By Ayden Adair · The Fighting Hawks headed on the road this past weekend to take on St. Johns University and faceoff against and old friend in goaltender Leo Troje. T…
The Fighting Hawks headed on the road this past weekend to take on St. Johns University and faceoff against and old friend in goaltender Leo Troje. The Hawks enter the weekend 3-1-0 after earning a weekend split on home ice versus the golden gophers of Minnesota. The Johnnies enter the weekend 1-3-0 after a weekend split in their previous series with St. Cloud State.
Friday night's contest would open with a fairly quiet period for the Hawks. The Johnnies would put two in the back of the net before the buzzer to end the first period. Things would turn worse for the Hawks in the second period as the Johnnies scoring attack kept on going. St. John's would score 4 more times before goaltender, Ayden Adair, would be retired for the night. His night would end with 22 saves and fellow goaltender Oscar Lindemann would come in for relief. The Johnnies would net one more before heading back to the locker room. The tides would turn for the Hawks in the third period as Matthew Walz would open the scoring 13 minutes in. Cody Domagalski would add to the tally for North Dakota before the Johnnies would answer with one of their own. The Hawks would rattle off 3 more goals before the final buzzer, two of which came from forward, Max Finkel. Oscar Lindemann would finish the game with 20 saves of his own. The Hawks leave the arena Friday night with a dissapointing 8-5 loss.
The Hawks turned up to the arena Saturday morning in hopes to turn around Friday night's performance. They would soon find out that Friday's contest would be just about repeated on Saturday. The Johnnies would open up the scoring 3 minutes into the first period and not look back from there. St. Johns would net 3 more before the end of the period. North Dakota would yet again make a goaltender change giving Oscar Lindemann a chance to turn the tides for the Hawks. Ayden Adair would leave the game with 7 saves. The second period would open with a goal for the Hawks from freshman, Nicholas Weiser, his first in his young ACHA campaign. The Johnnies would respond with 2 more tallies of their own before the final buzzer in the second period. The third period would end up being its own high scoring affair with 8 total goals from the two teams. The Johnnies would take 5 of the 8 putting the game well out of hand for the Hawks. Cody Domagalski would have 2 of the remaining 3 goals for the Hawks. Oscar Lindemann would end the game with 34 saves. The Johnnies would take game two 11-4 sending the Hawks back to Grand Forks with a bad taste in their mouths.
A sweep for the Johnnies marks the first for them of the season. They head into their next matchup 3-3-0 before facing off against Minnesota-Duluth. The Hawks fall to an even 3-3-0 ahead of hosting Bethel University next weekend.