UND’s bid to get back into the NCAA tournament already has an uphill climb.
The team’s 3-1 loss to the University of Vermont on Saturday night means the team will finish the regular season with a .000 winning percentage against Hockey East teams, a development that will be a hindrance to UND’s Pairwise Ranking later this season.
Cassidy Campeau scored a pair of goals - including the go-ahead tally at 3:05 in the third period - to give the Catamounts a victory in their first game of the season. Dayna Colang also scored for the Catamounts.
Josefine Jakobsen scored the lone goal for UND, which dropped to 1-1.
“It’s not catastrophic, but obviously a ‘W’ there would have gone a long ways,” UND coach Brian Idalski said. “It is what it is. That’s a pretty good Vermont team. They are well coached. They are going to beat some people.
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“I was actually pleased. I thought we played fairly well. The second night, I thought we got a little heavy in the legs. Soon after that, our poise with the puck went a little south as well. Overall, we did a lot of good things, created a lot of opportunities. We just weren’t able to finish them off.”
UND outshot Vermont 30-22, but the only time it got a puck past goaltender Madison Litchfield was early in the second period.
Just 17 seconds after Campeau scored the game’s opening goal, Jakobsen evened it at 2:38 of the middle frame. Becca Kohler, who had a hat trick in Friday night’s win over RPI, sent a pass from the right point to the slot area for Meghan Dufault, who tipped it on net. Litchfield made the initial save, but Jakobsen buried the rebound.
Early in the third period, Vermont scored the go-ahead goal.
UND got outnumbered down low and Bridget Baker fed Campeau in the slot. The sophomore forward sniped it just inside the post to make it 2-1 Catamounts at 3:05.
UND poured it on in the final 10 minutes of the game, but couldn’t get an equalizer. The best chance came when Gracen Hirschy had a chance at a back-door tap-in with three minutes to go, but she tipped the puck high over the net. Vermont then went down the other way and scored to make it a two-goal game.
“The first two goals against. . . those are easy things we can clean up,” Idalski said. “We just didn’t support back enough. I think that will be much better next week now that we’ve got a little film on that and can practice it a little more.”
UND travels to Mankato, Minn., next weekend to take on Minnesota State in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association opener. It doesn’t play a nonconference game again until a Dec. 12-13 road trip to take on Rochester Institute of Technology. In January, UND takes on Syracuse in a two-game series.
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The final four nonconference games will be key after UND’s loss Saturday night.
“Obviously, it’s tough to lose such an important game,” UND captain Andrea Dalen said. “But it’s early in the season. There’s a lot to be determined. We’ve just got to believe in ourselves.
“The last 10 minutes, we rolled them over, but it was already too late. We didn’t execute our chances. Obviously, we had pressure and had lots of chances, but it’s tough when they don’t go in.”
