I’m just extremely proud of my teammates, the heart and the fight they showed in the third.”
The comeback
Denver (25-10-6) trailed 2-0 going into the third period.
“In between the second and the third (periods), we really wanted to just focus on playing Pioneer hockey,” Arnold said. “We came out and we played hard. We played Pioneer hockey for 19 minutes there.”
The comeback for the Pioneers started early in the third period. Matt Marcinew won a faceoff in the North Dakota zone and got It over to Arnold. Arnold quickly flipped it back to Will Butcher, who scored on a shot from the top of the faceoff circle to cut North Dakota’s lead to 2-1.
After killing a penalty about midway through the third period, Denver got a break. Defenseman Matt VanVoorhis skated to the right of goalie Cam Johnson and tried to get a pass to a teammate out front.
But his pass went off the outstretched stick of North Dakota defenseman Gage Ausmus and past Johnson at 10:51 to tie the game at 2.
The Fighting Hawks, who were playing Denver for the sixth time this season, took a 2-0 lead into the third period after a scoreless first period.
Caggiula, an undrafted senior from Whitby, Ontario, scored the first two goals of the game. Caggiula went in on a mini breakaway on a transition play off a nice pass from Boeser at 1:03 of the second period for a 1-0 lead.
“I got a great pass from (Sanderson) and I carried it into the zone and I knew right away that Drake was wide open in the middle,” Boeser said. “I’ve had that play a few times this year and I just tried to focus on getting it to Drake there.”
Then Caggiula stole the puck from a Denver player on the boards and went in and scored a goal at 6:15 of the second period for a 2-0 lead.
Denver was 0-for-4 with five shots on the power play and killed its lone short-handed situation of the game.
The Pioneers were 0-for-23 in six games on the power play against Denver this season.
“That was our worst power play tonight,” Butcher said of his team with the extra man. “They did a good job of clogging the middle. And it’s hard to get shots through them.
“But I thought our power play did a great job the beginning of the game, building the momentum for us creating opportunities. We just weren’t getting the bounces.”
