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North Dakota takes home Penrose Cup with 2-1 win over Miami

In the second year of the conference UND wins its first NCHC regular season championship.

By Nathan Wells
Zane McIntyre made 43 saves Friday in a 2-1 North Dakota win
Zane McIntyre made 43 saves Friday in a 2-1 North Dakota win
Matt Christians

Holding off a late charge on the road by Miami, North Dakota clinched the Penrose Cup and NCHC regular season title Friday with a 2-1 victory in Oxford, Ohio.

The Penrose Cup is named after Julie and Spencer Penrose and awarded to the NCHC regular season champion.

UND entered the weekend only needing to take a single point from the second-place RedHawks in either tonight or Saturday's game. Without injured senior Mark MacMillan, Dave Hakstol's team didn't waste much time.

Junior goalie Zane McIntyre made 43 saves, including 18 saves in the third period where Miami out-shot UMD 18-5, for a North Dakota (25-6-3, 16-5-2-0 NCHC) team that has lost only two games since the new year. Keaton Thompson and Connor Gaarder scored for UND to get out to a 2-0 lead before Sean Kuraly scored for Miami 7:49 into the second period.

It's the 16th conference title for North Dakota and first in the NCHC, which began sponsoring hockey in 2013-14. Previous to that UND played in the WCHA where it last won a regular season title in 2010-11.

North Dakota remains the top overall team in the Pairwise. UND will host eighth-place Colorado College next weekend in a best-of-three first round of the NCHC Playoffs.

St. Cloud State won the inaugural NCHC regular season title in 2013-14.