by Adam Wodon/Managing Editor (@chn-adam-wodon)
North Dakota faced a lot of turnover from last season, perhaps most notably with its coach.
One alum, Brad Berry, was replaced with another, his assistant, Dane Jackson. The sentiment from the school was that the team wasn’t performing well enough after just missing the NCAAs last year. Given the fact that Brad Berry’s teams made five NCAA Tournaments, won a championship, and won 26 games just two seasons ago, it’s clear how high the expectations are in Grand Forks.
To that end, so far this season has been a sucess. While there’s a ways to go, and more things to work on, North Dakota is currently 5th in the NPI (this year’s new system for selecting the NCAA Tournament field, replacing the Pairwise).
And the Fighting Hawks are coming off a pair of road wins at St. Cloud State, which bolstered their math, to be sure, and their record to 12-4 (6-2 NCHC).
The coaching change was not the only fanfare over the offseason. Big names like Sacha Boisvert and Owen McLaughlin transferred out, while North Dakota raised eyebrows by plucking a pair of players from Canadian Major Junior — Cole Reschny and Keaton Verhoeff. Reschny was a first-round draft pick last June, while Verhoeff is currently projected to go in the top three of next year’s draft. Though the door had opened to Major Junior players, thanks to last year’s NCAA ruling, the movement of Reschny and Verhoeff released the floodgates hit Canada like a thunderbolt.
Their time at North Dakota hasn’t perhaps been quite that dramatic yet, but it has been as strong as any freshmen in the country, and that’s plenty good. Reschny has just two goals, but leads the team with 18 points. Verhoeff has 11 points and plays 19 minutes a night.
There were other heroes this past weekend, some you’d expect and some not.
Friday’s game, North Dakota took a 2-1 lead after one period thanks to goals from a third and fourth liner. Later, it was its more familiar goal scorers who got it done — Dylan James with his eighth, and Will Zellers, getting the eventual game winner.
Zellers came to North Dakota this year with less fanfare thanks to his more traditional route. The Minnesota native played last season for Green Bay of the USHL. But all he’s done is lead the team in goals with 10, one ahead of senior Ben Strinden.
“We always knew Will had that kind of gift and knack to score,” Jackson said. “(What’s) been really impressive for me with Will is, he takes pucks to the net. He gets to the inside. He’s got a really good one-timer and a good shot, but he consistently takes pucks to the paint, drives them there, finishes there. So you kind of see why he consistently scores.
“We thought he had some holes in his game, but we’ve kind of challenged him on that. And I’ve been really impressed with his willingness and effort level defensively to kind of block shots, take hits to make plays, to manage the puck well. He showed a real kind of maturity at our level.”Â
Saturday, when you expect the home team to come out mad, North Dakota actually took a 2-0 lead and the ice was tilted in its favor. But that’s when penalties began to pile up.
The worst of those was an ill-advised butt-ending penalty by Verhoeff. It wasn’t that hard of a shot, but it wasn’t smart either, and came with the referee looking right at him from about five feet away.
“He was disappointed in himself,” Jackson said. “I don’t think there was really an intent to injure anything. I think he kind of brain cramped a bit there. He felt really badly, obviously. But the nice thing about Keaton is he’s a really humble, well-liked teammate. All of us have done something where we go, ‘Oh, God, I want those five seconds back.’ And so I think the whole team just kind of rallied around … and let’s get after it and try to put extra effort in to try to get this penalty kill done.”
The Huskies did get one goal, and tied the game. But on yet another power play, North Dakota star defenseman Jake Livanavage stepped up. The sophomore took advantage of a broken play, and went the other way 2-on-1. He finished it off for a shorthanded goal, then added an empty netter later to seal the sweep. All Livanavage is doing is playing 24-plus minutes a night, and he’s contributing mightily even when he’s not scoring dramatic goals.
“He’s such a such a good two-way player,” Jackson said. “A lot of people knew that he was a good offensive guy, but his defensive game was really strong. We play him against their team’s best players. He is a very good defensive player. Obviously, he’s a great breakout of the puck and great at the offensive blue line as well. But a friend of our program (former coach) Dave Hakstol watched our games last year, and he came away just raving about Jake and about how strong his two-way game was.”
It’s hard to believe we’ve gotten this far without mentioning freshman goaltender Jan Spunar, who, oh by the way, has gone 8-0 this season and has a .929 save percentage.
North Dakota has been on the transfer wheel with goalies the last few years, and figured it might have to again, with Gibson Homer coming from Arizona State. But Spunar has come along much quicker than anticipated. The Czechia native, who spent three years in North American before even coming to North Dakota, got an opportunity first against Clarkson on the road, the night after a loss, and pitched a shutout. He began to split time, but eventually took over, starting the last four games.
Spunar was an all-star in the USHL last year, but wouldn’t have been available to North Dakota under the old rules, since he spent the two years before that at Portland of the Major Junior WHL.
“We knew he was really good. We sure hope he can sustain what he’s doing,” Jackson said. “Another kind of element of his that’s been really nice is just what a good puck handler he has. He’s helped us so much in our breakouts because he gets out and handles a lot of pucks and puts our D in advantage situations. So yeah, we’re sure are excited about how he’s played.
“I think any time you go to a top program, you’re going to have competition. We think Gibson Homer is still a really good goalie. He’s played well. We had a couple nights where we did not play very well in front of him. He’s had some really strong performances for us. We like the idea that we think we’re going to have some good competition along the way. And you always need the depth down the stretch.”
The one drawback, if you will, of all these blue chippers coming from Major Junior now, is that Canada wants them back for the World Junior Tournament. College programs have kept their schedules open in later December and early January for Team USA players, but Canada brings its players in much earlier. So Reschny and Verhoeff are going to miss this weekends games against Omaha.
“Yeah, it is what it is. We always kind of think you get a better player back when our guys have gone to the World Juniors. They have great experiences and they come back with a high level hockey under their belt and we get a better player down the stretch. So we’re happy for them to be able to represent their country and have a great experience and be ready for the second-half.”
Zellers was just added to Team USA’s camp, and he’ll join EJ Emery, but those guys will not leave until the week after, when North Dakota is idle. North Dakota will have four players gone when it hosts Mercyhurt on Jan. 2-3, but will have everyone back for the league weekend at Colorado College on Jan. 9-10.
Livanavage and Abram Wiebe are going to the Spengler Cup in Switzerland after Christmas, but that shouldn’t affect any time with North Dakota.
For much more with coach Dane Jackson, check out the new CHN Insiders Podcast, which is being recorded Tuesday and will be available by Wednesday, Dec. 10.