SATURDAY ROUNDUP: No. 7 North Dakota blanks Wisconsin for Ice Breaker title, Minnesota State sweeps No. 10 St. Cloud State, Quinnipiac routs AIC, UMass doubles up No. 6 Michigan

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North Dakota celebrates the 2023 Ice Breaker Tournament championship Saturday night on home ice at Ralph Engelstad Arena (photo: Russell Hons).

Seventh-ranked North Dakota defeated longtime rival Wisconsin 2-0 to capture the 2023 Ice Breaker Tournament crown in front of a sellout crowd of 11,783 on home ice at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

UND, which had put up 17 goals in the previous exhibition and regular-season opener, only needed to find the twine twice, as goaltender Ludvig Persson stole the show with a 29-save shutout to give the program its second Ice Breaker Tournament title in five tries.

For the second time in as many games, Hunter Johannes opened the scoring with a short-handed goal in the opening frame, finishing off a pass from Louis Jamernik V to give the Fighting Hawks a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes. The goal is the second tally while playing with a man down this season for North Dakota, already sitting just one behind last season’s total of three.

The middle frame had been the offensive period for UND this season, entering with a plus-11 scoring margin in the period after the exhibition and contest against Army West Point, and Saturday proved to be no exception.

Riese Gaber extended the advantage to 2-0 with a backhander over the blocker of Badgers goaltender Kyle McClellan following a forecheck and pass from Cameron Berg just over six minutes into the stanza.

Persson and the new defensive group put the lid on any comeback effort by the Badgers in the third, holding the visitors to just six shots on goal to close out the shutout.

McClellan finished with 26 stops for the Badgers.

Bemidji State 3, Army West Point 2

In the consolation game of the Ice Breaker, Lleyton Roed scored 59 seconds into overtime to give Bemidji State a 3-2 win over Army West Point.

Eric Pohlkamp had tied the game for BSU at 12:30 of the third period.

Gavin Enright stopped 22 shots between the pipes for the Beavers.

Jake Hewitt and Joey Baez scored for the Black Knights, while Evan Szary made 20 saves in goal.

USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll – Oct. 9, 2023

No. 2 Minnesota 3, St. Thomas 0

Justen Close turned away all 24 shots faced and Jimmy Snuggerud scored twice for the Golden Gophers during a 3-0 shutout of St. Thomas Saturday night at 3M Arena at Mariucci in Minneapolis, Minn.

Close registered his first shutout of the season and 10th of his career, while Snuggerud broke a tightly-contested matchup late in the second period with his second game-winning goal in as many nights.

“It was a much better game for us tonight,” Minnesota coach Bob Motzko said. “Last night was a lot of fun obviously with the crowd and the goals, but we needed to tighten it up. I liked a lot of the things we did tonight.”

Brody Lamb added an empty-net goal for Minnesota.

For St. Thomas, Jake Sibell came away with 22 saves in goal.

Minnesota improved to 69-31-3 in home openers, including a mark of 21-8-2 in openers at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

No. 5 Quinnipiac 8, American International 0

For the third time in the last two seasons, Quinnipiac potted eight goals as they shut out AIC 8-0 on Saturday night at M&T Bank Arena in Springfield, Mass.

Collin Graf had five points (two goals, three assists) in his return to action, while linemate Sam Lipkin added four points (two goals, two assists) to aid the Bobcats attack

Matej Marinov finished with 16 saves for the shutout for QU.

AIC goalies Nils Wallstrom and Alexandros Aslanidis combined on a 17-save effort.

Massachusetts 6, No. 6 Michigan 3

The Minutemen scored all six goals in the third period, including two on the power play and two into the empty net, to knock off the Wolverines 6-3 at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Mass.

Lucas Vanroboys recorded two goals for UMass, while Scott Morrow had a goal and an assist and Ryan Ufko a goal and two helpers. Jack Musa added three assists.

In goal, Michael Hrabal made 24 saves.

For Michigan, Frank Nazar, Garrett Schifsky and TJ Hughes scored and Jacob Barczewski stopped 25 shots.

No. 9 Michigan Tech 2, Alaska 2 (MTU wins shootout)

Michigan Tech skated to a 2-2 tie with Alaska at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena in Houghton, Mich.

Logan Pietila scored both goals for the Huskies and had a highlight-reel between-the-legs goal in the shootout.

“I’m proud of the resilience we showed tonight,” Michigan Tech coach Joe Shawhan said. “The guys feel better after the shootout win even though it doesn’t mean anything. Our young guys played well tonight and we need them to continue to grow.”

Brayden Nicholetts and Anton Rubtsov scored for the Nanooks, and Pierce Charleson made 28 saves in goal.

Blake Pietila made 21 saves for the Huskies.

Minnesota State 5, No. 10 St. Cloud State 1

Sam Morton scored twice as the Mavericks swept St. Cloud State with a 5-1 victory on home ice at the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center in Mankato, Minn.

Kaden Bohlsen and Brian Carrabes also had two-point nights for Minnesota State, each tallying a goal and an assist.

“I think we are building in the right direction,” Morton said. “We are just trying to put our best foot forward, making strides, building team chemistry, and working hard for each other every day.”

Mavericks goalie Alex Tracy made 29 saves for the win between the pipes.

Kyler Kupka posted SCSU’s lone goal with Dominic Basse and Isak Posch combining to stop 25 shots in net.

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