OMAHA, Neb. — There are two ways to avoid falling to No. 1 North Dakota: don’t play them on Saturday, and don’t allow Brendan O’Donnell to score. Unfortunately for the No. 5 Omaha Mavericks, both happened.
After Omaha had scored three different times to tie the game, Brendan O’Donnell scored at 2:04 in overtime to lift UND over UNO.
“I’m sure after this series there will be a few sore bodies for both teams,” UND coach Dave Hakstol said. “This is hard, this is a man’s series. Had to be a lot of fun to watch for the people that were over in the stands.”
This season UND is 15-0-1 in Saturday games. As a program when O’Donnell scores, they’re 19-0-1.
O’Donnell found himself in the right place at the right time after both linemates Connor Gaarder and Austin Poganski battled down low to free up the puck.
“Got the puck, and the puck just kind of caught free in the slot,” O’Donnell said. “I just tried to jump on it and put it on net and I was lucky enough that it went in.”
UND left the ice angry Friday night after surrendering a goal with 33 seconds left in overtime and they didn’t waste any time expressing it.
At :37 in the first period on the first sequence of the game, Paul LaDue got the puck to Michael Parks for a two-on-one where he fed Mark MacMillan for the easy score, silencing Omaha right out of the gates.
However, the Mavericks were quick to respond. At 3:23, Austin Ortega sent a laser pass to Jake Guentzel, who skated from the blue line on a breakaway, scoring five-hole on Zane McIntyre, who slowed the puck down but couldn’t save it.
“If you would have said on Wednesday or Thursday if you would’ve taken a split with the No. 1 team in the country I would have say absolutely yes,” Omaha coach Dean Blais said. “But then after we win last night, you get a little bit greedy.”
MacMillian got his second score of the game when the senior collected Luke Johnson’s rebound on a power play and pounded it home at 15:23 in the first period to make it 2-1.
The second period saw an explosion of chances from both sides, with UND outshooting the Mavericks 14-8 in the period, but neither squad was able to put the puck in the net.
In the third, the usual back-and-forth play between the two teams continued.
At 4:00, Jake Guentzel evened things up for Omaha when he flung a slow rolling puck at McIntyre from the boards on the left wing that managed to sneak under the netminder.
A little more than five minutes later, Stephane Pattyn scored getting to a loose puck in the crease to push UND back up ahead again.
However, the Mavericks weren’t finished.
At 16:16, after UND was called for a too many men on the ice penalty, Brian Cooper ripped a shot from the blue line that snapped the back of the net.
Omaha had a chance in the final seconds of regulation to win when Justin Parizek broke free with the puck at center ice, but McIntyre made a glove save as time expired and the two sides went into overtime for the third time in four meetings this year.
“Every game against this team is that way,” Pattyn said. “It’s either one team battles back or the other battles back and it’s the way it ended up and it was definitely a good weekend.”
Similar to how UND clawed back to force overtime Friday but came up short, UNO wasn’t able to cash in on the comeback effort.
“What a difference 24 hours makes,” Blais said. “They never gave up. I was hoping to get into a shootout — well obviously you hope you win — but for the point part of it. Last night [it was] the same thing North Dakota thought … tough game to lose in overtime.”
Hakstol said that tonight’s win wasn’t a relief for his team, but a focus.
“I thought it was just a continuation from last night for both teams; I don’t think we played a whole lot different tonight than from last night,” Hakstol said. “There was a sense of urgency throughout this whole series and certainly we had that tonight.”
Omaha has taken the No. 1 team to overtime twice in front of big crowds in what’s becoming one of the best rivalries in the NCHC and college hockey.
“Fun series; It was great having that fan support both nights over 10,000 people,” Omaha goalie Ryan Massa said. “It was a lot of fun to be a part of.”
