Red Baron WCHA Offensive Player of the Week Carter Rowney • Senior, Forward, University of North Dakota

MADISON, Wis. – Veteran University of North Dakota forward Carter Rowney, who contributed five scoring points and had a game-winning goal as his team took three of four points from league-leading and visiting Denver last weekend, is the Red Baron® WCHA Offensive Player of the Week for Dec. 11.

A 6-2 208-pound senior center from Sexsmith, Alberta, Rowney scored three goals and set up two others, had four shots on goal and earned a +3 plus/minus rating as North Dakota stretched its unbeaten streak to three and improved to 8-5-3 overall. He had career-high four points (2g, 2a) in last Saturday’s (Dec. 8) 6-3 victory over the Pioneers, including the game-winning goal and his first career shorthanded goal to earn Second Star of the Game honors. Three of his four points came in the second period, enabling UND to erase a 1-0 deficit, as he set up Derek Forbort’s go-ahead power-play goal early in the second period, then scored his two goals eight minutes apart to build a 4-1 lead. In the 2-2 (ot) tie in the series opener last Friday (Dec. 7), Rowney scored a goal to snap a seven-game drought, won 11 of 18 face-offs (61.1%), and was a +1. In 15 games this season, Rowney has 11 points (5g, 6a).

Also nominated: Rylan Schwartz, F, CC; Chris Knowlton, F, DU; Tom Serratore, F, UM; Eriah Hayes, F, MSU; Matt White, F, UNO.

UND skates past DU 6-3

Grand Forks, ND – Last night after the game freshman forward Rocco Grimaldi took the blame for not scoring the game winning goal when he missed a wide open net in the waning minutes of the third period.

While hockey is a team game, the talented forward Grimaldi has high expectations for himself as he stepped forward to shoulder the blame for the rest of teammates.

“For me I have to put that in that in the empty net,” Grimaldi said. “I don’t know how I missed the net – I hit the post whatever… so I have to bear down, so I basically lost the game. He [Juho Olkinuora] won it and I lost it for our team so.”

Tonight, it appeared that Grimaldi had an extra gear, but also a little extra pep in his step – as did the rest of his line mates. UND’s forward line of Grimaldi (1g-3a—4pts), Carter Rowney (2g-2a—4pts) and Drake Caggiula (0a-2g—2pts) slashed through the Denver defense like a hot knife through butter and burned the Pioneers back end for an eye popping 10 points.

After the game, a relieved Rocco Grimaldi had this to say 24 hours later after UND’s disappointing finish on Friday night.

“I was pretty upset with myself yesterday,” Grimaldi said.  “I thought if I would have put that in obviously we would have had the win. A couple of chances; I just didn’t bury it. Then first period I get a break away – I don’t know what I was thinking – it was a terrible move. I don’t know what I was thinking. It was a terrible move. Then I am thinking; you know what - I starting thinking about myself… ah it’s not going to happen. Whenever I rely on myself I can never get it done. I have to trust in the Lord to do that. I started leaning on him today and great things happen and it was a big win for our hockey club today and hopefully I am going to continue to do that.”

Carter Rowney who had been on a bit of a scoring slump as of late was also relieved about his performance to night. Seems as if scoring goals makes everything alright.

“The last couple of weekends I was having my chances but they were going into the back of the net,” Rowney said.  On Friday night I did get that one, it was a greasy one – but you know I will take it. I kind of felt like I got the monkey off of my back, then today they started rolling in bunches.”

UND is 2-2-3 when having the first goal scored against them. Make that 3-2-3 after tonight’s 6-3 win over the first place Denver Pioneers.

Tonight, Denver again scored the first goal of the game when DU forward Grant Arnold took a UND turnover in the defensive zone and blasted the puck past UND goalie Clarke Saunders to give the Pioneers an early 1-0 lead at the 01:25 mark of the first period.

UND didn’t let the early goal rattle them as the Green and White quickly rebounded and took the play to the Denver Pioneers. UND would finally even the score at the 17:10 mark of the first period with a goal from Rocco Grimaldi. Assisting on Grimaldi’s goal was Drake Caggiula and Carter Rowney.

In the second period, UND would race to a 4-1 lead with goals by Derek Forbort and Carter Rowney.

Then things changed quickly, UND forward Dan Senkbeil was assessed a five minute major for checking from behind and given a game misconduct.

Denver would score two quick goals on the power play by Ty Loney and Joey LaLeggia to bring the score to 4-3.

That was all of the scoring that DU would get the rest of the way.

After giving up two quick goals on the five minute major penalty – UND didn't panic – they recovered and in the third period would again gain the upper hand on the Denver Pioneers. UND would ice the game with two more goals by senior forwards Danny Kristo and Corban Knight.

After last night’s game, UND head coach Dave Hakstol seem less than pleased with the effort of his squad. Again what a difference 24 hours made. Even with giving up two goals on the five minute power play, the head coaches seemed pleased with his team’s effort tonight.

“Well we put ourselves in a good position in that point and time,” Hakstol said. We haven’t given up that much. We found a way to gain the momentum but we gave that back pretty quickly with an unfortunately play.”

While the UND versus Denver Pioneer series traditionally can be a blood bath, this weekend’s series was relatively tame.

Originally post at the Hockey Writers Combine. 

Related articles

• Drake Caggiula turning heads at North Dakota (thehockeywriters.com)
• UND and DU skate to a 2-2 tie. (thehockeywriters.com)

UND: The Weekend Ahead (12/7-12/8)

Seal of the University of North Dakota (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The University of North Dakota entertains the University of Denver Pioneers in an important two game WCHA series at Ralph Englestad Arena on December 7 and 8.

North Dakota (7-5-1, 4-2-2 WCHA) #9 USCHO and #9 USA Today Polls versus Denver #6 USCHO and #6 USA Today Polls (9-4-1, 7-2-1 WCHA)

Game times: 7:37 pm CT on Friday, 7:07 pm CT on Saturday.

Radio:  UND 96.1 (KQHT-FM) – The Fox.

Webcast and Audio:  UNDSPORTS.COM 

TV: Midco Sports Network, FOX College Sports Central, DirecTV 626

Series History: All-Time:  UND leads the series 135-116-8 (.537).  UND has a record of 80-42-5 (.650) against Denver in Grand Forks, ND. UND has a record of 50-67-3 (.429) in Denver, Colorado. UND record against DU at neutral sites, UND has a record of 5-7-0 (.417). Last 10 games against Denver, UND leads 6-4-0 (.600).

Players to Watch:

North Dakota: Forwards: Danny Kristo (5g-9a—14pts), Rocco Grimaldi (5g-3a—8pts), Mark MacMillan (6g-5a—11pts), Corbin Knight (3g-11a—14pts),  Drake Caggiula (5g-3a—8pts). Defense:  Dillon Simpson (2g-4a—6pts), Andrew MacWilliam (1g-3a—4pts), Derek Forbort (3g-5a—8pts). Goaltenders: Clarke Saunders 5-3-2, 2.38 GAA, .921 save percentage, Zane Gothberg 2-2-0, 2.97 GAA, .902 save percentage.

Denver Pioneers: Nick Shore (6g-12a—18pts), Chris Knowlton (8g-7a—15pts), Daniel Doremus (7g-3a—10pts), Shawn Ostrow (4g-6a—12pts).  Defense: Joey LaLeggia  (6g-8a—14pts), David Makowski (5g-5a—10pts), Goaltenders: Adam Murray  2-0-0, 2.00 GAA, .935 save percentage, Juho Olkinuora  3-1-1, 2.15 GAA, .934 save percentage, Sam Brittain 4-3-0, 2.45 GAA, .918 save percentage.

UND Official Web Page

Denver Pioneers Officials Web Page

Originally posted at The Hockey Writers Combine.  

Related articles

• UND: The Weekend Ahead (11/30-12/1) (thehockeywriters.com)

UND: The Weekend Ahead (11/23-11/24)

Seal of the University of North Dakota (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The University of North Dakota travels to South Bend, Indiana to play Notre Dame in a two game nonconference series at Compton Family Ice Arena on November 23 and 24.

North Dakota (5-3-1, 3-1-2 WCHA) #7 USCHO and #7 USA Today Polls versus Notre Dame #6 USCHO and #6 USA Today Poll (8-3-0, 5-1-0 WCHA).

Game times: 6:37 pm CT on Friday, 4:07 pm CT on Saturday.

Radio:  UND 96.1 (KQHT-FM) – The Fox.

Webcast and Audio:  UNDSPORTS.COM  and UND.COM

TV: None

Series History: All-Time:  The series is tied 16-16-3.  Against the Fighting Irish in Grand Forks, UND leads the series with a record of 10-7-1 (.583). Notre Dame holds a 6-9-1 record against UND (.406). At neutral sites UND has a 0-0-1 record against Notre Dame (.500). In the last 10 games against Notre Dame UND holds a 6-1-3 record (.750).

Players to Watch:

North Dakota: Forwards: Danny Kristo (4g-8a—12pts), Rocco Grimaldi (4g-3a—7pts), Connor Gaarder (3g-4a—7pts), Mark MacMillan (5g-4a—9pts), Corbin Knight (2g-6a—8pts), Carter Rowney (2g-2a—5pts). Defense: Jordan Schmaltz (1g1a—2pts) Dillon Simpson (1g-3a—4pts), Andrew MacWilliam (1g-2a—3pts), Derek Forbort (3g-3a—6pts). Goaltenders: Clarke Saunders 3-2-2, 2.24 GAA, .927 save percentage, Zane Gothberg 2-1-0, 2.63 GAA, .902 save percentage.

Notre Dame: Forwards: Anders Lee (5g-4a—9pts), Bryan Rust (3g-5a—8pts), Jeff Costello (3g-3a—6pts), T.J. Tynan (2g-3—5pts).  Defense: Robbie Russo (4g-3a—7pts), Steven Johns (0g-7a—7pts), Goaltenders: Steve Summerhays 7-3-0, 1.51 GAA, .939 save percentage.

UND Official Web Page

Notre Dame Official Web Page

Notre Dame Sports Blog 

Originally Posted at The Hockey Writers - Combine. 

11/10 Post Game Wrapup: SCSU 5, UND 2 (RW77)

This was night and day from yesterday.  The Huskies looked pretty good but fairly flat on Friday.  Tonight, they came out roaring in the first period and UND, honestly, was lucky to escape the first period knotted at one.

The big calls in the first period were the no-goal on Stephane Pattyn and the Checking from Behind on Schmaltz.  First, the no-goal.  I actually got the webcast tonight and I saw it.  What I saw was one of the most incredible saves I've ever seen.  No one could believe that Pattyn's open net shot didn't go in except Farragher and the goal judge.  They did a lengthy review and judged it no goal.  I saw the replays and the call was 100% correct.

13 seconds from the end of the period, UND Freshman Jordan Schmaltz checked Drew Leblanc from behind into the sideboards.  The hit was not very violent and Leblanc's head did not hit the boards very hard (it appeared to hit forearm first).  Nevertheless, the refs HAD to call it as checking from behind.  The ironic part is that Don Adam called the penalty that he played a key role in creating.

Second Period and Third Period

The second period saw one of the worst periods of UND hockey this season.  It started out well, with UND killing off the five minute major.  However, after that, Drew Leblanc scored two straight goals and UND started a parade to the box culminating with Coach Hakstol getting a 2 minute minor for misconduct for trying to talk to Don Adam after the period had ended.  This probably resulted from a rather dubious embellishment call on Danny Kristo after being tripped.

The Third period only differed from the second period by the fact that the scoreboard said the number "3" where the number "2" was in the second period.  SCSU was all over the ice with crisp passing and just unlucky bounces and some timely saves by Saunders preventing it becoming a laugher.  It was even close until 6 minutes into the third when Garrett Milan (SCSU) got a rather weak goal on Saunders.  We did try a little bit but no good came of it. With 2:30 left in the game, Saunders let a point shot get past him and that's all she wrote.

The Goaltending

Again, Roller Coaster... sortof.  If you are Ryan Farragher, then it was a roller coaster that never seemed to go down the slope.  It just climbed the hill and stayed at the top.  Saunders really had a bad night for the most part..  The first goal SCSU scored he didn't see.  The third goal was a tic tac toe Power Play goal.  The final goal was a point shot.  Can't blame him much for those.  However, the second and the fourth goals were WEAK.  On the second goal, the puck came right to him after making two great saves and he paddled the puck right to Leblanc's stick blade.  Goal.  The fourth went five hole and just seemed to slowly inch past the red line.

 I'm also not sure if Gothberg would have done any better.  I don't blame Hakstol for going with the hot hand, but just like Saturday vs. BU, UND lost this game because they didn't play solid fundamental hockey for 60 minutes.  The thing that made it worse than the BU loss is that UND never even had one solid period of good hockey tonight.  They played ok in the first and got worse and worse as the game progressed.

So I guess Saunders played pretty well, and even Saunders at his best wouldn't have prevented UND from losing, but a game going into the end of the 3rd period down 3-2 looks much differently than entering the final minute down 5-2. 

The officiating

Roller coaster city.  They actually were doing a pretty decent job until the second period when they started missing calls and making bad calls.  The first call I recall was when they missed a pretty overt slashing call that Corbin Knight committed on Ethan Prow.  They made up for it by calling a weak version of it on Mark MacMillan.  He stick checked an SCSU player and the player waited a full second before dropping the stick.  No matter.  The next thing you know, Danny Kristo gets tripped and gets called for embellishment when he did not act like he was shot.  He slid along the ice before getting up and finding out he's sitting two.  The third period starts and UND actually does legitimately slash an SCSU stick and no call.  What awful calling.

Why UND lost

Top 3 reasons:
1.  Sloppy passing.  UND cannot pass even to open guys.  SCSU can.  It was AMAZING to watch.  It got to the point where SCSU didn't even have to clog the lanes, UND did it for them!  I cannot remember worse passing.  They couldn't set anything up because UND kept missing the puck. 
2.  Races to the puck.  UND was out skated all night long.
3.  Corners.  SCSU won almost ALL the battles along the boards.

This was one of the worst played games UND has played this season.  I'm glad this seems anomalous because if it wasn't, UND is going to lose... A LOT.

The America One Webcast

This is the Webcast company SCSU went through for the game.  I'm not sure if it is NESN camera work or what but this webcast's quality was FAR FAR superior to that of the UND Webcast.  The oddity?  SCSU's commentators weren't as big of a homer than I thought they would.  The only negative is that they didn't do their legwork.  They never figured out how to pronounce our players' names (like Rowney's for example). 

My 3 stars:

Third Star:  Joe Rehkamp (SCSU) - He wasn't talked about much during the game on the SCSU broadcast but he is credited with 3 assists on the night.  Not too shabby.

Second Star:  Ryan Farragher (SCSU) - Hard not to give him the first star.  He probably is 1a in this list.  He made some great saves including the best save of the season off of Pattyn's shot in the first period, but despite it looking otherwise, he wasn't really overtaxed in net tonight.

First Star:  Drew Leblanc (SCSU) - 2 goals 1 assist.  He was all over the place tonight.

Honorable Mentions:  Derek Forbort and Drake Caggiula (both acquitted themselves pretty well tonight), Nick Oliver (SCSU), Cory Thorson (SCSU)

EDIT:  I should add:  I am not saying the world is coming to an end.  Nor am I saying Fire Hakstol or that this team isn't special.  I'm saying this was one of the hardest games to watch because of how poorly we played and how much better I know we are capable of playing.

11/10 Game Day SCSU vs. UND

UND has same lines as last night.

For SCSU, Daly is out and Johnson is in.

UND’s lines

7 Danny Kristo–10 Corban Knight–27 Carter Rowney
21 Brendan O’Donnell–16 Mark MacMillan–13 Connor Gaarder
9 Drake Caggiula–19 Rocco Grimaldi–29 Bryn Chyzyk
28 Stephane Pattyn–17 Colten St. Clair–11 Derek Rodwell

2 Andrew MacWilliam–5 Nick Mattson
4 Derek Forbort–24 Jordan Schmaltz
18 Dillon Simpson–20 Joe Gleason

33 Clarke Saunders
31 Zane Gothberg

SCSU’s lines

11 Kalle Kossila–19 Drew LeBlanc–22 Jonny Brodzinski
16 Jimmy Murray–26 Nic Dowd–13 David Morley
27 Nick Oliver–8 Cory Thorson–21 Brooks Bertsch
18 Garrett Milan–37 Joe Rehkamp–17 Joey Holka

28 Andrew Prochno–14 Nick Jensen
7 Kevin Gravel–12 Ethan Prow
2 Jarrod Rabey–4 Taylor Johnson

29 Ryan Faragher
33 Joseph Phillippi
35 Rasmus Reijola

Saunders Sinks Huskies 3 - 0 (RW77)

I have said it before and I'm saying it again:  I love what our goaltenders are doing this season thus far.  Tonight, Saunders nails shut an amazing performance shutting out the Huskies while posting 32 saves.  Many of the saves were outstanding scoring opportunities by the Huskies.

The Huskies

The Huskies were without Hanowski so they weren't at full strength, but nevertheless I thought their main downfall was inconsistent play and special teams.  It seemed like SCSU had the edge on Special Teams time tonight but they couldn't make it count.  Ryan Farragher again played a solid game against UND but the Huskies just couldn't get it going.  I also think that Nick Jensen had a pretty solid game despite muffing the puck that set up the final goal of the game. 

The Scoring

Brendan O'Donnell started the scoring just 48 seconds into the game by deflecting a centering pass by Connor Gaarder.

Carter Rowney was next to hit the back of the net, but it wouldn't come until 43 seconds into the second period.  Rowney was left open and Knight won a battle along the boards, centered to Rowney, who buried it.

The final goal occurred in the third period and it was UND's first shorthanded goal of the season at 17:33 mark.  It was made by Mark MacMillan and it appeared it was a breakaway.  Not all that surprising because at that point SCSU was trying to do anything to get something going and got burnt.

Players of the Game:

Third Star:  Derek Forbort - Ok, I could've given it to Rowney, Gaarder, O'Donnell, Mattson, Grimaldi, the entire fourth line, Knight.....I had to go with Forbort because he was ALWAYS around the puck when SCSU was pushing (and he was on the ice).  He always got timely clears on the PK. 

Second Star:  Mark MacMillan - 1 goal, 1 assist.  Helped on the first goal of the game and potted the last goal of the game.  Really good game.

First Star:  Clarke Saunders - DUH.  Shutout.  32 saves.  ULTRA Solid in net.  Do I need to go on?

The Key:

I think the key to this game wasn't really one person on offense.  Overall, I think the entire team played well.  Any opportunities SCSU got was handled by Saunders, Forbort, or Grimaldi (with a nice diving block).  I think the bonus was the shutout, but I think that if UND plays like this every night then us fans can expect great things every night because we won't be losing very often.

UND and UAA battle to a tie.

Grand Forks, ND – Last night, UND head coach Dave Hakstol had this to say about the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves.

“This was a team we expected to face,” Hakstol said. Highly competitive – good players – guys that battle hard together.”

That’s exactly the team that the University of North Dakota Hockey team faced tonight in the second game of their WCHA series.

The Seawolves came out at the start of the game and were a miserable team to play against as they got into the shooting lanes and forechecked UND hard. UND had a Seawolves forechecker on them all night long.

Sweeps in the WCHA are hard to get and it didn’t matter that UND had beaten UAA by a grand total of 9-1 in two previous games.

UAA proved to be a very difficult team to play against and they gave UND fits, UND also appeared to come out a bit flat to start the game. UND head coach Dave Hakstol agreed.

“I thought it took us 20 to 30 minutes to work our way in,” Hakstol said. “It wasn’t pretty – we  we did work our way in – the were tenacious I thought, throughout the 60 minutes and we gave the lead away in the third period – which put us in a pretty tough spot and we found a way to come back and salvage a point.   That’s a positive.”

The Seawolves took an early lead in the first period as a result of their hard work as sophomore  forward Scott Allen gave his team the lead as he scored his fourth goal of the season at the 04:05 mark of the first period, assisting on Allen’s goal were Seawolves Austin Sevalrud and Alex Gellert.

Ironically, that was the first goal that UND had given up in the first period this season, albeit it’s only three games into the season. It also didn’t hurt that UND came into the game as the second rated defensive unit in the country.

UND would get on the board and even the score at 1-1 with goal from Corban Knight at the 13:39 mark of the first period.

UND would get the go ahead goal at the 12:55 mark of the third period and it appeared that UND was taking control of the game.

Not so fast, UAA scored on a shorthanded goal by senior Tyler Currier at the 10:25 mark of the third period, UND freshman Jordan Schmaltz lost control of the puck at the  blue line. Currier pounced on the puck - raced in on the UND net and shot the it through the five hole of UND junior goalie Clarke Saunders for the game tying goal, that was the fourth goal of Currier’s career.

UAA would take the lead as they cashed in again at the 10:25 mark of the third period, with a goal from senior forward Jordan Kwas.  UND would answer tie the game at the 18:25 mark of the third period and after a lengthy review, Derek Forbort was given credit for the goal.

After the game Forbort wasn’t even sure that he should have been credited with the game tying goal.
“Got a rolling puck and just threw it to the net,” Forbort said.   “I think it went off Corbin Knight, I don’t even think that I scored.”

The two teams would go to over time and trade opportunities – but would settle nothing.

Midway through the overtime period, UND freshman forward Rocco Grimaldi brought everyone in the building with a great opportunity but was denied by UAA junior goalie Rob Gunderson.

After the game, Grimaldi described his glorious opportunity after the game.

“I thought I had him beat there,” Grimaldi said.  “So I just tried to turn the jets on and beat him wide, and drive it into the net, whether it’s through the goalie or whatever, probably had a little more time than I thought, I could have pulled it a little wider and maybe tried to get it up but I just tried to jam it and he was there, he [Gunderson ] played really well tonight I got to give their goalie credit.”

After the game UAA head coach Dave Shyiak was pleased with his team’s effort tonight.

“I think that was probably our best 60 minutes of the year,” Shyiak said. “ It was a hard earned tied It was a great hockey game. What we learned as a hockey team tonight is how we have to play. I thought we pressured the puck well, I thought we executed our game plan, we got good goaltending and we got contributions from everyone tonight.”

If UAA keeps playing like they did tonight, they’re going to give a lot of teams fits.

UND vs. UAA Lines (10/27/2012)

UND’s Forward lines

21 Brendan O’Donnell – 10 Corban Knight (A) – 7 Danny Kristo (A)

16 Mark MacMillan – 27 Carter Rowney (A) – 13 Connor Gaarder

9 Drake Caggiula – 19 Rocco Grimaldi – 17 Colten St. Clair

28 Steph Pattyn – 29 Bryn Chyzyk – 11 Derek Rodwell

UND Defense Parings

4 Derek Forbort – 24 Jordan Schmaltz

2 Andrew MacWilliam (C) – 5 Nick Mattson

18 Dillon Simpson–20 Joe Gleason

UND Goalies

33 Clarke Saunders

31 Zane Gothberg

Not in lineup: Michael Parks – 15 (injury), Daniel Senkbeil – 8, Coltyn Sanderson – 26, Andrew Panzarella – 22.

University of Anchorage’s Seawolves Forward Lines

29 Scott Allen – 9 Blake Tatchell – 12 Alex Gellert

23 Kory Roy – 21 Matt Bailey(A) – 17 Jordan Kwas

19 Bobby Murphy – 40 Daniel Naslund – 10 Brett Cameron

20 Hayden Trupp – 26 Tyler Currier – 18 Chris Crowell(C)

UAA Seawolves Defense Pairings

3 Derek Docken – 7 Austin Coldwell

8 Scott Warner – 22 Blake Leask

5 Austin Sevalrud – 37 Chris Williams

UAA Seawolves Goalies

33 Rob Gunderson

35 Chris Kamal

Referees: Butch Mousseaux, Craig Welker
Linesmen: Andy Carton, Nathan Freeman

Related articles

• UND slips past UAA 4-1. (thehockeywriters.com)
• Game Notes for UND versus UAA 10/26-10/27 (thehockeywriters.com)
• Notes from the Wednesday's UND Men's Hockey press conference (thehockeywriters.com)

Game Notes for UND versus UAA 10/26-10/27

Seal of the University of North Dakota (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The University of North Dakota begins WCHA play this weekend when they take on the University of Alaska Anchorage in a two game series at Ralph Englestad Arena on October 26 and 27.

Friday, #4 USCHO and USA Today poll – North Dakota (1-1-0, 0-0-0 WCHA) versus Alaska Anchorage (2-1-1, 0-0-0 WCHA)

Game times: 7:37 pm CT on Friday, 7:07 pm CT on Saturday.

Radio:  UND 96.1 (KQHT-FM) – The Fox.

Webcast and Audio:  UNDSPORTS.COM

Television: Midco Sports Net, FCS Central both nights.

Series History: UND leads the All-Time series against UAA: 45-17-4. UND has had success against UAA as of late as UND has won five in a row against UAA and has a record of 11-2-1 the last 14 games. UND beat UAA 5-0 last Friday in the first game of the Brice Goal Rush Tourney.

Players to Watch:

North Dakota: Forwards: Connor Gaarder (0g-2a—2pts), Corbin Knight (0-g0—0pts), Carter Rowney (0g-0a—0pts), Roco Grimaldi (1g-1a—2pts), Mark MacMillan (2g-0a—2pts). Defense: Jordan Schmaltz (1g1a—2pts) Dillon Simpson (0g-1a—1pts), Andrew MacWilliam (0g-1a—1pts), Derek Forbort (0g-0a—0pts). Goaltender: Clarke Saunders 1-1, 1.01 GAA, .962 save Percentage.  

Alaska Anchorage: Forwards: Matt Bailey (1g-3a—4pts), Scott Allen (3g-1—4pts), Alex Gellert (2g-1a—3pts) Defense: Blake Leaske (0g-1a—1pts), Quinn Sproule (1g0a—1pts), Derek Docken (1g0a—1pts). Goaltenders: Chris Kamal 1-1-0, 2.40 GAA, .907 save percentage, Rob Gunderson 1-0-1, 2.90 GAA .877 save percentage.

UND third in CHN's Preseason Top 10

Joesph Edwards of the the College Hockey News has post his national top ten and this is how it shakes out.

1. MINNESOTA (28-14-1, 20-8-0 WCHA)
2. BOSTON COLLEGE (33-10-1, 19-7-1 HOCKEY EAST)
3. NORTH DAKOTA (26-13-3, 16-11-1 WCHA)
4. UNION (26-8-7, 14-4-4 ECAC)
5. MICHIGAN (24-13-4, 15-9-4-1 CCHA)
6. DENVER (25-14-4, 16-8-4 WCHA)
7. MASSACHUSETTS-LOWELL (24-13-1, 19-9-1 HOCKEY EAST)
8. CORNELL (19-9-7, 12-4-6 ECAC)
9. WESTERN MICHIGAN (21-14-6, 14-10-4-4 CCHA)
10. NOTRE DAME (19-18-3, 12-13-3 CCHA)

Here is what CHN had to say about UND.

Dave Hakstol got the most out of an injury-depleted, undermanned roster last season, taking them all the way to the West Regional Final. North Dakota faces some early-season self-imposed adversity this time around with the suspension of numerous players, but are otherwise healthy, and should be ready to go as soon as that gets sorted out. North Dakota has replaced goalies Brad Eidness and Aaron Dell with highly-touted freshman Zane Gothberg and Huntsville transfer Clarke Saunders, who should perform admirably behind possibly the strongest defensive unit in all of college hockey, Seniors Andrew MacWilliam and Joe Gleason will be the anchors, along with juniors Derek Forbort and Dillon Simpson. Up front, the senior duo of Corban Knight and Danny Kristo are well-known scorers, while classmate Carter Rowney is looking forward to building on his breakout junior season. Losing Brock Nelson leaves a big hole, but getting Rocco Grimaldi back after losing most of his first season to injury (he got a medical redshirt and retains four years of eligibility) will help fill the game.

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UND Hockey Twitter 2012-13

Someone asked me if I would compile a list of UND Hockey Players that Twitter there are three that I can’t find. Some are more active than others.

Andrew MacWilliam  – No Twitter Account

Derek Forbort –  http://twitter.com/derek4bort

Nick Mattson – No Twitter Account

Danny Kristo –  http://es.twitter.com/dkristo7

Dan Senkbeil – http://twitter.com/D_Senkbeil

Drake Caggiula – http://twitter.com/drakecaggiula

Corban Knight – http://twitter.com/CorbanKnight

Derek Rodwell – http://twitter.com/drodwell11

Connor Gaarder – http://twitter.com/Gordini27

Michael Parks –  http://twitter.com/mike_parks92

Mark MacMillan – http://twitter.com/EasyMac_16

Colten St. Clair – http://twitter.com/cstclair17

Dillon Simpson –  http://twitter.com/Simmer18

Rocco Grimaldi – http://twitter.com/RGrimaldi23

Joe Gleason – http://twitter.com/GleasonJ020

Brendan O'Donnell – http://twitter.com/bodonnell21

Andrew Panzarella – No Twitter Account

Jordan Schmaltz – http://twitter.com/JPSdouble07

Mitch MacMillan – http://twitter.com/MitchMac25

Coltyn Sanderson – http://twitter.com/ColtynSanderson

Carter Rowney – http://twitter.com/carterrowney

Stephane Pattyn – http://twitter.com/GeneralPattyn28

Bryn Chyzyk – http://twitter.com/chyz21

Zane Gothberg – http://twitter.com/ZanoInsano_29

Clarke Saunders – http://twitter.com/clarkesaunders

Tate Maris – http://twitter.com/TAT3MARI5

  

Double J of WTBX is our dirt bag of the week...

[click to listen]

First off where do we start? This guy is a buffoon. Seriously!!! I have been to Hibbing Minnesota, the place is a run down industrial town that is famous for  what, open pit mines and Iron Orr... I would take Grand Forks, ND over that dump any day.

Also, the Fighting Sioux have 7 NCAA titles and 15 Regulars Season Championships. For the people like me that aren't good at math; the University of North Dakota has more NCAA titles than all of the Division I schools in the state of Minnesota combined.

"Why am I being so hard on the UND fans? Simple, YOU ARE THE WORST! You are the Packer fans of college hockey! Keep your mulleted, dead gopher tossing 5xl jersey wearing selves out of our state. Quit trying to pretend you have any sort of pride in your hockey program! What you think North Dakota is any sort of hockey hotbed? Really, get a lot of recruits out of NoDak do ya? You do realize that your roster, year after year is comprised mainly of Minnesotans...Minnesotans who weren't good enough, smart enough or for legal reason able to play for one of our state schools! Yeah they are still hockey players, just too bad they have to wear the green and black!"

The most moronic comment of this guys rant is the comment about our Minnesota Players... So I guess that Danny Kristo, Nick Mattson, Derek Forbort Ben Blood, Joe Gleason and  Brock Nelson aren't good enough to play at the University of Minnesota or the other states schools. Yeah, Right. To take a quote from Forrest Gump, "stupid is that stupid does." 

You can share your thoughts here by clicking on this link.

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