Logan Britt shows offensive side in UND sweep at Miami

Feb. 5—OXFORD, Ohio — During his first four years of college hockey, Logan Britt's season-high in goals was three.

He achieved that two years ago at Sacred Heart.

This weekend, the UND fifth-year senior scored that many goals in the span of 27 hours.

Britt scored twice in UND's 4-1 victory over Miami University on Saturday night, finishing off a three-goal weekend.

In the first period, he buried a feed from freshman defenseman Abram Wiebe to start the scoring. In the second, he finished off a feed from Owen McLaughlin to give UND a 3-1 lead.

"O-Mac and Wieber made some great plays to me and I just had to tap them in," Britt said. "Kudos to them. They're great players. I was just in the right spot at the right time."

Britt now has five goals and 10 points this season.

"He's feeling it," UND coach Brad Berry said. "He's playing with a lot of confidence and swagger. He's having fun as well as a lot of our guys here. It's great to see."

Britt was UND's final addition out of the transfer portal last summer — and one of the most unheralded pickups.

The Fighting Hawks opted to send recruit Andrew Strathmann back to junior hockey for one more year to round out his defensive game before coming to college. They needed to add a player for a year — at a time when the portal was thinning out — and they grabbed Britt.

He's been much more than a depth player.

Britt is averaging 20:13 per night, third-most of any UND player.

"It's so huge to have guys like that with experience on the back end to help our younger guys cut their teeth," Berry said.

UND may have to re-ignite the 'Hobey Blaker' campaign it ran in the late 1990s.

It was for Jason Blake back then and it will be for his son, Jackson, now.

Blake had a five-point weekend at Miami. He has a 10-game point streak and 13 points in the last six.

Blake is up to No. 3 nationally in scoring with 39 points, trailing only Denver's Massimo Rizzo (44 points) and Jack Devine (42).

In NCHC games only, Blake is the league leader in points with 24. Rizzo has 23. Denver's Zeev Buium has 22. His brother, Shai, has 20. UND's Cameron Berg and Devine are tied for fifth with 19 league points.

In the series opener, a panel of glass shattered in the third period.

Here's what happened: Britt scored a goal to bring UND within 4-3 of Miami. A UND fan sitting in the front row tapped the glass with the palm his left hand in celebration. He didn't hit it hard at all, but may have been wearing a ring and hit it just right.

Miami officials replaced the panel with incredible speed. It took less than 10 minutes.

The fan remained in his spot and after Riese Gaber tied the game, he leaned down and celebrated by hitting the dasher boards instead of the glass — a wise and comical move.

Although UND entered the weekend on a heater on the power play — 11-for-23 since Christmas, 6-for-9 in last four games — the Fighting Hawks came out with new units and players in different positions.

It didn't click, though. The Fighting Hawks were 1-for-8 on the advantage against the RedHawks.

Why the changes?

"I think just the pre-scout side of it," Berry said. "The way they kill is No. 1. The other thing is when you score and have success, sometimes you want to make the other team adjust to you a little bit. I think it brings a little freshness, too. I think it's good, because we've got players that are not only really elite, skilled players, but they're really intelligent and they can handle any spot on a power play.

"I thought we had some good looks. We didn't capitalize (Saturday), but I thought we had a lot of really good looks."

UND has been

one of college hockey's most disciplined teams

this season.

But it got into some penalty trouble Saturday, giving the RedHawks six power-play chances, including a pair of five-on-threes.

Miami converted one of the six chances on a rebound goal by Albin Nilsson.

The RedHawks had 14 power-play shots on goal. UND goalie Ludvig Persson turned aside 13 of them.

"There were a few kills we had to get through tonight and I thought (Persson) did an amazing job," Berry said. "He was tracking pucks. You know what? He didn't give up too many rebounds. When there were shots in front of him, he either sucked them in or they were laying right in front where he could corral them and get a whistle. He was dialed in and focused."

Berry said one thing he was thankful about was a preserved timeout Friday in the series opener.

Blake hit the crossbar on a shot in the second period and Berry considered challenging that it went in the net. Ryan LaDouceur, in the press box, was confident the puck wasn't in and radioed that down to assistant coach Karl Goehring. Berry also said the official who was standing on the goal line said it wasn't in.

Berry opted not to challenge in order to save his timeout.

That timeout came in handy. Berry called it before pulling Persson late in the third to rest his top players. UND scored with the goalie pulled to tie the game, then won it in overtime.

"Bergy (Cameron Berg) was tired, Gabes (Riese Gaber) was tired," he said. "We got those guys rested. They did a good job to score. I'm glad we had (the timeout)."

* Berg is on a seven-game point streak. He has goals in six of the last seven games, and eight of the last 10.

* Expected goals on Friday was 6 to 2.2 UND on Friday. Saturday's xG wasn't available as of Sunday afternoon.

* Grand Forks native Jackson Kunz is on a three-game point streak, the longest of his college career.

* Miami, down to 11 forwards due to injury, used its top forwards extensively. P.J. Fletcher played 27:36 on Friday, a total rarely seen by forwards.

* UND is unbeaten in seven games and unbeaten in regulation in 21 games.