GRAND FORKS, N.D. — Josiah Didier extended his arm high in front of the Denver net nearly halfway through the third period and caught Nick Schmaltz’s shot, attempting to swat it away to salvage a tie game.
Instead, Didier threw the puck in his own net to award North Dakota the game-winning goal and a 4-2 victory over Denver on Friday night in front of 11,754 at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
North Dakota didn’t find too many good bounces early in the game, creating lapses and failing to put the puck in the net, but it persevered and came out strong at home after a productive bye week to defeat its NCHC rival.
“That was a big, mature win for our team coming off the bye week,” Michael Parks said. “Got to give a lot of credit to Zane [McIntyre]. He was huge back there. I know we outshot them, but we gave up way too many grade A chances. Also got to give a lot of credit to our coaching staff and having us ready off this bye week. It’s not an easy thing to do even though we’re well rested. They gave us a game plan for Denver and I think we executed pretty well.”
That execution began when UND nearly got on the board first when Tucker Poolman’s shot found the back of the net, but was ruled goaltender interference as Parks lingered near Tanner Jaillet (32 saves) in the first period.
It was Denver, though, that secured the first point thanks to Joey LaLeggia’s snipe from the left circle to the top corner of the goal. The shot blanked Zane McIntyre (18 saves) at 7:20 of the second period on a DU power play, sending the Pioneers ahead first in North Dakota’s own building.
“It’s huge,” assistant coach David Carle said. “It’s something you strive for, certainly on the road, and unfortunately we weren’t able to build on that.”
After multiple chances, North Dakota found the equalizer at 14:33 when Drake Caggiula rushed into the zone with the puck and fired a wrist shot that beat Jaillet.
UND claimed the 24-10 edge in shots after two frames, and persisted into the third period as Parks put the home team up 2-1 on a wrap-around at 4:42.
“That was pretty lucky,” Parks said. “I got some help from the goalie’s skate. I was trying to get it there and fortunate enough for it to go in.”
With an extra skater on a UND delayed penalty, Denver responded at 9:00 with a Quentin Shore shot up front on a pass from Ty Loney to set the teams even at 2-2.
The tie was broken at 12:10 when Didier put Schmaltz’s shot in the net, and North Dakota clinched one more as Luke Johnson skated behind the net on a power play and passed the puck up front to Parks, who sniped it in at 15:17 to seal his second goal of the game and a 4-2 win for UND.
“I thought we maybe deserved a little bit better fate,” UND coach Dave Hakstol said. “But on that one, we got a good bounce. Nice we were able to take advantage of it — get the insurance marker and close out the game.”
The Pioneers couldn’t find a way to fight back. Despite holding UND back from the net early in the game, Denver knows its execution has to be consistent.
“I thought we weathered the storm early,” Carle said. “They came out with a lot of jump like we thought they would. I thought Tanner Jaillet played really well the first 10 to 15 minutes keeping our bench calm. … We had a chance to win a game in a hostile environment, and we’ve got to be happy with that, but we’ve got to find a way to play a full 60 minutes.”
