With under six minutes left in the game, UND trailed Miami Ohio 4-2. The three-win RedHawks were eyeing their first NCHC win and the upset.
Freshman forward Cody Croal turned the tide when he buried a rebound with 5:23 to go, making it a one-goal game.
Just under four minutes later, sophomore forward Jayden Perron scored with the goalie pulled to tie the game 4-4 with 1:43 to go.
Sophomore defenseman Jake Livanavage made the play of the night, going coast-to-coast and sliding a pass between two Miami players’ sticks to Sacha Boisvert in the right circle.
“I heard him,” Livanavage said of Boisvert calling for the puck. “Then, I looked. I didn’t want to just throw it because I had a lot of time. I saw him and made a pass.”
Boisvert one-timed the pass past Miami’s goaltender to take the lead with 23.5 seconds remaining.
UND completed the comeback, scoring three goals in the last six minutes of game one to win 5-4 on the road.
UND’s head coach Brad Berry said it was a “defining game for our season.”
The comeback not only provided a confidence boost for the injury-ridden Fighting Hawks but also gave them three points in the NCHC standings.
“I think it’s very easy to tie that game up and say, ‘hey, we’re going to go into overtime and see where it goes,” Berry told the Grand Forks Herald. “I like the mentality of our guys that were out on the ice that wanted to win it in regulation and did.”
UND held a 2-1 lead in the second period until Miami scored twice off of a major penalty, taking a 3-2 lead. The advantage came off of a senior forward Jackson Kunz slashing penalty.
Then Miami scored another on a four-on-four to make it 4-2. That made it four goals in under 12 minutes for a Miami team that has a bottom-ten scoring offense in the country.
“I thought we had the game well in control until we took a five-minute major,” Berry told the Grand Forks Herald. “We gave up two goals on the five-minute major. We took a four-on-four undisciplined penalty and the score on that. It’s a three-goal swing.”
The scoreboard did not show it, but UND dominated in game one, out shooting Miami 38-17 and out attempting Miami 73-23.
The freshman stepped up big time in the absence of Berg, Jamernik V, MacDonald, and Zmolek. Freshman forwards Dalton Andrew and Croal both scored their first career goals.
Freshman forward Boisvert scored the game-winning goal and now leads the team in goals and points this season.
“With the success we’ve had over the last few years, each year is different,” Berry told the Grand Forks Herald. “This is a young team that’s building and growing. I think you’ve got to have some patience. I think you’ve got to be firm, you’ve got to be accountable and hold guys to a high standard. But you’ve got to let them breathe a little bit and I think they took a big breath tonight.”
UND won the battle in the dot 27-20 with senior forward Jake Schmaltz winning 11-15.
The Fighting Hawks completed the road sweep on Saturday night, defeating the RedHawks 4-2.
UND improved to 9-7-1 on the season and 4-2 in NCHC play.
The Fighting Hawks will face St. Cloud State at the Ralph in a two-game series this weekend. It will be the last series before winter break.
Elijah Andrews is the Dakota Student Sports Reporter. He can be reached at [email protected].
