– UND Advance to NCHC Frozen Faceoff

OMAHA Neb – As it was all season, fifth-seeded North Dakota was down, but not out, rallying with three goals in the third period to defeat No. 4 seed Omaha, 3-2, on Saturday night from Baxter Arena in Omaha, Neb.

Trailing 2-0 entering the final period of regulation, the Fighting Hawks (21-14-2) struck three times to complete the rally and advance to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff next weekend at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. UND will play either No. 1 seed Western Michigan or No. 2 seed Arizona State in the semifinals pending the result of Sunday’s Game 3 between Colorado College and Denver.

Senior forward Carter Wilkie started the rally with a power play goal at 6:10 of the third to cut the deficit to 2-1 before freshman Cade Littler knotted the game just 29 seconds later with his third tally of the weekend to quickly flip the momentum and bring the Hawks level at 2-2.

A night after registering zero shots on goal in the third period, UND needed only five on Saturday to complete the comeback, with Jayden Jubenvill jumping into a rush and snapping home the eventual game winner with just 1:36 remaining in regulation to complete the comeback and give NoDak its first lead of the game.

Graduate student goaltender T.J. Semptimphelter stood tall between the pipes in the final 96 seconds, turning aside his 32nd-and-final save of the night to punch UND’s ticket to St. Paul for the Frozen Faceoff. The Marlton, N.J., native finished with 32 saves on 34 shots against to record his eighth game this season with at least 30 saves.

After being held without a point for the first time in six games, freshman forward Sacha Boisvert was clutch in the third period with a pair of assists to notch his eighth multi-point contest of the season. The Chicago pick had the primary helper on Wilkie’s power play goal before making a great play to find Jubenvill on the game-winning tally.

Despite a strong start for the visitors, it was Omaha (18-17-1) who struck first when Myles Hillman was able to pounce a loose puck in front of a contacted Semptimphelter and give the hosts a 1-0 lead despite a challenge for goaltender interference from the UND coaching staff.

The lead was doubled early in the second on another weird carom, as a Omaha shot deflected off the mask of Semptimphelter and fell right to Sam Stange to pot home his 16th of the season to give the Mavericks a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes.

The power play got the Hawks going in the third, as Owen McLaughlin made a great rush in the zone before dishing it to Boisvert who found Wilkie in the high slot and the senior rifled home his ninth of the season to get NoDak on the board and trim the lead to just one, 2-1, early in the third.

In similar fashion to last night, UND struck for back-to-back goals in short order, as Littler was sprung by a great stretch pass from Abram Wiebe and the freshman snuck a shot between the legs of Omaha goaltender Simon Latkoczy to even the game just 29 seconds after the Wilkie goal.

After Semptimphelter made a huge breakaway save late in the third, UND took the lead for good when Caleb MacDonald led a rush up the ice and dished it to Boisvert who once again made a great read to find a streaking Jubenvill for the go-ahead goal with just 1:36 to play.

UND closed out the final seconds to notch the sweep and advance to the conference semifinals for the 20th time in the last 21 years.

Postgame Notes

UND has won seven straight Game 2’s when taking a 1-0 series lead
NoDak recorded its first road quarterfinal sweep since March 10-11, 1995 at St. Cloud State
The Hawks have reached the conference semifinals in 20 of the last 21 years
UND improves to 4-1 in postseason games at Baxter Arena, including four straight wins
The Hawks are 6-2-1 this season when wearing the black jerseys
Cade Littler scored his third goal of the weekend to give him seven on the year
Jackson Kunz notched an assist to give him a trio of helpers over the weekend
Caleb MacDonald also had a helper to finish the weekend with three
Jayden Jubenvill scored his second goal of the season and first game winner of his career
T.J. Semptimphelter finished with 32 saves on 34 shots to win his 18th game of the year
UND improved to 11-7-1 this season on the road, the most wins on the road since 2015-16
The Hawks have now scored eight times in under a minute this season, doing so twice this weekend
UND is now 12-6-1 this season on Saturday night and is 9-2-0 on the day in the last 11 games
NoDak has not lost a Saturday road game since Nov. 2 at Cornell – a stretch of seven straight wins
It marks the sixth time this season that UND has rallied from a third period deficit and won the game
UND is now 3-11-0 this season when trailing after two
Faceoffs were 38-32 UND, with Jake Schmaltz leading the way for UND at 12-10