Fighting Hawks Pogo past Pioneers 4-0

by | Dec 6, 2015

Fighting Hawks Pogo past Pioneers 4-0

by | Dec 6, 2015

Last night, in the post-game press conference, University of North Dakota head coach Brad Berry said that his team needed to get secondary scoring from his other forward lines.

Berry’s team must have taken his words to heart.

Tonight, through two periods of play, the Fighting Hawks held a 2-0 lead and didn’t get a single point from the high scoring CBS line. Denver did what most teams have been unable to do all season long. They held the CBS Line scoreless for 47:53. And then the roof fell in on them.

The Pioneers were unable to stop sophomore forward Austin Poganski who scored a shorthanded breakaway goal with .06 remaining in the first period. That would end up being the game-winning goal.

“As I have seen that time and time again, we do a Thursday shootout all of the time and that’s his go-to move,” coach Berry said. “Even though the goalies know it coming, he seems to execute it all of the time.

“He had a bit of leeway going up the ice, you know it’s coming out. That’s a tough play to execute, especially late in the period. The way the ice is and you’re killing a penalty. He did a good job executing that.”

Poganski would add a power play in the second period to give UND a 2-0 lead.

That was all UND need. The Pioneers were unable to get any pucks past sophomore goalie Cam Johnson who stopped all 18 shots he faced recording the first shutout of his career.

With the win, Johnson improves to (5-0-1, 1.53 GAA, .934 SV%). Over the past three weekends, Johnson is (4-0-0, 1.35 GAA and .947 GAA).

Cam (Johnson) did an outstanding job getting the shutout tonight,” Berry said. “I thought tonight, he didn’t get tested a whole lot, but he had to be sharp, especially in the third. Again with their D-men jumping up in the third, and having to make a few key saves at key times.”

After getting tired of watching Poganski score goals, the CBS line found an extra gear, a small seam and chipped in two quick goals from Drake Caggiula and Brock Boeser 27 seconds apart to give UND a 4-0.

“It was a good win for us,” Poganski said. “Denver is a rival of ours. I think we executed our game plan for 60-minutes.”

With the sweep, UND improves to 14-2-2 and 7-1-0 in the NCHC. UND is all alone in first place with 21 points.

Next weekend, the Fighting Hawks make the trek down highway two, to take on the University of Minnesota-Duluth in an important two-game conference series.

(Official Box Score)

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