Even over the hum of the Zamboni machine, the North Dakota celebration could be heard from well down the hall.<\/p>\n
After five years of coming up just short in the end, No. 6 North Dakota scored its two goals on special teams and won another big game in the Kohl Center, this one by a 2-1 margin to capture its first MacNaughton Cup since the 2004 season. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is a tough trophy to win and a tough league to come out on top of in the regular season,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said senior Matt Watkins. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There are a lot of good teams and a lot of good players. Right now, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re enjoying the moment.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Numerous times in years past, the only thing separating the Fighting Sioux (22-11-4 overall, 17-6-4 in the WCHA) from the regular season crown was them. Last season, a furious finish to the season, going 11-0-3 in their final 14 conference games, couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t overcome a slow start (splitting their first seven series), as the Sioux finished alone in second place. <\/p>\n
This time around, North Dakota got off to a better start (6-3-2 in conference) and has been on a tear since, as the Sioux have lost only once since the calendar turned to 2009.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The MacNaughton Cup is obviously a grind to win it, and these guys have accomplished it, a MacNaughton championship,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d UND coach Dave Hakstol said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I want them to take a couple of hours and let that sink in. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why we play the game, to enjoy moments like this.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Winning for the 10th time in a one-goal game and 10th road game, North Dakota had to overcome sluggish legs, an early deficit and desperately needed a break to find some momentum against a Wisconsin (16-15-4, 13-11-3) team that was fighting for home ice and grasping for momentum.<\/p>\n
They got that break on Wisconsin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s second power play, when a piece of loose ice saw the puck skip over UW defenseman Jamie McBain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stick and right in front of Watkins, who had a full head of steam.<\/p>\n
Watkins went untouched down the right boards and beat UW goalie Shane Connelly (21 saves) low glove side to tie the score at one at the 16 minute, 56 second mark of the second period.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nothing too special about that one,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Watkins about his goal. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Any situation (though) that anyone scores a goal, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to help the team get a little momentum back on their side. We got better as the game wore on.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
And so did North Dakota\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s power play, which was shutout on its four previous attempts by an aggressive Wisconsin penalty kill that had taken lumps in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
During the Badgers four game winless streak, the team allowed seven power-play goals on 21 penalty kills, a stark change from UW allowing just seven power-play goals in the previous 18 games.<\/p>\n
Junior Chris VandeVelde made sure the struggles continued, as he beat Connelly low stick side to put North Dakota ahead for good.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s finding ways at critical times of games to impact the game,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Hakstol about VandeVelde. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He did that again tonight. Over the past month, you know you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen him, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been an impact player for us.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
It was the same song for Wisconsin, as the Badgers dropped their 10th one goal of the season, as seven of UW\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s last eight losses have come from a single tally. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The year we won it, we won all those games,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d UW head coach Mike Eaves said of his 2006 national championship team. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You go back and look, those are the games we found a way to win. We haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t found those ways this year. That timely goal is something that has been very elusive for us this year.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Even so, based on the results that Minnesota, Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State all lost Friday night, Wisconsin, even going 0-4-1 in its last five games, clinched home ice for next weekend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first round of the WCHA tournament and can finish third with a win and a Colorado College loss or tie or a Badgers tie and Tigers defeat.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I guess that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what it is,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Eaves said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If we lose and the other team loses, yes, then we back in.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Even over the hum of the Zamboni machine, the North Dakota celebration could be heard from well down the hall. After five years of coming up just short in the end, No. 6 North Dakota scored its two goals on special teams and won another big game in the Kohl Center, this one by a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9548"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9548"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=9548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}