Preview: Faceoffs could be key in UND-Colorado College series

Feb. 16—COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — There are a lot of reasons for Colorado College's success defensively this season.

Coach Kris Mayotte listed some of them this week.

It starts in net with Kaidan Mbereko, a Mike Richter Award semifinalist. It continues with a veteran defensive corps in front of him, which includes three fourth-year seniors and one fifth-year senior.

But Colorado College's centers are a big part.

"I think we have really responsible centers right now," Mayotte said. "We've had success in the faceoff dot. We can start with the puck. When we manage pucks the right way and we're starting with pucks, it makes us a really hard team to play against. We're able to get it below your goal line. We forecheck really well. Our neutral zone 'D' is unique and gives teams troubles. You have to come through layers to get back to our net. Our faceoffs are the biggest thing allowing us to do that."

The Tigers lead the country in faceoff percentage at 55.2. Logan Will is the leader at 59.4 percent. Noah Laba is at 57.4 and Stanley Cooley is at 51.8.

In the last game between these teams, Colorado College went 42-22 in the faceoff dot. That success meant UND rarely was able to generate chances off of faceoffs.

"You've got to make sure you force them into bad situations," UND coach Brad Berry said.

The potential for low-scoring games also highlights the importance of special teams.

UND's power play is clicking at 25.8 percent, No. 7 in the nation. Colorado College has struggled on special teams, going 11.5 percent on the power play (62nd) and 79.8 percent on the penalty kill (38th).

"Power plays are tough to come by these days," Berry said. "You have to earn everything you get. You make the other team drag you down — hooks, holds, slashes — hopefully there will be some plays that will be called to get us on the power play. We have to make sure we earn those."

UND has played four games in Ed Robson Arena, going 3-0-1.

Jackson Blake scored the only two UND goals last season (2-1 overtime victory, 0-0 tie). Two other current UND players have scored in Robson Arena — Louis Jamernik V scored three times and Jake Schmaltz once during a Fighting Hawks sweep in 2021-22.

"The guys are excited," Berry said. "This series. . . there's motivation. We left something on the table at home in front of our fans. There's motivation with our guys here this weekend."

UND CC

3.89 (7th) Off 3.00 (28th)

2.43 (12th) Def 2.62 (17th)

25.8 (7th) PP 11.5 (62nd)

82.9 (19th) PK 79.8 (38th)

52.4 (16th) FO 55.2 (1st)

.905 (22nd) SP .912 (12th)

National rank in parenthesis. Categories are offense (goals per game), defense (goals allowed per game), power play percentage, penalty kill percentage, faceoff percentage and team save percentage.

UND — F Hunter Johannes out (lower body), F Carson Albrecht probable (upper body)

CC — None

The sophomore New York Rangers draft pick has been lighting it up for Colorado College ever since scoring the overtime winner in Grand Forks on Dec. 8. Laba has nine goals in 12 games since that night — a stretch where the Tigers have only lost one regulation game. Laba has scored four overtime winners this season.

In the December meeting between the teams, UND's most effective players were those who played simple and in straight lines. Ben Strinden plays that style of game and is suited for a matchup like this. Strinden will dump and chase pucks, he can tip shots from defensemen, drive the net and, if there's space, walk pucks from the corner to the side of the net. Strinden could be a leader this weekend.

Vegas set the over/under at 5.5 for this game. Normally that would be a low total, but here's how many goals UND and Colorado College have combined to score in their last nine meetings: 5, 5, 0, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5. These games have been extremely low-scoring. Both teams have had trouble generating offense. It's a strong bet that both of these games will be low-scoring and down-to-the-wire. That's the way both squads have played this season.

Friday: 3-2 UND

Saturday: 1-1 tie

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Podcast:

Discussing UND's series against the Tigers

Scoring

9 Jackson Blake (CAR), so, f, 17-22—39

14 Cameron Berg (NYI), jr, f, 15-14—29

22 Owen McLaughlin (PHI), so, f, 9-20—29

17 Riese Gaber, sr, f, 14-12—26

7 Garrett Pyke, 5th, d, 3-19—22

4 Jake Livanavage, fr, d, 3-15—18

28 Hunter Johannes, 5th, f, 9-6—15

27 Louis Jamernik V, sr, f, 6-9—15

26 Dylan James (DET), so, f, 6-7—13

18 Jayden Perron (CAR), fr, f, 8-4—12

6 Logan Britt, 5th, d, 5-5—10

29 Jackson Kunz (VAN), jr, f, 4-6—10

21 Ben Strinden (NSH), so, f, 5-4—9

8 Jake Schmaltz (BOS), jr, f, 0-7—7

11 Griffin Ness, sr, f, 3-3—6

2 Bennett Zmolek, so, d, 0-5—5

20 Keaton Pehrson, 5th, d, 0-5—5

25 Abram Wiebe (VGK), fr, d, 0-3—3

13 Carson Albrecht, sr, f, 1-1—2

5 Dane Montgomery, so, f, 1-1—2

32 Ludvig Persson, sr, g, 0-2—2

15 Nate Benoit (MIN), fr, d, 0-1—1

10 Tanner Komzak, fr, d, 0-0—0

30 Hobie Hedquist, fr, g, 0-0—0

1 Kaleb Johnson, so, g, dnp

Goaltending

32 Ludvig Persson, sr, 17-6-2, 2.38, .907

30 Hobie Hedquist, fr, 3-0, 2.34, .899

1 Kaleb Johnson, so, dnp

Scoring

26 Noah Laba (NYR), so, f, 15-9—24

28 Gleb Veremyev, so, f, 9-9—18

20 Logan Will, sr, f, 6-11—17

8 Ryan Beck, so, f, 3-12—15

27 Stanley Cooley, jr, f, 4-8—12

19 Evan Werner, fr, f, 4-8—12

37 Nicklas Andrews, sr, d, 3-9—12

4 Max Burkholder, fr, d, 4-7—11

10 Bret Link, fr, f, 3-8—11

5 Jack Millar, sr, d, 3-7—10

2 Zaccharya Wisdom (SEA), fr, f, 6-3—9

7 Chase Foley, sr, d, 0-9—9

12 Tommy Middleton, jr, f, 4-3—7

29 Drew Montgomery, fr, f, 3-3—6

11 Ray Christy, sr, f, 2-4—6

18 Connor Mayer, 5th, d, 0-5—5

17 Tyler Coffey, sr, f, 4-0—4

23 Ethan Straky, so, d, 1-3—4

24 Klavs Veinbergs (TBL), fr, f, 1-2—3

25 Riley Stuart, fr, f, 1-2—3

21 Tyler Dunbar, fr, d, 1-0—1

39 Danny Weight, sr, f, 1-0—1

9 Noah Serdachny, so, f, 0-0—0

15 Antonio Fernandez, fr, d, 0-0—0

30 Kaidan Mbereko, so, g, 0-0—0

31 Henry Wilder, sr, g, 0-0—0

22 Nikolai Charchenko, so, d, dnp

1 Jake Begley, sr, g, dnp

Goaltenders

30 Kaidan Mbereko, so, 16-9-1, 2.51, .914

31 Henry Wilder, so, 0-0-0, 3.24, .923

1 Jake Begley, sr, dnp