MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin put the pressure on No. 2 North Dakota in the second period Saturday, but UND fought off the punches.
UND had Zane McIntyre to thank for taking a lead into the second intermission, and the rest of the team paid him back with a big finish for another road victory.
McIntyre made 23 saves in a 5-1 victory over Wisconsin, UND’s fifth victory in as many road games this season.
The biggest of those 23 stops may have been late in the second period, when the Badgers’ Morgan Zulinick set up Grant Besse for a one-timer that appeared to be headed to the back of the net until McIntyre flashed out his left pad.
Instead of a 2-2 tie going into the third period, UND had a one-goal lead and built upon it with three goals in the final 20 minutes to push its unbeaten streak to eight games (7-0-1).
“There were definitely a couple momentum swings,” said McIntyre, who lowered his GAA to 1.94 and raised his save percentage to .927. “It’s just hockey. You make your own chances and you make your own breaks, and I think both teams did a great job of that tonight and we were just on the fortunate end of it.”
That save on Besse was a boost to the rest of the UND players.
“It’s just like a big hit or even a goal for us,” UND defenseman Gage Ausmus said. “It gets the bench going and gives us hope for the next period.”
It was another in a string of frustrations for the Badgers, who fell to 0-6 with their fourth zero- or one-goal outing.
Wisconsin outshot North Dakota 10-7 in the second period but didn’t gain any ground.
“Honestly, it’s frustrating,” Besse said. “We had good chances. I believe we outplayed them in the second period — outshot them, didn’t give up too many shots. So obviously, it’s frustrating. We gave ourselves a chance heading into the third but weren’t able to follow through on that.”
North Dakota (7-1-1) opened the second period with a 1-0 lead and 4:04 of power-play time left after a major interference penalty to Badgers defenseman Jack Dougherty for a blind-side hit on Austin Poganski.
Wisconsin killed that chance and knotted the game shortly thereafter when Besse beat McIntyre to the glove side.
UND regained the lead less than four minutes later, however, on Drake Caggiula’s putaway of a cross-ice pass from Nick Schmaltz.
“We were able to stem that tide and put simple shifts together, one after another, settle things down,” UND coach Dave Hakstol said. “Schmaltz made a hell of a play to Caggiula to get the lead back.”
Wisconsin’s Chase Drake helped provide the crushing blow for the Badgers in the third period when he inadvertently put a rebound of a Luke Johnson shot into his own net.
Badgers goaltender Joel Rumpel reached for the puck at the same time that Drake tried to clear it away.
“I should have let him have it,” Drake said.
Said Rumpel: “It was a miscommunication. It’s on both of us.”
Defensemen Troy Stecher and Ausmus later added to UND’s lead to seal the program’s first 5-0 road start to a season since 1980-81.
UND players credited the coaching staff’s preparation and the team’s veteran leadership for the road success.
“I think our players are doing a good job in being single-minded in their approach, trying to take on one challenge at a time,” Hakstol said. “And I think that’s been able to keep our efforts pretty even. That’s real important when you’re going on the road, just to try to do simple things and do them over and over again.”
