UND's power play hitting its stride
Jan. 20—ST. CLOUD, Minn. — The UND coaching staff juggled its power-play units during Christmas break.
The Fighting Hawks weren't bad with the man advantage in the first half, but they also weren't clicking like they could.
Karl Goehring, the assistant coach in charge of the power play, balanced the units and changed some players' spots on the ice.
One unit has Garrett Pyke, Owen McLaughlin, Riese Gaber, Hunter Johannes and Louis Jamernik V. The other has Jake Livanavage, Jackson Blake, Jayden Perron, Cameron Berg and Jackson Kunz.
Good luck pegging which one is the first unit and which is the second.
The changes have been wildly successful.
UND scored on two of its three power-play chances Friday night in a 5-3 victory at St. Cloud State, one that propelled the Fighting Hawks into first place in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.
UND's power play is 7-for-17 since Christmas break, a 41.2 percent clip.
"There were four keys we had (Friday) and one of them was the specialty teams battle," UND coach Brad Berry said. "Any time you have two really good teams playing against each other, the team that usually wins is the one who wins the specialty teams battle. I know they got one power-play goal at the end there, but we got two, so we netted one out there.
"I thought our power play was outstanding tonight."
In conference play, UND's power play has been excellent. The Fighting Hawks are at 32.4 percent in their 11 NCHC games.
The latest surge on the power play has lifted UND's percentage to 24.1 on the season, which ranks 14th nationally.
UND goaltender Ludvig Persson had a
season-high 34 saves in the series opener.
Advanced analytics say his game was just as good as the eye test indicated.
Expected goals for the series opener, according to InStat, were 4.5-2.5 in favor of St. Cloud State. The Huskies outshot UND 37-21 in the game and 32-12 over the last 40 minutes.
But UND is now 4-1 this season when being outshot. The wins have come against Wisconsin, Boston University, Denver and now St. Cloud State.
"When Luddy is back there making those unbelievable saves, it gives everyone else confidence to make plays and play how we can," Blake said.
UND defenseman Logan Britt of Crystal Lake, Ill., has a large family contingent on hand for this weekend.
It's a chance for them to see both Logan and his sister, Jaidyn, play. Jaidyn is a defender for the St. Cloud State women's team.
The Britts went 2-0 on Friday.
Jaidyn and the Huskies women's team beat St. Thomas 3-1 in the afternoon. Logan and the UND men followed with a victory.
The St. Cloud State women play at St. Thomas on Saturday.
* UND will be looking for its first sweep in the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center since the 2016-17 season, when Cam Johnson posted back-to-back shutouts.
* Pyke's first-period goal was his 20th point of the season, establishing a new career high. Pyke has points in nine of the last 10 games.
* Berg's third-period power-play goal was his 11th of the season, his career high.
* McLaughlin has 10 points in the last five games.
* Jamernik has scored goals in four of the last five series.
* UND's time on ice leaders: Bennett Zmolek 23:23, Pyke 20:05, Berg 19:47, Keaton Pehrson 19:29, Britt 19:15 and Jamernik 18:52.
* St. Cloud State's time on ice leaders: Jack Peart 24:34, Cooper Wylie 20:19, Dylan Anhorn 19:56, Josh Luedtke 18:18, Adam Ingram 18:15 and Mason Salquist 17:20.
