Friday night, the University of North Dakota hockey team wanted to get off to a fast start against Miami University, and they did. Fourteen seconds into the game, senior forward Collin Adams scored the game’s first goal. Five minutes and fourteen seconds later freshman forward Louis Jamernik scored the first goal of his career stretching the Fighting Hawks lead to 2-0. Before public address announcer, Derek Looker could announce the Hawks second goal, Adams was scoring the game-winning goal.
Yes, it was a fantastic start for the Hawks. The RedHawks were never in the game.
“One of the keys we wanted to do is have a quick start,” UND head coach Brad Berry said. “Our guys came out, got a goal right off the hop there. Got the next one right away shortly thereafter. This league is so tough, you have to try to play with a lead. It’s so tough to chase a game, through a 60-minute game. We accomplished one of the keys that we wanted to do is get off to a quick start. Thought we did.”
When it was over, UND had put six goals past Miami goalie Ludvig Persson, running the RedHawks out of the building and ending their season.
Due to Covid, this was only the third time UND had played Miami, during the shortened season, the Fighting Hawks were 3-0-0 against the RedHawks outscoring them 14-4. Lately, The Fighting Hawks have dominated the RedHawks. They’re are unbeaten in the last seven games (6-0-1) against the RedHawks outscoring them 29-14.
Collin Adams’ Fantastic Night
Entering tonight’s game, UND forward Shane Pinto (Who was the first unanimously voted NCHC Player of the Year) was UND’s leading scorer. When the game was over, he had dropped to third on the team in scoring.
Against the RedHawks, Collin Adams had a night, scoring five points (2g-3a–5pts). His classmate, Jordan Kawaguchi was also red-hot, adding four points (0g-4a–4pts). Both players passed Pinto in the points race: Kawaguchi (7g-24a—31pts), Adams (11g-18a—29pts), Pinto (15g-13a—28pts). Finally, Adams set an NCHC Frozen Faceoff record with five points. Adams had UND’s first five-point game since Mark MacMillan scored (3g-2a–5pts) against the Colorado College Tigers on Oct. 18, 2014.
“It’s definitely great to finally get to the playoffs, Adams said. “I mean you hear us saying unfinished business all the time, so, it just feels good to finally get that going.”
With the win, UND improves to 19-5-1, with the loss, Miami finishes the season at 5-18-2. The Hawks will play the lowest remaining seed on Monday night at 8:05 PM.
