GRAND FORKS, N.D. — While team trainer Mark Poolman attended to two key injuries that left No. 1 North Dakota shorthanded and on the verge of embarrassment at home against unranked Lake Superior State Friday night, his son Tucker moved up to forward and provided the sparks needed to revive the offense.
Poolman scored two goals, 13 UND players tallied points and North Dakota (11-3-2) overcame a major scare with a five-goal second period barrage en route to a 7-4 victory over the Lakers (3-14) in front of 11,118 at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
Losing Drake Caggiula and Colten St. Clair to injuries early made a three-goal deficit seem even deeper of a hole, but instead of capitulating with frustration, UND didn’t panic.
“We just kind of played our game and our system and we stuck with it,” Tucker Poolman said. “We just believed that if we kept doing the things we were doing that eventually we would get some goals.”
Damon Whitten’s Lakers quieted the Ralph crowd with an opportunistic start, jumping out to a 3-0 lead, but their own inexperience with success allowed a potential shocking upset to vanish in a 6:46 span in the second in which the Lakers allowed four North Dakota goals.
“We put ourselves in a position to have success and potentially win a hockey game on the road against a very good team, and some of our youth and lack of success certainly showed up,” Whitten said.
Lake Superior State used goals from Kyle Chatham and Gus Correale to claim a 2-0 first period lead, capitalizing on defensive breakdowns and on a struggling Cam Johnson (nine saves), who was making his first career start for UND.
Johnson was yanked after giving up a juicy rebound to Eric Drapluk just 54 seconds into the second period.
“I liked us early,” Whitten said. “We came out, worked hard, created some offense and then capitalized on it. The chances we’ve had – we’ve been challenged offensively this year, so to get that was good.”
Trevor Olson put UND on the board at 4:57 of the second, beating Gordon Defiel (36 saves). Mitchell Nardi briefly pushed the Lakers lead back to three at 4-1, but after an Aidan Wright holding penalty at 11:26, the fireworks began.
“The guys were pissed off,” Hakstol said. “That’s what I sensed. We weren’t back on our heels, guys weren’t hanging their heads. They were determined to try and find a way back in this one. And we did.”
The power play wasted no time and Poolman, who dressed as a defenseman but wound up playing forward after the St. Clair and Caggiula injuries, led the charge.
“He saw a little bit of everything tonight,” Hakstol said. “We lost two forwards early in this game. We had to mix and match a little bit.”
Poolman fired home the first of his two goals at 12:35. Just over a minute later, Mark MacMillan kept the momentum building by collecting a rebound at the left slot at 14:01. Before the period was over, Poolman had bashed in another power play goal and Connor Gaarder’s streaking play to the net had inexplicably captured the lead at 19:21 of the second.
Michael Parks and Brendan O’Donnell tallied goals in the third to put the game out of reach.
“From there, it was just momentum – energy in the building and energy on the bench,” Hakstol said.
It was a big night for Poolman, but for North Dakota, which will need to complete the sweep Saturday night to stay potentially atop the national polls, it was just another night for a team that relies on scoring from everywhere.
“That’s our hockey team,” Hakstol said. “That’s how we’re built. That’s what we’re all about. Everybody chipped in tonight for maybe not the prettiest win in the world, but a real good win for our guys in the locker room.”
