WHKY: North Dakota splits with the Buckeyes

Grand Forks, N.D. -- North Dakota wanted to sweep Ohio State this weekend, however, it skated away with a split Sunday afternoon.

Saturday afternoon UND threw everything and the kitchen sink at OSU's goaltender, Alex Lamere in the first period. By the end of the first, UND had 20 shots on goal, but only one goal to show for it.

The lone first-period goal came at the 12:04 mark from Jordan Hampton with an assist from Samantha Hanson. It was Hampton's first career goal for North Dakota.  There were several opportunities for UND to capitalize during the first, but they were unable to complete.

In the second, OSU picked up the pace and wouldn't trail again after potting their first goal which came after a couple of shifts that had North Dakota on its heels.

Early in the third UND's Amy Menke helped take a 2-1 advantage. Menke tallied three goals on on the weekend. A little over a minute later Kendall Curtis scored for the Buckeyes. Followed by another OSU goal from Maddy Field.

That was enough to seal the game for Ohio State after their 2-7-0 record heading into the Ralph on the weekend.

Sunday afternoon shifted North Dakota where they were able to capitalize on their opportunities in the first scoring twice with goals from Kryzaniak and Menke.

Freshman forward, Vilma Tanskanen scored her second goal of the season at the 6:45 mark of the second period.

The Buckeye's Maddy Field was able to break through in the third period for OSU's singular goal of the game, but it was not enough to overcome the deficit. Before the game ended, Menke potted her second goal.

Over the weekend, Menke had three goals and registered eight shots on goal. North Dakota skated away with a spilt.

This Friday (7:07 p.m.) evening and Saturday afternoon (4:07 p.m.) UND will face WCHA conference opponent, Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs. The Bulldogs are 2-6 in conference. 

WHKY: North Dakota splits with top-ranked Minnesota

Grand Forks, N.D. - Thursday evening's match up against the top-ranked Minnesota Gophers did not produce the kind of results that the University of North Dakota women's hockey hoped for. North Dakota suffered a 5-1 loss to the reigning national champions. UND was never able to surmount the three-goal first period deficit.

Friday was another story when North Dakota  snapped the Gopher's 12-game winning streak that dated back to the Western Collegiate Hockey Conference's Final Face-Off tournament.

"There are so many times they've smacked us around and we've been able to respond the next day, play well and shake it off," head coach Brian Idalski said.

North Dakota was able to hold the Gopher's off for a 4-3 win in front of a crowd of 3,361 at Ralph Engelstad Arena. The team performed 55 minutes of the game without Tanja Eisenschmid who received a five-minute major and game misconduct early in the first period. UND was able to weather the storm holding the Gophers to only two shots on goal during the advantage.

Minnesota's Captain Hannah Brandt opened up the scoring shortly after North Dakota killed a penalty with 3:20 remaining in the first period.

North Dakota's Amy Menke hit back a little over a minute into the second period on a gritty play with traffic around the Gopher net. After that, UND didn't trail again.

Idalski's adjustment for game two was to put Menke and senior, forward Meghan Dufault on the same line. That change paid off.

“He told us if he’s putting us together, we have to produce multiple points,” Menke said. Before the end of the night, Menke and Dufault each tallied two goals a piece. 

Dufault's goals coming only nine seconds apart with about six minutes remaining in the second.

During the third period, Menke tacked on her second goal of the evening. North Dakota held a two-goal lead with less than four minutes remaining in the frame. When trailing, the Gophers, have almost always found a way to turn the game around in their favor.

North Dakota was able to hold the one-goal lead and as the seconds ticketed down, the Kelly green and white fanbase counted down with it.

UND will have a bye week before hosting Ohio State Nov. 14-15.  OSU is 4-4-0 and will face Bemidji State this weekend.

Note: North Dakota was without Halli Krzyzaniak due to her participation in the Four Nations Cup.

You can watch the recap video from Friday's game at UNDSports.com - including Dufault's back-to-back goals.

UND Sports game-day story
Grand Forks Herald - UND beats No. 1-ranked Minnesota 
Box score

UND Women's Hockey Season Review

In a season of struggles during the first half of the season (9-9-2), the North Dakota Women's Hockey team managed to earn yet another 20 victory season, but once again are on the outside looking in when it comes to the NCAA tournament due to the automatic bid by CHA champion RIT.

Looking at the PairWise rankings, it made me think. Is it time to expand the NCAA tournament to 10 teams with two play in games between seeds 7-10? There are certainly questions that could be raised about this. Mercyhurst and Minnesota-Duluth were the two other 20 win teams that were on the outside looking in on selection Sunday and with the auto bid by RIT being a factor, let those four teams battle it out for seeds 7 and 8 and keep the rest of the tournament with the same structure it has now. Just a thought.

The story of the second half for UND had to be the play of Junior Goalie Shelby Amsley-Benzie, who set countless records for UND this season. She set the career victory record, eclipsing the 50 win mark with the two victories against Ohio State two weeks ago. She also holds the career shutout record at 14, single season shutout record at 9, but came just shy of the single season wins record, which she holds, with 18 victories on the season. Amsley-Benzie also would set the school shutout streak record at 297 minutes and 13 seconds.

This was also a season where the ladies in kelly green and white would play with heavy hearts. Early in the season, Sophomore Forward Lisa Marvin was struck by a wreckless driver while filling up her truck with gas on the side of the road after she had ran out. The injuries she would sustain forced her to have a few surgeries to help repair the damage, and would end her season, if not her hockey career. Since that moment, the team would pull the laces tighter and play for Lisa, which was a big motivating factor for their amazing second half run, that included 8 shutouts, one of which was against the Gophers.

Although the season didn't end the way they wanted to, there is still many positives to take from what looked like was going to be a very long season for UND.

TEAM AWARDS:

Most Valuable Player: Shelby Amsley-Benzie
Amsley-Benzie set numerous team records this season, and her 8 shutouts since the turn of the calendar to 2015 are nothing to laugh at. She ended the season with a 1.21 goals against average and a .952 save percentage. She was also a top 10 finalist for the Patty Kaz Memorial Award, women's hockey's version of the Hobey Baker, and the only goalie to make the list this season. She would also record an assist during a game this year too making just Goalie Lexie Shaw the only player who dressed and played to not record a point.

Rookie of the Year:
No freshman would dress in the line-up this season so this award will not be given.

Offensive Player of the Year: Josefine Jakobsen

Jakobsen led the team in goals this season at 16, one more then Sophomore Amy Menke, and was the driving force down the stretch for this team's offense. Some may ask why team point leader Meghan Dufault, Becca Kohler, or game winning goals leader Amy Menke isn't the winner of this award, but Jakobsen's niche to find the net helped UND finish off many games this season.

Defensive Player of the Year: Shelby Amsley-Benzie
Keeping pucks out of the net is a big part of team defense and although the defensive core for this UND squad is one of the most talented in the country, it is hard to not give this to Amsley-Benzie, especially with her just under 300 minute shutout streak to end the season and her 9 shutouts this season.
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Most Improved: Amy Menke
The sophomore forward had a year she will probably remember for a very long time. She was third in team scoring with 28 points, and would lead the team with 5 game winning goals. She would set career highs in goals (15), assists (13) and points (28). With her willingness to go to the net, I can only see these numbers going up in the future.

WHKY: North Dakota outlasts Ohio State in triple overtime

Grand Forks, N.D. -- Fans who attended North Dakota's Saturday afternoon game against Ohio State got more than their money's worth in a triple overtime game that ended allowing North Dakota an advancement to the WCHA Final Face-Off.

Saturday's score was more indicative of the play between the two teams more so than North Dakota's 5-2 Friday win.

The goals that drove the teams into overtime play happened in second period. North Dakota's Samantha Hanson broke the scoreless stalemate around halfway through the second. The Buckeyes were able to rally the tying goal with 38 seconds remaining in the period

After OSU's tying goal at the end of the second period. It would take another 63 minutes for North Dakota to complete the sweep and punch their ticket to play, at least, one more game at home. "It was a super grind; start to finish," head coach Brian Idalski said.

The game ended 3:17 seconds into triple overtime when Becca Kohler made a transition play that sent Megan Dufault up ice. Dufault passed the puck cutting through two OSU defense to Amy Menke who put it top shelf on UND's 41st shot on goal.

North Dakota will take a couple days off before they start preparing for the WCHA Final Face-Off that is being hosted at The Ralph on Saturday and Sunday. "The one thing we knew for sure we didn't want was to do was watch other teams play in our rink," Amy Menke said.

Taking a page out of the UND men's hockey program's playbook, the women's team is 22-2-2 sine mid-January.

North Dakota plans to take the next couple days off before preparing for face-off against the Wisconsin Badgers at 5:00 on Saturday, March 7. Tickets are available for the WCHA Final Face-Off at The Ralph box office and online.