The University of North Dakota started the off-season by adding 14 new players. They dipped into the NCAA Transfer Portal and added four defensemen, two forwards, and a goalie. All the players they added through the portal have significantly impacted the 2023-24 UND hockey team. This week, after going 9-2-1 to start the season, UND received the number one ranking in the USCHO and USA Today Polls. I am not sure many expected that after replacing its entire ‘D’ core and adding two new goalies.
Let’s look at how the new players have done:
Hunter Johannes, four games (6g-3a—9pts), plus-six. Last season, he was one of the penalized players in college hockey 87 PIM. This season, he has three minor penalties for 6 PIM. He’s ranked 15th in the NCHC for goals.
Cameron Berg, four games, (2g-7a—9pts), he’s a plus-seven. Berg is one of the top faceoff men in the NCHC. He’s ranked eighth in the NCHC for faceoff wins and first overall in the NCHC for faceoff winning percentage.
Garrett Pyke, with four games (0g-9a—9pts) and plus-six, he’s ranked 11th in the NCHC for assists.
Logan Britt, four games (2g-3a—5pts), he’s a plus-eight. That leads the Fighting Hawks.
Bennett Zmolek, four games (0g-2a—2pts), plus-six. He leads the NCHC with 27 blocked shots despite missing two games with an injury.
Keaton Pehrson, three games (0g-3a—3pts), plus-four, he’s been paired with highly touted freshman d-man Jake Livanavage. He was also injured during the Minnesota series and missed five games due to injury.
Ludvig Persson, (9-2-1, 2.00 GAA, and .917 save percent. He also has two shutouts. He was named the NCHC Goalie of the Week three weeks in a row and was also named the NCHC Goalie of the Month for October. Finally, Persson is ranked number one in the NCHC for GAA, third in saves per game, and first in save percentage.
The Players that Left.
Luke Bast, UMD, five games (2g—0a—2pts) minus-three. The Bulldogs are in the midst of a 0-7-1 streak.
Nick Potz, SCSU, six games (1g-1a—2pts) plus/minus-even. He’s played in eight of the Huskies 12 games. He scored the first goal of his Husky career on October 20th, 2023.
Brent Johnson, OSU, five games (3g-1a—4pts) minus-two, after a two-week bye, the Ohio State Buckeyes are back in action against the Princeton Tigers. The Buckeyes are in the midst of a four-game losing streak.
Cooper Moore, QU five games, (0g-9a—9pts) plus-eight. He had four assists in his last game against Colgate. Last Wednesday against Boston University, at the 17:09 mark of the third period, Moore took a two-minute interference penalty. Exactly one minute later, the Terriers forward Ryan Greene scored the game-winning goal on the power play.
Matteo Costantini, WMU, four games (3g-3a—6pts) plus-five. He’s been held scoreless in the last four games. He’s sixth on the team in scoring for the Broncos. The Broncos are 3-3-0 in the last six games.
Jakob Hellsten, UNH, one game (3-1-1, GAA 0.99, and a .951 save percentage), he’s 1-1-1 during the month of November. He’s split time with Tyler Muszelik, who’s 3-1-0 with a 3.45 GAA and a .879 save percentage.
