North Dakota

Major penalty dooms UMD in loss to North Dakota

Published

2 months ago

February 8, 2026

Press Room

Major penalty dooms UMD in loss to North Dakota

DULUTH — North Dakota scored on its power play chances Saturday, and Minnesota Duluth did not.

The result was a 4-1 victory for the No. 3-ranked Fighting Hawks over the No. 10 Bulldogs in NCHC play at Amsoil Arena.

Sophomore wing Mac Swanson, freshman wing Will Zellers and senior wing Dylan James scored for the Hawks, all in the third period. James scored two breakaway goals to clinch the win, putting his second into an empty net.

Sophomore center Zam Plante was credited with the Bulldogs’ lone goal after a shot by his younger brother and linemate, wing Max Plante, went in off the elder Plante’s skate with 7:58 to play, pulling UMD within a goal before James answered.

Freshman goaltender Jan Spunar made 25 saves for North Dakota while Bulldogs sophomore Ethan Dahlmeir finished with 24 saves.

“That’s playoff hockey, that’s how tight it is going to be,” said Bulldogs senior defenseman and captain Joey Pierce about how UMD’s series with North Dakota felt. “That’s how small the margin is — one little shift, one little decision. That’s something we need to learn from and think about. Everyone has to realize every decision they’re making matters. I think we do that at times, but we have to be able to do that all the time.”

Minnesota Duluth forward Kyler Kovich (38) rests during a media timeout against North Dakota on Saturday at Amsoil Arena in Duluth.

Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group

North Dakota took command on a five-minute power play in the third period to break open a scoreless game. Zellers and Swanson both scored while UMD senior center Kyle Kovich sat for five minutes in the penalty box for boarding.

The Hawks finished the game 2-for-5 on the power play, going 2-for-3 on the Kovich major that came 3:37 into the third period.

“We took a bad penalty in the third period and it cost us the game,” Bulldogs coach Scott Sandelin said. “That’s all that needs to be said.

“We’re in a tight game. It was back and forth, 0-0. Going into the third period we had a chance to win a game. We take a penalty. Good teams, like they usually do, capitalize. I would hope we do the same thing. It’s the difference in the game.”

The Bulldogs went 0-for-3 on the power play in the first period,

just as they did Friday night in the 3-2 overtime win.

North Dakota took three penalties in less than four minutes in the first period, giving UMD a 5-on-3 advantage for 46 seconds at one point.

college men play ice hockey — Minnesota Duluth forward Scout Truman (24) skates against North Dakota forward Cade Littler (20) on Saturday at Amsoil Arena in Duluth.

UMD had the best power play in the NCAA coming into the weekend at 32.3%, but dropped to second behind Minnesota after Friday’s results — the Gophers entered Saturday 32.5% — as UND held UMD to 1-for-5 on Friday.

North Dakota took a fourth penalty to close the first period, giving UMD a power play to start the second period. UMD didn’t convert on that one, either, and finished the game 0-for-4 after not getting another power play Saturday.

UMD put seven shots on Spunar on four power plays that spanned 7:14, but Max Plante said he didn’t feel good about how the power play performed.

“We’re having chances, the power play should have chances, but we’ve got to capitalize on them,” Max Plante said. “I don’t know what needs to change. Maybe move the puck faster. Myself, I need to make smarter plays. It just needs to be better.”

North Dakota had a goal overturned by a UMD challenge early in the second period. The Bulldogs successfully challenged for offside, wiping out what would have been the first goal of the season for Hawks sophomore defenseman Jayden Jubenvill.

There were three video reviews Saturday. The first two — the offside challenge by UMD and a North Dakota challenge for a missed major penalty — both went in the Bulldogs’ direction. The referees initiated the third review, which was of Kovich’s hit in the North Dakota zone, ruling it was worthy of a major penalty.

Why did Sandelin not challenge a hit from behind on Luke Bibby in the third period? The Bulldogs freshman wing was hit from behind into the wall with UMD down 2-1. The hit looked similar to what landed Kovich in the penalty box for five minutes.

Sandelin had a conversation with the referees, and then decided not the challenge the hit.

“They came over and told me it was a dive,” Sandelin said. “I said, ‘Well then why don’t you call the penalty on us?’”

Sandelin didn’t blame the referees for the loss. He blamed his team’s lack of discipline, something they discussed after the second period ended with a scrum that had UMD junior defenseman Brady Cleveland and North Dakota sophomore wing Cody Croal starting the third in the penalty box.

The coach felt the momentum of Saturday’s game was swinging in their favor, that North Dakota was getting frustrated. Then Kovich took a major penalty.

“We did it to ourselves. We put ourselves in a bad position and can’t do that,” Sandelin said. “We talked about it in between periods. Stay disciplined. You know what? Every time we talk about it, we do something dumb. It’s unbelievable, so I don’t know if I should stop talking about it?”

Dahlmeir suffered his first loss in the UMD net Saturday. The Bulldogs backup is filling in for starter Adam Gajan, who is with Slovakia at the 2026 Olympics in Italy. Dahlmeir, a transfer from Miami, started his UMD career 3-0, including a win Friday in goal against North Dakota. He’s now 4-11-1 as the goalie of record in his college career.

The Hawks leave Duluth battered and bruised. UND was without one half of its top defensive pairing Saturday — senior Bennet Zmolek — because of an undisclosed injury.

Freshman center Cole Reschny left the game in the second period with a lower-body injury after getting slashed by Cleveland on a breakaway. He and Cleveland got tied up and crashed hard into the end wall together.

Reschny had to be helped off the ice, unable to put weight on his left leg.

The Bulldogs got their first sellout of 2025-26 on Saturday, with an announced crowd of 6,869. That tops Friday’s season-high of 6,668, which was 88 tickets short of a sellout. The previous high at Amsoil Arena in 2025-26 over the first 13 home games was 5,801 on Saturday, Jan. 4 against Western Michigan. UMD entered the weekend averaging 5,337 fans per game, which ranked 10th in the NCAA and fourth in the NCHC.

The Bulldogs have two regular season home games remaining, Feb. 27-28 against Colorado College, and hold the final spot to host a best-of-three NCHC quarterfinal series March 6-8, sitting fourth in the NCHC.

The Bulldogs are idle next weekend before hitting the road for the final time in the 2025-26 regular season at Miami. The Bulldogs and RedHawks drop the puck at 4:30 p.m. CST on Feb. 20 and at 5:05 p.m. CST on Feb. 21.

North Dakota 0-0-4—4
Minnesota Duluth 0-0-1—1
First period
No scoring.
Second period
No scoring.
Third period
1. ND, Mac Swanson (Will Zellers, Abram Wiebe), 4:49 (pp)
2. ND, Zellers (Wiebe, Swanson), 7:35 (pp)
3. UMD, Zam Plante (Max Plante, Aaron Pionk), 12:02
4. ND, Dylan James (Wiebe), 14:44
5. ND, James (Ben Striden), 17:06 (en)
Saves — Jan Spunar, ND, 25; Ethan Dahlmeir, UMD, 24.
Power play — ND 2-5; UMD 0-4. Penalties — ND 5-10; UMD 4-11.

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North Dakota

North Dakota punches ticket to 23rd Frozen Four in SF

Published

7 hours ago

March 30, 2026

Press Room

North Dakota punches ticket to 23rd Frozen Four in SF

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The NCAA men’s ice hockey Sioux Falls regional came to a close Saturday night as North Dakota claimed a 5-0 win over Quinnipiac to punch the program’s 23rd trip to the Frozen Four and first in a decade.

The Fighting Hawks jumped on the board early with three goals in the first and added two more in the second.

“It’s one thing to give guys a game plan, but they had to execute it,” North Dakota head coach Dane Jackson said. “You got enough sharp guys that have hockey sense and puck poise and selflessness. We have high-end players. They kind of want to do better because they can, but we just said, ‘hey, let’s take what the game gives us and kind of let the puck do the work.’”

The Fighting Hawks open the Frozen Four against Wisconsin on April 9 in Las Vegas.

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North Dakota

Balanced Attack Leads Team North Dakota to Youth Tier II 16U 1A Championship

Published

19 hours ago

March 29, 2026

Press Room

Balanced Attack Leads Team North Dakota to Youth Tier II 16U 1A Championship

IRVINE, Calif. — Team North Dakota (ND) coach Jared Cowan didn’t have many words to share after he had just witnessed his program’s first title.

“Not many words so far here, it was a great tournament,” Cowan said. “The kids played hard, resilient and they put in the work. They deserve it.”

His kids played nearly perfect in the 1A title game of the 2026 Chipotle-USA Hockey Youth Tier II 16U National Championship at Great Park Ice, taking down Team Wyoming 9-0 on Sunday.

A four-goal second period helped North Dakota take control of a game that featured 36 total penalties.

Asher Straus scored twice for North Dakota, while Nathan Fogarty, Ray Sjule, Tyler Dub, Carson Hogness, Keegan Brenno and Colton Lehn rounded out the team’s goals. There was one goal unaccounted for on the final stat sheet.

Balanced scoring has been a theme for North Dakota in this tournament. Sjule and Lehn became the 13th and 14th players to score a goal for North Dakota at nationals. Lehn led the tournament with eight assists, while Straus and Hogness tied for the team lead with five goals.

Unlike some other teams at nationals, the North Dakota roster came back together following the high school season and made a run to the national championship, just the third in state history.

“You’ve got to relearn how people play,” said Hogness, a co-captain. “People play differently in high schools, different systems, all that. So it’s a different aspect when you come back together and play. But it was fun.”

North Dakota’s 32-9 advantage in shots didn’t leave much work for goaltender Alex Straus, who had a nice kick save during a Wyoming power play midway through the first period that might have been the toughest he had to make Sunday. It was his second shutout of the tournament.

“It means a lot,” Alex Straus said. “Three weeks ago, I was on the other side, losing in the state championship, so this means a lot to me.”

Alex Straus gave a lot of the credit to his defense, which was fantastic throughout nationals. North Dakota allowed four goals in five games.

“I think they’re pretty good,” Alex Straus said. “They block a lot of shots. Get the puck out deep and I think they listen to me pretty well when I give them some communication.”

Cowan said he had to shift two forwards back to defense for this tournament due to injuries and they kept the standard high.

“They put pressure on everything, and they don’t give up too many odd-man rushes and they block shots when they need to,” Cowan said.

It’s just a good system to play in.”

Fogarty got the scoring started when, after the Wyoming goaltender had seemingly stopped the puck following a point-blank shot, he stuffed the puck into the goal 2:18 into the game.

“That’s what we try to do,” Cowan said. “We try to get that first one quick, and then just keep building on that with pressure and playing our position and playing connected in all three zones.”

Wyoming had two shutouts en route to the championship game, the second straight for several members of this roster. Wyoming dropped the Tier II 14U national championship game a year ago.

“I can’t give enough props to two teams from the Northern Plains both being here and that one of us gets to walk away a national champion,” Wyoming coach Kasey Kiel said. “But the fact is, out of everybody across the whole country, we’ve got two Northern Plains representatives. That’s fun.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

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North Dakota

Today in History: March 29, 1940 – New N.W. REA Minn-Kota unit organizes

Published

1 day ago

March 29, 2026

Press Room

Today in History: March 29, 1940 – New N.W. REA Minn-Kota unit organizes

Today in History revisits the Friday, March 29, 1940, edition of the Grand Forks Herald and highlights a story of the organization of the Minn-Kota Electric Power Co-operative.

New N. W. REA Unit Organizes

Organization of the Minn-Kota Electric Power Co-operative, to direct farm electricity units in Minnesota and North Dakota counties along the Red river was completed at a meeting here Thursday night.

P. J. Donelly, Grafton, a director of the Nodak co-operative, was named president. Other officers will be S. E. Hunt of Thief River Falls, a director of the Red Lake Rural Electric association; vice president; Victor Edman of Alvarado, Minn., P K and M co-operative, secretary – treasurer; Einar Johnson of Lakota, attorney and A. L. Freeman of Grand Forks, acting superintendent. Engineers will be Ellerby and Co. of St. Paul.

Power co-operative directors who attended were Hugh M. Trowbridge of Comstock, Minn., Red River Valley Electric association; O. P. Refling, Fertile, Minn., Wild Rice Rural Electric co-op; Harry Branigan, Shelvin, Minn., Itasca-Mantrap REA; M. D. Butler, Grand Forks, F. C. Chandler, Whitman, N. D., L. C. Odegard, Buxton, N. D., and Donelly, Nodak Rural Electric co-operative, Hunt and Edman.

Besides the nine directors, those in attendance included George J. Long of Washington, D. C., assistant engineering head of the rural electrification administration; G. B. Ellerbe & Co., engineer, St. Paul; W. T. DePuy, Nodak attorney, Grafton.

Grand Forks Herald archive image of a Trepanier Pharmacy advertisement as published on March 29, 1940.

Our newsroom occasionally reports stories under a byline of “staff.” Often, the “staff” byline is used when rewriting basic news briefs that originate from official sources, such as a city press release about a road closure, and which require little or no reporting. At times, this byline is used when a news story includes numerous authors or when the story is formed by aggregating previously reported news from various sources. If outside sources are used, it is noted within the story.

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