The last regular-season contest of the season was a must-win and Senior Night for No. 5 Miami, whose second-place National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) standing was at stake against No. 1 North Dakota. The first four of the RedHawks’ six goals were, fittingly, potted by fourth-year players, including a hat trick from captain Austin Czarnik, which propelled Miami to a series split and a lock on the second seed in the NCHC tournament.
The hat trick and assist lifted Czarnik into sixth on the all-time Miami scoring list, ahead of Andy Miele.
North Dakota (25-7-3, 16-6-2-0 NCHC), of course, secured the Penrose Cup as regular season champions Friday night with a 2-1 effort over Miami (21-12-1, 14-9-1-1 NCHC). Saturday was an entirely different story, though the first 10 minutes looked like a carbon copy of the previous evening’s contest.
Luke Johnson received a backdoor pass from captain Stephane Pattyn, and the tap in gave North Dakota the first lead of the game. The conference’s best penalty kill also stifled two early Miami power plays and yielded no shots, but Czarnik found twine for just the third time this year with 2:45 remaining in the frame, evening the game at one a piece.
“I thought we worked hard; the chances were there,” said UND’s Gage Ausmus, who also assisted on Johnson’s first period goal. “Details, and our focus, just wasn’t where we needed them to be.”
Ausmus’s remarks applied in large part to the second period, a 20-minute window that saw Miami strike three times, and Czarnik complete the hat trick on two short-handed tallies. His three-goal, four-point night eclipsed his goal output from all 33 prior games this season, bringing him up to five total on the year.
“I’m just grateful for it,” the captain remarked. “It’s been a long four years with a lot of ups and downs, and just to get that is an honor. I’m so happy, and I know all my teammates are.”
North Dakota’s Johnson netted his second of the game and Blake Coleman notched his 13th of the year in between the Czarnik man-down goals for a total of four second period scores.
UND struck 32 seconds into the third period and finished off a five-on-three power play after Coleman was tossed from the game for a hit from behind, but the RedHawks mopped up with two scores of their own. Riley Barber responded with goal number 17 on the year hardly a minute later, and Anthony Louis iced the game with just under 10 seconds remaining by way of a 60-foot empty netter to bring the final score to 6-3.
The loss does nothing to affect North Dakota’s No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCHC tournament, but it is a subtle reminder that this conference is full of dangerous programs.
“This group is intelligent and knows what happened tonight,” UND coach Dave Hakstol said. “We go back to work on Monday now and we go to a best-of-three game series against Colorado College, and that’s where the focus goes.”
The win on the final evening of the regular season secures home ice for the RedHawks in the conference tournament and a meeting with former Central Collegiate Hockey Association rival Western Michigan.
“Obviously tonight was an important game for us,” Miami bench manager Enrico Blasi said. “It was one of our goals coming into the year to make sure we were home for the playoffs, so that’s huge for us.”
