NCHC Hockey: UND’s beats Miami in Inaugural Game

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Friday night, after much anticipation, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference kicked off its inaugural season with the first-ever league game between Miami University and the University of North Dakota.  Coming into the series, UND had never lost a game against the RedHawks. All-time, UND leads the series 2-0-1. After last night’s historic 4-2 win, you can make that record 3-0-1.

Beating Miami at Goggin Ice Center (Steve Cady Rink) arena is no small feat. The RedHawks had been red hot at home, losing just three times in its last 29 home games. With UND’s win last night, make that four times in the last 30 games. UND will try to get the sweep tonight, which is no easy task. In the last seven seasons, Lake Superior State University is the only team to sweep the RedHawks at home. The Lakers  swept Miami on October 27 & 28, 2011.

I tried to capture the first-ever league matchup between the two teams via social media.

View from the Commissioner’s seat

NCHC Commissioner Josh Fenton sent this tweet from his seat in Goggin Ice Center, just before the face off of the first-ever NCHC game between Miami and North Dakota. Fenton is not afraid to use his Twitter feed to reach out to the NCHC fanbase.

 UND scores the first-ever NCHC goal

UND junior forward Michael Parks would make history, as he scored the first-ever NCHC goal in league history. That was also the first goal of the year for the junior forward.

 

 

UND gets the first-ever power play

UND gets the first-ever power play when Miami forward Riley Barber is assessed a two-minute minor penalty for interference. Miami would go on to kill off the penalty and the score would remain 1-0.

 After one period of play

After one period of play, UND led 2-0 with goals from junior forwards Brendan O’Donnell and Michael Parks.

 

UND goes up 3-0 with another goal from O’Donnell

UND forward Brendan O’Donnell scores his second goal of the game at the 00:14 mark of the second period to give UND a three goal lead. For the game, O’Donnell would score (2g-1a–3pts). For those keeping track, the junior forward scored only two goals last season.

 Miami breaks the ice with two goals in the second period

During the second period, the RedHawks would make a valiant push and they would catch UND flat-footed and running around in their own end. Miami finally got on the board at the 08:25 mark of the second period with a goal from sophomore forward Sean Kuraly. Miami would score again when freshman forward Anthony Louis would light the lamp at the 13:56 mark of the second period. The second period would end with UND still up 3-2.

 

 

 

UND scores the first-ever power play goal

At the 11:52 mark of the third period, Miami sophomore defenseman Michael Mooney was assessed a two-minute minor penalty for tripping. UND would go on the power play and score 53 second later, to ice the game and give UND another two-goal lead. Junior defenseman Nick Mattson would take a shot from the point that was tipped out front by Miami junior forward Austin Czarnik. The puck would end up in the corner of the Miami net. The junior defenseman would become part of history, as he would score the first-ever NCHC power play goal.

 

Final Score 4-2 UND

UND would hold off a late third period surge by Miami and shock the No. 1 ranked RedHawks 4-2. That win would give UND the first-ever NCHC  conference win. The same two teams will face-off again tonight at 07:00 p.m. central.