UND lands three-of-four players on the NCHC Players of the Week.

Pretty good week for UND as they land three-of-four players on the NCHC Players of the Week.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) announced its Bauer NCHC Players of the Week for the week of Dec. 1-7 on Monday with North Dakota capturing three of the four awards. The winners for week nine of the season are Miami senior forward Cody Murphy for Offensive Player of the Week, North Dakota junior defenseman Jordan Schmaltz for Defenseman of the Week, UND freshman defenseman Tucker Poolman for Rookie of the Week and North Dakota junior netminder Zane McIntyre for Goaltender of the Week, his second straight week claiming the award.

DEFENSEMAN OF THE WEEK
Jordan Schmaltz, North Dakota
Junior Defenseman
Verona, Wis.

Schmaltz was productive at both ends of the ice in UND’s sweep of Lake Superior State, totaling five points in the series while contributing on both special teams. He notched multiple points in both games, including four on the power play, scoring a goal and chipping in four assists on the weekend. In Friday’s 7-4 comeback win, the Blues prospect handed out a trio of assists, including two on the man advantage, to tie a career high for both points and assists. The next night, Schmaltz tallied a goal and an assist, both on the power play, in a 3-1 victory as his helper set up the game’s first goal while his score late in the third period sealed the win. He blocked a shot in each game, while helping UND go a perfect 9-for-9 on the penalty kill, including 7-for-7 Saturday, and 5-for-9 on the power play in the series.

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
Tucker Poolman, North Dakota
Freshman Defenseman
East Grand Forks, Minn.

Poolman showed off his versatility in North Dakota’s sweep of Lake Superior State, playing forward one night and defenseman the next, while racking up three points in the series. In Friday’s 7-4 comeback win, he moved to forward after UND lost two forwards to injury in the first period and scored a pair of power play goals in a span of a little more than six minutes in the second period, the latter of which tied the game at 4-4. He was named first star of the game for his efforts. The next night, the Winnipeg draft pick moved back to his natural defenseman position and dished out an assist on a power play goal in the third period that sealed the 3-1 win. Poolman was tabbed third star of the game Saturday. He finished the weekend with eight shots on goal, including seven Friday, and two blocked shots. He also was big on special teams, helping UND go 9-for-9 on the penalty kill in the series and 5-for-9 on the power play with all three of his points coming on the man advantage.

GOALTENDER OF THE WEEK
Zane McIntyre, North Dakota
Junior Goaltender
Thief River Falls, Minn.

For the second straight week McIntyre claimed NCHC Goaltender of the Week after compiling a .933 save percentage and a 1.21 goals-against average in two games and 99 minutes of action. He went 2-0-0 in net in a sweep of Lake Superior State, entering in relief on Friday, as he came in early in the second period with UND down 3-0 and stopped 12 of the 13 shots he faced to allow North Dakota to rally for the 7-4 win. The Bruins prospect was named the game’s third star Friday. The next night, he surrendered just one goal late in the contest while making 16 saves in his only start of the series – a 3-1 UND victory. McIntyre helped kill all nine LSSU power plays on the weekend, including seven on Saturday, and stopped 28 of 30 shots against in the series to pick up his NCAA-leading 12th win of the season.

Here is the link to the full article.

UND No. 1 In Both Polls

USCHO Poll
December 08, 2014.

1. North Dakota (38) 12-3-2
2. Boston University (1) 10-3-2
3. Minnesota State (1) 12-4-0
4. Michigan Tech (1) 12-2-0
5. Harvard (6) 9-1-2
6. Miami 11-5-0
7. Minnesota 9-4-1
8. Massachusetts-Lowell 10-3-3
9. Minnesota Duluth (3) 11-5-0
10. Vermont 11-3-1
11. Denver 9-4-0
12. Omaha 8-4-2
13. Bowling Green 11-3-2
14. Colgate 9-5-1
15. Quinnipiac 10-5-1
16. Boston College 8-7-1
17. Robert Morris 10-1-3
18. Providence 8-6-1
19. Merrimack 10-5-2
20. Union 9-6-1

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll

1. North Dakota (29) 12-3-2
2. Boston University (1) 10-3-1
3. Minnesota State 12-4-0
4. Michigan Tech 12-2-0
5. Harvard (4) 9-1-2
6. Minnesota 9-4-1
7. Miami 11-5-0
8. Massachusetts-Lowell 10-3-3
9. Minnesota Duluth 11-5-0
10. Vermont 11-3-1
11. Denver 9-4-0
12. Omaha 8-4-2
13. Colgate 9-5-1
14. Bowling Green 11-3-2
15. Quinnipiac 10-5-1

Traditional Circle of Sticks

Traditional circlenof sticks....

A photo posted by Eric J. Burton (@eric.burton.94801) on Dec 12, 2014 at 7:32pm PST

Okay, so I blew it.

UND Number One in USCHO Poll

December 01, 2014

	Team	(First Place Votes)	Record	Points	Last Poll
1	North Dakota	(29)	10- 3-2	957	2
2	Minnesota State	( 5)	11- 3-0	830	7
3	Boston University	( 4)	9- 3-1	826	1
4	Miami		10- 4-0	789	5
5	Michigan Tech		12- 2-0	781	6
6	Minnesota	( 2)	8- 4-0	758	3
7	Massachusetts-Lowell	( 1)	8- 3-3	667	4
8	Minnesota-Duluth	( 3)	9- 5-0	652	8
9	Harvard	( 6)	7- 1-2	587	18
10	Denver		8- 3-0	564	10
11	Vermont		11- 3-1	562	13
12	Nebraska-Omaha		7- 3-2	456	11
13	Colgate		9- 5-1	397	9
14	Bowling Green		10- 3-1	366	15
15	Quinnipiac		9- 4-1	286	14
16	Providence		7- 5-1	221	20
17	Boston College		7- 7-0	159	12
18	Merrimack		10- 4-1	128	NR
19	Northern Michigan		8- 3-1	109	19
20	Robert Morris		8- 1-3	107	NR
Others receiving votes: St. Cloud State 104, Union 67, Yale 61, St. Lawrence 39, Michigan 9, Ferris State 7, Dartmouth 5, Penn State 4, Alaska 2.

 

UND vs. UNO - Game One Lines

North Dakota Forward Lines

9 Drake Caggiula–16 Mark MacMillan (A)–15 Michael Parks (A)
17 Colten St. Clair–27 Luke Johnson–8 Nick Schmaltz
28 Stephane Pattyn (C)–13 Connor Gaarder (A)–3 Tucker Poolman
11 Trevor Olson–10 Johnny Simonson–14 Austin Poganski

 North Dakota Defense Pairings

20 Gage Ausmus–2 Troy Stecher
4 Keaton Thompson–24 Jordan Schmaltz
5 Nick Mattson–6 Paul LaDue

North Dakota Goalies  

31 Zane McIntyre
33 Cam Johnson

Omaha-Nebraska Forward Lines

20 Jake Guentzel–14 Dominic Zombo–16 Austin Ortega
13 Jake Randolph–10 Tyler Vesel–25 Justin Parizek
12 David Pope–Avery Peterson–18 Jono Davis
17 Luke Nogard–19 Tanner Lane–9 James Polk

Nebraska-Omaha Defense Pairings

2 Brian Cooper–5 Joel Messner

4 Luc Snuggerud–28 Brian O’Rourke
24 Ian Brady–23 Grant Gallo

Nebraska-Omaha Goalies

31 Ryan Massa

29 Kirk Thompson

Related articles

• North Dakota vs. Nebraska-Omaha, Series Preview(thehockeywriters.com)

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Hakstol Has His Game Face on Already

Did Austin Ortega Give UND Some Bulletin Board Material?

Reading Matthew Semisch's Column this week, it would appear that Austin Ortega offered UND Some bulletin board material. Just for the record, UND went 2-2-0 against the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks and has a 5-3-0 record over the last eight games against the Mavericks.

Ortega, Mavericks send a message to North Dakota

Speaking of UNO, it appears the Mavericks were trying to make a statement on Saturday during their 4-1 win over Minnesota-Duluth.

They had a point to prove to themselves, too, though. On Friday, UNO found itself up 2-0 in the second period of the Mavericks’ first home game in a month and a half, but the Bulldogs rattled off three unanswered tallies in the third period to nab a 3-2 win.

UMD gained the upper hand early in the rematch when a shot from Kyle Osterberg found the back of the net 4:40 into the game. After that, however, UNO took over and even picked up its game-winning goal through Austin Ortega – his first of two tallies on Saturday – before the opening frame was over.

The Mavericks (7-2-1, 3-1-0) are heading up I-29 later this week to meet up with second-ranked North Dakota. The two-game set in Grand Forks could end up being a defensive struggle between the top and third-best defenses in the NCHC.

Speaking after Saturday’s win over Duluth, though, Ortega took what he felt was an opportunity to send a shot across the bow.

“Tonight we were able to get up on the board; we really showed we’re a scoring team,” Ortega said. “Kind of sending a message to North Dakota that we can score on any goalie out there.”

UND Second in USCHO Poll

November 24, 2014

	Team	(First Place Votes)	Record	Points	Last Poll
1	Boston University	(42)	8- 1-1	988	3
2	North Dakota	( 3)	9- 3-1	889	2
3	Minnesota	( 1)	7- 3-0	825	4
4	Massachusetts-Lowell		8- 2-3	806	5
5	Miami		10- 4-0	764	7
6	Michigan Tech		10- 2-0	748	1
7	Minnesota State	( 3)	9- 3-0	746	9
8	Minnesota-Duluth	( 1)	9- 5-0	615	8
9	Colgate		9- 4-1	575	6
10	Denver		8- 3-0	572	10
11	Nebraska-Omaha		7- 2-1	435	13
12	Boston College		7- 5-0	425	12
13	Vermont		8- 3-1	423	11
14	Quinnipiac		8- 3-1	319	14
15	Bowling Green		10- 3-1	292	18
16	St. Cloud State		5- 6-1	249	16
17	Union		6- 5-1	214	15
18	Harvard		5- 1-2	147	NR
19	Northern Michigan		7- 2-1	141	17
20	Providence		5- 5-1	115	19
Others receiving votes: Robert Morris 96, St. Lawrence 48, Merrimack 30, Yale 17, Penn State 15, Ferris State 4, Notre Dame 2.