Interesting perspective about UND's style of play from a eastern hockey fan. I am not so sure that I would call UND style of play, “a bullying style,” but ok... I did see both teams taking liberties last night and a one sided officiating job by the Hockey East officials. Like I said earlier I don't blame the officials for the loss but they didn't have a very good effort either.
Something's Bruin --- The crowd was not held in suspense long as the Black Bears struck early and never looked back. Joey Diamond executed a perfect behind the net pass to set up Robbie Dee for the first goal. This was followed up when a Black Bear power play was about to expire but not before Adam Shemansky fed Brian Flynn to make it 2-0. When asked about the importance of getting on the board first, Dee shared, “It definitely got the crowd into it. It was a great atmosphere. [North Dakota] has never been here before so it's probably a little intimidating.”
The Fighting Sioux appeared aptly named tonight as their style was extremely chippy with lots of activity after the whistle and trailing the play. North Dakota starting defenseman Andrew MacWilliam was given a game misconduct after head hunting Flynn who was down on the ice for an extended period. After the game when asked what he thought of the hit Brian said “ I don't remember what happened. I'm not sure if it was dirty.” Undeterred the Fighting Sioux kept up a bullying style but it was no match for Maine's superior skating, passing, forechecking, and netminding.
While Shawn Sirman's performance likely cemented him as the top goalie for Umaine, North Dakota was forced to pull their starter in goal Brad Eidness in favor of Aaron Dell. Unfortunately for the Sioux, Dell fared no better. There was a brief period of suspense as a sloppy Maine turnover on the power play led to a break away, short handed goal by North Dakota Freshman Derek Rodwell but it didn't last long.
On an ensuing Black Bear power play Will O'Neill took a pass at the point, faked a slap shot and then snapped a wrister into the back of the net to make it 4-1 Black Bears. Next, Gustav Nyquist potted his first goal of the year on a hustle play losing a race to a loose puck in the ND defensive zone. Nyquist stuck with it, forced a turnover and easily beat Sioux Goalie Aaron Dell who had come out of net just short of the blue line moments before. Asked to reflect on his first goal of the year Nyquist commented “ It felt great, the team played great. We really wanted to make a statement.”
On MacWilliam's penalty I don't know if it warranted a five minute major and a game misconduct, I would thought a 2 minute penalty would have been enough, but who knows, from the perspective of someone wearing Columbia Blue they are going to say it’s a penalty and from a fan wearing green we are going to see it a little differently. The Flynn was falling down and I suppose Mac could have pulled back. Hey Hockey East has played well against the WCHA as of late so they can beat their chest if they want but I predict that the worm is going to turn pretty soon.
