No. 8/7 UND blanks St. Thomas, 2-0, in series opener

No. 8/7 North Dakota extended its unbeaten streak to three with a 2-0 victory over St. Thomas on Friday night from Lee & Penny Anderson Arena in St. Paul, Minn.

The Details

Sophomore goaltender Jan Špunar was stout between the pipes all night, as he turned aside all 19 shots fired his away for his first shutout of the season and seventh of his career. The Olomouc, Czechia, native continues to dominate NCHC opponents, improving to 14-3-2 in conference games.

Sophomore forward Will Zellers (4) and senior forward Anthony Menghini (4) each found the back of the net in the win to help the Fighting Hawks (6-3-1, 2-0-1 NCHC) remain unbeaten in league play. Fellow sophomore forward Ollie Josephson extended his point streak to four games with a helper while UND improved to 3-0-0 all-time against the Tommies (4-5-0, 1-2-0 NCHC).

UND didn’t waste much time getting an early lead on the road, as Zellers pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired it through the goaltender’s legs for his fourth of the season just 2:04 into the contest to give the visitors a 1-0 advantage after 20 minutes.

It was a defensive stalwart in the middle frame, with neither side getting much going offensively. UND had a couple of good looks on a pair of power plays, including a scramble right in front of the net, but could not build on its 1-0 lead heading into the final stanza.

Špunar and the UND defensive group had to come up big in the early moments of the third, as the sophomore netminder made a few key saves before Brasen Boser blocked a UST shot with an open net behind him to keep NoDak in front, 1-0.

Moments later, Josephson forced a turnover in the offensive zone and found Menghini alone in the slot, where the senior blasted home his fourth of the season to make it 2-0 UND early in the final frame.

UND held strong over the final 16-plus minutes of action, including killing off two Tommie power plays, to help Špunar secure the shutout and the victory in the series opener.

North Dakota will go for the series sweep tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. (CT) on Midco Sports, NCHC.tv and the Fighting Hawks Radio Network.

Postgame Notes

UND improves to 3-0-0 all-time against St. Thomas and is 2-0-0 in St. Paul The Fighting Hawks are unbeaten in their last three games (2-0-1)

Jan Špunar finished with 19 saves to record his first shutout of the season and seventh of his career The seven shutouts are one behind Adam Scheel (2018-21) for sixth all-time at UND UND has held opponents to under 20 shots in each of its last three games Will Zellers scored his fourth goal of the season Anthony Menghini also scored his fourth goal of the year Ollie Josephson extended his point streak to four games with an assist NoDak improves to 2-2-0 this season on the road UND did not allow a goal in the third period for the first time since Oct.

17 vs. Bentley NoDak was 0-for-2 on the power play while St. Thomas was 0-for-3 Shots were 31-19 UND Faceoffs were 35-25 UND, with Josephson leading UND at 10-7 How It Happened First Period:

02:04 | UND – Will Zellers (4) from Ethan MacKenzie (2) and Cooper Simpson (2)

• Second Period:
• No scoring
• Third Period:

03:51 | UND – Anthony Menghini (4) from Ollie Josephson (4) and Keaton Verhoeff (3)