BEMIDJI - In the final seconds of the game, UND’s Gage Ausmus got to the puck along the end wall in his own zone.
He powered through traffic, kept control of the puck and chipped it out to neutral ice to seal a 2-1 victory Saturday night over Bemidji State in the Sanford Center.
“That was just will, utter will,” UND coach Dave Hakstol said. “He out-competed the people around him.”
That’s not something any UND player could say after Friday night’s game.
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One day after falling flat and losing the home opener 5-1, UND played a much more tenacious game and was able to salvage a series split against a pesky Bemidji State team.
Colten St. Clair scored in the first period, Stephane Pattyn added a goal in the second and UND made life much easier for goaltender Zane McIntyre, who stopped 28 of 29 shots to get the victory.
“We’re not going to pat ourselves on the back because we came out and competed hard,” Hakstol said. “That’s what we expect. But we did all the right things tonight to win a road game. . . a really tough road game. After a pretty sick feeling for about 12 hours, I thought our guys did a good job. They showed maturity. They came out today and they played with confidence and played hard together.”
UND made several lineup changes Saturday night, inserting rookies Johnny Simonson, Trevor Olson and Tucker Poolman into the lineup. St. Clair, a scratch on Friday, also re-entered the lineup. Wade Murphy, Coltyn Sanderson, Austin Poganski and Keaton Thompson were out of the lineup.
The young players instantly added energy and tenacity to a team that lacked it a night earlier.
“There was a lot of difference out there,” St. Clair said. “I think there was a lot more compete tonight. We weren’t throwing passes to the middle of the ice. We were protecting the puck a little better. Obviously, we played a little more of a team game out there.”
Pattyn, the team captain, also noticed a big difference.
“I think guys just showed up,” he said. “We had a little bit of fire under our butts today after getting embarrassed at home last night. We knew we had to come out and play a different style of hockey and I think we did.
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“A lot of guys in that room know what it takes to win games in Division I hockey. The way we played last night, we’re not going to win any games.”
UND got off to a good start, scoring the first goal late in the first period.
St. Clair led a partial two-on-one up the right wing. He gave it to Brendan O’Donnell in the middle of the ice and O’Donnell returned the pass. Bemidji State goaltender Andrew Walsh shut down St. Clair’s shot, but left a rebound on top of the crease. Connor Gaarder took one whack at it before St. Clair found it at the side of the net and threw it in from a shallow angle.
UND increased the lead with a shorthanded goal at 16:19 of the second period.
The Beavers had a four-on-three power play when Ausmus chipped the puck to Troy Stecher rushing up the right wing. As he crossed the blue line, Pattyn came out of the penalty box on the left side, but no Beavers took notice.
Stecher threaded a pass to Pattyn, who easily buried his first goal of the season into an empty net.
The Beavers got one back when Myles Fitzgerald found a rebound for a power-play goal at 4:18 of the third period, but they couldn’t get an equalizer.
“There was no easy ice tonight, no question,” Bemidji State coach Tom Serratore said. “I thought North Dakota had great pushback, we knew they were going to give pushback.”
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UND also generated a lot more chance from in tight. On Friday night, everything was perimeter.
“If you look at the shot chart from last night to tonight, we’re in a different planet,” Hakstol said. “We know that. We know what we did last night. I guess what I’m happy with is that we knew what we had to try to do to fix our game and get to it tonight.”
Notes: St. Clair’s goal snapped a 12-game goal drought. . . Bemidji State had only one lineup change, inserting Bemidji native Jordan Heller on the fourth line. . . Andrew Panzarella skated in warm-ups but did not play. . . UND travels to Colorado College next weekend for its National Collegiate Hockey Conference opener.
