After backstopping the University of North Dakota to a 3-0 victory one night earlier, Cam Johnson virtually duplicated that performance in the Fighting Hawks' National Collegiate Hockey Conference series rematch with the University of Minnesota Duluth Saturday.
Johnson turned aside all 38 shots the No. 17 Bulldogs sent his way and blanked the hosts 3-0 again before a sellout crowd of 6,975 at AMSOIL Arena. No. 4 North Dakota, which was outshot heavily for the second straight night (38-20 and 78-42 for the weekend), struck for a pair of power play goals from Tucker Poolman and Brock Boeser -- both on senior defenseman
Andy Welinski's five-minute boarding major -- 31 seconds apart midway through the second period. The Fighting Hawks later added a empty net shorthander with 1:13 to play en route to posting their sixth win in seven lifetime outings at AMSOIL Arena. North Dakota became the fourth team to ever shut out the Bulldogs in both ends of a weekend series and the first to do so since Feb. 22-23, 2008 (Colorado College in Duluth).
The Bulldogs went 0-for-4 on the power play (and 0-for-9 in the series) while North Dakota converted on two of its six opportunities with the man advantage.
UMD, which concluded the first half of the 2015-16 regular season at an even 7-7-3 overall and 4-5-1-1 in the NCHC, won't return to the ice until it host the U.S. Under-18 National Team on Jan. 2.
"We need to regroup," said senior left winger and team scoring leader
Austin Farley. "Being swept when you are at home is unacceptable. The break is going to help us regroup -- it's not going to pull us apart, that's for darn sure."
