GRAND FORKS, N.D. – The No. 4 University of Denver hockey team fell 5-2 to the No. 5 North Dakota Fighting Hawks on Friday night at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
 
"I thought our offensive execution wasn't what it normally is," said Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle. "Give them a lot of credit for that. They were back. They made life hard on us. I thought we were able to open the game on a few occasions, but obviously not enough. It's a tight game. It's a great game for us to be in. These are the types of the games that you will play in the NCAA Tournament."
 
DU (17-6-2, 8-4-1 NCHC) goes for the weekend split on Saturday at 5 p.m. MT as the schools conclude their two-game set and regular-season series. The contest will be broadcasted on NCHC.tv.
 
The Fighting Hawks (17-6-2, 8-4-1 NCHC) tallied the first two goals of the game, but the Pioneers twice got the score within one in the second and third periods. Freshman Zeev Buium buried a wraparound to cut the Denver deficit to 2-1 at 13:18 of the middle frame and sophomore Aidan Thompson registered his seventh marker of the campaign at 14:42 of the third.
 
North Dakota added two empty-net goals in the final minute of play to seal the victory.
 
Senior Connor Caponi, junior Shai Buium, sophomore Tristan Lemyre and freshman Miko Matikka all recorded assists in the contest. Junior goaltender Matt Davis made 24-of-27 saves, including 11 in the third period.
 
UND opened the scoring in the second period after no goals were recorded in the first stanza. Both Dylan James and Griffin Ness found the back of the cage in the middle period, and Jackson Blake pushed the Hawks' advantage to 3-1 on a power-play marker with 2:50 remaining before the intermission.
 
Denver went 0-for-2 on the power play.
 
North Dakota goaltender Ludvig Persson finished with 17 saves, and the Hawks concluded the night with a 29-19 edge in shots on goal.
 
UP NEXT: The Pioneers conclude their four-game road swing on Saturday at North Dakota before hosting Western Michigan next week at Magness Arena.
 
 
POSTGAME NOTES

• Junior Tristan Broz played in his 100th career game
• Zeev Buium scored to push his point streak to four games (1g/6a) and now has points in 15 of his last 16 games.
• Connor Caponi registered an assist and has points in consecutive games for the third time in his career (last: Jan. 14-20, 2023, 0g/2a).
• DU had its season-long seven-game unbeaten streak (6-0-1) end.
• Carter King was held off the scoresheet to end his career-long 11-game point streak (7g/6a) .
• Goaltender Matt Davis suffered his second loss of the season and had his career-best eight-game unbeaten streak conclude (was 6-0-2 since Oct. 21).
• The Pioneers are now 5-2-0 vs. the Fighting Hawks in their last seven matchups.
• UND wins the season series 2-1-0, as its win on Dec. 2 came in overtime (5-2 points).

GOAL SUMMARY
1st Period
No Scoring
 
2nd Period
5:12 UND (0-1) – Dylan James fired a loose puck into an open net after Jackson Blake's attempt on an odd-man rush was initially denied but still got past the DU netminder.
11:41 UND (0-2) – Griffin Ness scored far-side on a shot at the right circle during a rush.
13:18 DU (1-2) – Zeev Buium went far-side on a shot during a wraparound chance.
17:10 UND (1-3) – PPG, Jackson Blake tallied on a wrister at the right circle while the Pioneer goalie was screened in front.
 
3rd Period
14:42 DU (2-3) – Aidan Thompson hit twine with a wrister at the right circle after getting cross-pass from Miko Matikka.
19:05 UND (2-4) – ENG, Cameron Berg scored into an empty net from center ice.
19:32 UND (2-5) – ENG, Ben Strinden added another marker into the open cage.
 
 
QUOTABLES
Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle
On the game: "I thought our discipline was really good. I thought our emotional control was really good. I would have liked a little better execution offensively and they get two, 2-on-1s in the game off turnovers from us—one in the high zone, one in the neutral ice and they go back the other way and were able to put it in the back of the net. In the power play, we were 0-for-2 and they were 1-for-2, so that's really the difference tonight. It was a race to three tonight and unfortunately they got there first."
 
On getting quality offensive chances: "We did some good things on getting into those positions, and we created some turnover sand some really good ice for us. But we weren't able to execute the way we normally do. I think a lot of it is their back-pressure, their ability to recover middle. They're certainly well-coached, they had a concerted effort, and they were playing the No. 1 offense in the country, and I'm going to guess they worked on a lot of defense this week. You could see that, we didn't make the uncomfortable enough consistently enough."
 

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