Frozen Four: CBS line carries North Dakota past Denver

There really isn't a lot to separate conference rivals Denver and North Dakota, which went 2-2-1 head-to-head this year. 

But in the sixth meeting, someone had to pull ahead in the season series, and they did it in the fashion you'd expect for two teams that went right down the middle in five previous tries: It was entertaining, it was well-played, it was back-and-forth, but it was also extremely tight. There had to be a winner.

In the end, North Dakota rode a dominant performance from three of the best forwards in college hockey to a 4-2 win that was a lot closer than the score suggests. The Fighting Hawks only scored the winner with 56.8 seconds to play in regulation, then added an empty-netter, after blowing a 2-0 third-period lead.

The championship game between North Dakota and Quinnipiac is on April 9 at 8 p.m. from Tampa. 

“Our message after the second period was keep the foot on the gas,” said first-year North Dakota coach Brad Berry. “The only problem was we stopped making plays for a little bit. And I thought we started the game a little bit slow, a little tentative. … I think the last two shifts of the first period we picked up momentum played into the rink, and in the second period we got back to making plays moving with confidence moving the puck to the north. And you're playing against a good team; they're going to make plays. … And when you stop making plays it's a learning lesson. For tonight [we learned] you have to keep the foot on the gas and keep making plays.”

In a lot of ways, this game could have been about the quality of each team's top line. The Fighting Hawks' CBS Line of Drake Caggiula, Brock Boeser and Nick Schmaltz was probably the second-best in the country all year, but Denver's Pacific Rim line of Trevor Moore, Danton Heinen and Dylan Gambrell wasn't far behind.

One of the things that made this game so entertaining was the fact that coaches Brad Berry of North Dakota (who enjoyed last change as the No. 3 seed in the entire tournament) and Jim Montgomery of Denver is that they refused to go power-against-power. Rare was the shift when it was CBS versus Pacific Rim, so both piled up lots of scoring chances against depth lines, even as they both also showed some own-zone proficiency when called upon. They lived up to they hype, having combined for 16 of their teams' 46 shots on goal (seven for CBS, nine for Pac Rim).

Of all those high-end players, though, it was Caggiula — the super-skilled, undersized, undrafted left wing — who made everything happen. He scored two high-test goals early in the second period to give North Dakota a lead, and had a secondary assist on the game-winner inside of a minute to go. Boeser had two assists. Schmaltz the game-winner. And only two role players ended up chipping in for Denver.

The CBS Line won the day, but boy was it a struggle.

“I thought we got away from our game a little bit early in the third period there, and when you do that against a good team they make you pay,” Schmaltz said. “Denver did that to us. I thought we regrouped pretty well. We knew that we had it in our bench. Everyone was staying positive. Everyone was confident in our team, and we knew that we'd be fine.”

Shots on goal in the first period were, hand to god, 4-4. And that's with Denver having two power plays. They traded chances, including a few scary odd-man rushes both ways (including a North Dakota 4-on-1 late in the periods), and attempts in all situations were 17-10 in Denver's favor. Even discounting the two power plays, though, you had to say the Pioneers were dictating pace. They forced Cam Johnson to make a handful of quality saves both at full strength and on the PK, but the Fighting Hawks did a good job of getting in the way and generally creating enough havoc in the middle of the ice to keep the clean sheet. 

At the other end, Tanner Jaillet and the Denver defense had a few messy moments but cleaned them up ably enough to likewise maintain the scoreless first.

The problem for North Dakota, to some extent, was that this kind of low-event hockey is a net positive for Denver. If you give up a lot of shots to a team with as much talent up front as Brad Berry's club, the puck is going to end up in the back of your net at some point. Jaillet is good but he's not an Alex Lyon, a Thatcher Demko, or indeed a Cam Johnson. Limit the shots against, limit the odds you concede.

In the first five meetings of the year, the Fighting Hawks averaged almost 34 shots a night, to Denver's 23 or so. Holding them to four through 20 is about as good a job as you can reasonably expect to do. Maybe you'd like to see more offense on your end, though.

“The toughest thing against North Dakota to score against them,” said Denver coach Jim Montgomery. “And you saw it early in the game, we didn't have a lot of shots, is because they give you the outside and they take it away really well. If you don't have a middle lane drive presence, it's hard to back them off.”

The CBS line decided that was enough of that, though. On the first shot of the second period, Caggiula gave the team a 1-0 lead just 1:03 into the period, cashing in a 2-on-1 that became something of a breakaway. He just had Jaillet dead to rights, and a player of his quality isn't going to miss an open look like that. The tight Denver defense was undone on the play by Coltyn Sanderson, and Boeser's ability to put a pass right on someone's tape made it all happen.

Just 5:12 and three additional shots on goal later, Caggiula went off the crossbar and in after picking off a too-soft Trevor Moore pass below the hashmarks. It was a play that shouldn't have happened and appeared as though it couldn't result in a scoring chance, but the laser shot was placed exactly where it needed to be. 

“I came off the bench hiding behind some of the players,” Caggiula said. “The high slot there I was able to pick a pocket out of a Denver player, made a quick move around the guy, got around the net. I think it went under his glove. Hide behind some of the defenders, pick his pocket. That's all.”

Though there was still more than half the game remaining, it appeared Denver was running out of answers in a hurry. The Pioneers' big line made its push, as did the second to a lesser extent, but the Fighting Hawks were more than happy to protect the lead by blocking 11 shot attempts in the period. And even when the Pios' volleys got through, Johnson was there to handle it all deftly.

Even in a more active period, shots were still only nine a side. Just 26 shots in 40 minutes of hockey from these two teams was very much a surprise.

But the good news for the team heading into the room with the lead: They were 25-0-2 when up through two periods, and Denver was 0-6-2. The Pioneers were very much hoping those two ties either way, one of which was Denver coming back from a one-goal deficit in the only draw in this season series, would happen here as well, so they could at least get to overtime.

Those hopes nearly came true, albeit through two unexpected sources.

Defenseman Will Butcher opened Denver's account with his ninth of the year just 2:50 into the third period to claw within a goal. He scored off a set faceoff play that followed two consecutive North Dakota icing plays that flat beat Johnson. Then about halfway through the final period, soon after the Pioneers successfully killed a penalty, a Matt VanVoorhis centering pass bounced off a North Dakota player and snuck into the net. It was VanVoorhis's third goal of the season.

“I'd say a lot came from the forwards honestly can create space for us off top,” Butcher said. “In the space Grant [Arnold] had great faceoff intensity bumping the puck. I just had to put the puck in the open area which I did. [VanVoorhis] made a great turned around and tried to throw one to an open guy went off a stick got a little bit of puck luck.”

This came after much of the third was entirely dominated by Denver. Shots ended up being 10-10, because of course they did. But that's despite the fact that time and again, North Dakota settled for icings when it couldn't clear the zone, and the Fighting Hawks were just under siege throughout the period.

Then a depthlessly ill-advised, late elbowing penalty by Trevor Olson — he was lucky to get off with a minor, but it was late in the third period of a tied national semifinal, so it was never going to be five and the gate — further forestalled North Dakota's attempts to get back into the game even if it didn't result in a Pioneers goal. In fact, Denver finished the year 0 for 24 on the power play against North Dakota, including 0 for 4 tonight 

But speaking of icings, Denver took one with exactly a minute remaining in regulation. Both coaches drew up plays during a timeout called by Montgomery, and the CBS line (who but?!) rose to the occasion. Boeser wins the draw back to Caggiula, shot blocked, Boeser is there to try again, but Schmaltz cut it off before it got to Jaillet, put it on his backhand, and tucked it in with 56.8 left.

“You know, in between the second and the third we really wanted to just focus on playing Pioneer hockey,” said Denver captain Grant Arnold. “And I mean, man, we came out and we played hard. We played Pioneer hockey for 19 minutes there. It's a tough play, it's a high-intensity situation and you want to get the puck out. So I can't blame the player that did that. There's no question about it. We had a faceoff in our zone. And that's hockey. North Dakota is a great team. They won the battle and they put the puck in the net.”

Denver did what it could, but the Pioneers weren't able to get anything much done, and didn't even put the Pacific Rim Line on the ice for the final offensive zone draw. Rhett Gardner scored a lofting 140-foot empty-netter to ice it at 59:58.8.

“When North Dakota and Denver play it's great hockey,” Montgomery said. “And I said two days ago that the team that's going to win is the team that makes the last play and North Dakota made the last play.”

In a matchup of two dominant lines, only one lived up to the billing. Berry's use of his checking line tonight won out, even after one of its key contributors went down early with an injury. 

In games of this magnitude, you need your best players to produce. Denver learned that the hard way, and the CBS Line gets to nod knowingly.

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist and also covers the NCAA for College Hockey News. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

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