GRAND FORKS — Bennett Zmolek walked into the postgame press conference Saturday night.
He answered questions from the assembled media for a few minutes. A grimace never left his face.
A 5-1 loss to your biggest rival at home will do that.
Minnesota broke a 1-1 tie early in the third period with a long-range shot from seventh defenseman Max Rud, then the Fighting Hawks unraveled the rest of the way en route to their first loss of the season.
“We weren’t good enough,” said Zmolek, UND’s captain. “We didn’t play to our standard. Bottom line, we had 20 minutes to win a game.”
After Rud’s first collegiate goal, Leo Gruba sniped one as a power play expired, Brody Lamb scored on an odd-man rush as UND pressed for offense and L.J. Mooney iced it with an empty-netter.
The rivalry series ended in usual fashion — a split.
UND and Minnesota have split their last four series. There’s only been one sweep in the last 10 North Dakota-Minnesota series.
“Minnesota played really good tonight,” UND defenseman Abram Wiebe said. “I thought they deserved the win. I thought they did a great job in the neutral zone, kind of clogging it for us. But something I thought we didn’t do was just get pucks in deep. I thought we overhandled pucks a little bit, not hitting the tape. We have to learn from our mistakes this weekend.”
UND will travel to Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., next weekend with a 3-1 record.
The Fighting Hawks will be coming off their first setback of the season.
They cruised through their first three games, piling up goals and wins. They scored 11 goals in a sweep over St. Thomas and earned a 5-2 victory in the series opener against the Gophers.
But they struggled to get to Minnesota goalie Luca Di Pasquo in the series finale.
The lone goal came on a point shot by freshman defenseman Keaton Verhoeff in the first period.
“(Friday) night, we did such a good job of consistently playing hard,” UND coach Dane Jackson said. “We really did a good job of puck management and checking. Tonight, I thought it was a little bit intermittent. We didn’t really do a great job of resetting and being ready for the push that they had. We all know in college hockey, you’ve got to amp it up another level for the second night. I thought we were a little bit back from where we were.”
The teams traded goals in the first, then the game bogged down in the second.
Minnesota had just eight shots on goal through two periods, despite having four power plays. But the Gophers made a push in the third. They outshot UND 13-7 in the final frame.
“I think we let off the throttle,” Zmolek said. “I thought we didn’t match their intensity. I thought they deserved to win. The biggest thing is we didn’t match their intensity. We didn’t play with the grit we normally have. We didn’t get to the dirty areas.”
Penalties were also a factor in the series.
The Gophers gave UND seven power plays on Friday night. While UND didn’t score on the advantage until Minnesota pulled its goalie, the penalty killing wore on Minnesota.
On Saturday, UND handed the Gophers six power plays. They scored one power-play goal — and added another just seconds after a power play expired.
“Not real smart there,” Jackson said of the stick penalties. “A team like Minnesota is obviously really good at that and they’re going to build momentum and get chances. We’ve got to be a little better there. We can definitely talk about that and continue to really stress it and make a point of being more disciplined in that area.”
UND’s last sweep of Minnesota came in November 2019 in Minneapolis. UND hasn’t done it at home since January 2009.
The Gophers last swept UND in November 2011 in Minneapolis.
The teams are scheduled to play in Minneapolis on Oct. 23-24, 2026. They’ll return to Grand Forks in 2027-28.
“We’re going to be back up here in two years,” Minnesota coach Bob Motzko said. “A series like this, because we’re a young team, in two years we’re going to have a lot of experience and be better coming back.”
UND hopes to learn lessons from Saturday’s series finale.
“I thought when they scored that second goal, something we always preach is the next shift, you have to forget about that goal and just move forward,” Wiebe said. “I thought we didn’t do that tonight. That’s something we can learn from and grow from. Obviously, it’s early in the season. We’ve got a lot of games to do that. Right now, it’s just learn from that, grow from that and go into the next series.”
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