UND Starters:
Gothberg
Simpson - Schmaltz
Caggiula - Parks - MarkMacMillan
Wisconsin Starters:
Rumpel
McCabe - Faust
Kerdiles - Barnes - Zengerle
The first whistle was for a puck over the netting 1:06 into the game. Yes, I said over the netting. Following a scrum in front of the North Dakota net and a save covered by Gothberg, Zulinick of Wisconsin and Pattyn of North Dakota were sent off for coincidental roughing penalties.
The first goal of the game was for North Dakota at 5:06. Parks scored after Caggiula pass it off the back boards; Mark Mac also was given an assist on that play.
At 9:45, an apparent NoDak goal was waved off, and Bryn Chyzyk (who some thought had scored at the far end) was sent off for goaltender interference. As the penalty was about to end, Sioux captain Dillon Simpson skated to the bench with an injury. With four seconds to kill on the penalty, Soleway of Wisconsin came down the near side on his left wing and put one past Gothberg to tie the game at 1-1.
Gothberg made a few more saves, including a great one with 7:05 showing on the clock and he covered the rebound.
Wisconsin's Dahl was sent off for tripping Nick Mattson at 14:23. Little for Wisconsin had a short-handed breakaway stopped just as Mattson caught up with him.
At the end of the first period, Gothberg noticed a small black thing by his crease -- no larger than the butt-end of a stick. He gave it to Stecher as LaDue controlled the puck to end the first period.
ESPN talked to Michael Parks at the beginning of the intermission; first period shots were 11-8 in favor of Wisconsin.
The second period began quickly and Gothberg made his first save just 10 seconds in. Rocco Grimaldi countered with a breakaway that became a 1-on-1 ; Rumpel was able to stop it with 18:52 to play. O'Donnell's shot was on net with 18:15 to play; Gothberg held on to a shot eight seconds later. With the play behind the UND net, the trail referee came in all the way to the blue line. It took a whole minute before the Don't-call-them-the-Sioux could clear -- Wisconsin was spending entirely too much time in the UND zone.
Finally they brought the play back to my end of the ice. Schmaltz had a shot turned away. Gaarder had a shot. Grimaldi broke loose after a turnover and scored unassisted at 6:45 of the second to give the Sioux a 2-1 lead. Rocco's celebration was right in front of me.
Luke Johnson had a couple of shots on either side of the TV timeout with 11:26 on the clock; Grimaldi was sent off for roughing 9:00 into the period.
Gaarder had a short-handed rush. Play was stopped because the puck was played with a high stick. Sioux defenseman Stecher got a shot off that Rumpel saved with his blocker. With 41 seconds to go on the power play, Rumpel hung on to the puck. Thirty seconds later, play was stopped. During the TV timeout, Wisconsin was penalized for too many men on the ice. The ice itself had some problems in the zone in front of me, between the circles and the blue line. Wisconsin killed that penalty, as well as a penalty on 16 Labate at 13:48 for taking down Rodwell. Schmaltz had some problems keeping the puck in the zone while playing the point. Mersch had a shorthanded breakaway stopped for Wisconsin. With 3:04 on the clock, they had another TV timeout.
The Badgers committed a penalty (Simonelli would be sent off for tripping at 17:16). Before the whistle, Caggiula hit the pipe behind Rumpel. After the Badgers killed that penalty (they did a bunch of that), coincidental minors were given out with 16.3 seconds to play in the period -- O'Donnell and Kerdiles for unsportsmanlike conduct. Gothberg covered a Wisconsin shot with 3.1 seconds to play; since the faceoff was deep in the NoDak end, Wisconsin pulled their goaltender. Nothing happened. Second period shots were 13-7 to give the Sioux a two-period total of 21-18 in favor of the green sweaters. UND led 2-1 at the second intermission.
The teams and officials lined up for the third period faceoff before the off-ice officials had reset the game clock to 20:00. They did get it reset before the drop of the puck, but they neglected to turn on the penalty clocks. When Rempel covered a shot from Schmalz at 19:29 on the clock, the penalty clocks still showed 1:43 for Kerdiles and O'Donnell. The penalized players were standing in the box and upset. The coaches got the attention of the officals, and the penalties were canceled and reset at 1:23.
After the penalties expired, UND's Michael Parks was called for holding at 1:57. He grabbed the Badger player's sweater by the far boards. The lead referee did not call it, but the trail referee did. There seemed to be more faceoffs in the Wisconsin end. At 7:07, McCabe was sent off for interference right after a faceoff -- the puck went into the corner behind the Wisconsin goaltender, but McCabe would not let the UND wing get back there to chase it. Shortly after Wisconsin killed that penalty, a puck came into the UND zone and Barnes scored at 9:39 (from Kerdiles and Zengerle) through Gothberg's five-hole. The play was reviewed; it was allowed to stand. Most of us in my section could not tell why they were reviewing the play. When I saw the replay on ESPNU, the review was to see if the Badgers had entered the zone offside. This tied the game at 2-2.
With 4:23 to go in the tie game, Wisconsin iced the puck. They were not allowed to make a line change, but they had some of the wrong players on -- six skaters and a goaltender. It took them too long to figure out who should be out there, but play eventually resumed.
With 1:44 on the clock, at 18:16, Mark MacMillan redirected a shot (from Pattyn?) into the back of the net while crashing into the goaltender. The play was reviewed on video. Since it was taking so long, they announced that the officials were looking at a high stick and goaltender interference. After determining that it was not played with a high stick, and there was no illegal goaltender interference (it seemed the Wisconsin defenseman crashed into his own goalie outside the crease), the goal was allowed to stand.
With 1:06 on the clock and a draw in the North Dakota zone, Wisconsin took their timeout and went with six attackers. UND won the faceoff and Rocco Grimaldi cleared the puck from the circle right in front of me. It went into the empty Wisconsin net with 58.1 seconds on the clock (assisted by Ladue and MarkMac at 19:02) to make it 4-2; Wisconsin's goaltender stayed on the bench. With 43.5 seconds to go, ESPN took their final TV timeout and the officials worked on a hole in the ice behind the UND net.
Play resumed, and Grimaldi got control of the puck and was able to skate into the Wisconsin zone for a shorter shot for his second empty net goal of the night to complete the hat trick with 28.3 seconds on the clock (19:32) to make it 5-2. Wisconsin returned their goaltender to the ice after that and UND hung on to win and advance to play Ferris State on Saturday night.
The teams did line up for handshakes, and the UND alternate captains and captain also shook the officials' hands after finishing the line of Wisconsin players.