Jackson Blake’s overtime winner completes comeback victory at Miami – Grand Forks Herald

OXFORD, Ohio — After Jackson Blake picked the corner of the net in overtime to give UND a 5-4 comeback victory over Miami University on Friday night, he didn’t celebrate.

There was no knee-slide, no jumping into the glass, no extravagant fist pump, nothing.

He held one arm halfway in the air, briefly gave fist-bumps to teammates, then sprinted down the tunnel to walked to the locker room.

At first, it seemed like perhaps he didn’t think the puck went in the net and wanted to get off the ice before they took it back. But that wasn’t it. Blake said knew for sure the puck hit the back bar and not the cross bar.

So, why no celebration?

“I didn’t think it should have gotten to overtime, anyway,” Blake said.

UND made it interesting Friday night, but as it has done so many times this season, it found its way to a victory.

The Fighting Hawks rallied from a two-goal, third-period deficit thanks to a goal by defenseman Logan Britt and an extra-attacker goal by Riese Gaber with 59.7 seconds left.

Then, Blake ended UND’s overtime struggles by scoring on a two-on-one rush.

“We’ve been working hard on it in practice,” said UND coach Brad Berry, whose team was 0-4-1 in its last five overtime games. “We probably took a look to turn over the puck in overtime when we probably should have held onto it. But we finally got an odd-man rush. That usually comes against us to end the game. Sure enough, Blaker made a great play to put it away.”

UND also received goals from Jake Livanavage and Jackson Kunz.

Gaber and Blake had three-point nights. Blake is on a nine-game point streak and has 11 points in his last five games.

The victory extended UND’s run without a regulation loss to 20 games. The Fighting Hawks can tie the school record, set in 2006-07, at 6:05 p.m. Saturday in Goggin Ice Center. Berry also will have a shot at his 200th win.

UND has now tallied at least a point in all 15 National Collegiate Hockey Conference games. No other team in conference history has ever started a year with a run longer than nine.

Miami didn’t make it easy.

A week ago, UND held the NCAA’s top-scoring offense, Denver, to just four goals in 120 minutes.

On Friday night, the lowest-scoring team in the NCHC, playing without three of its top five scorers due to injury, scored four times in 34 minutes on goaltender Ludvig Persson.

Miami students periodically chanted, ‘Traitor!’ at Persson, who transferred from Miami to the Fighting Hawks over the summer.

But after a tough start, Persson dialed it in for the last half of the game, stopping the last 15 shots he faced. He made a key save on Axel Kumlin in overtime, seconds before Blake skated the other way on the two-on-one.

“For me, personally, that was the top thing on my mind, and I’m sure other guys, is just doing it for him,” forward Louis Jamernik said about Persson. “He’s such a great teammate, unreal guy, selfless, team-first. Unfortunately, we didn’t get all three (points), but we want to get five out of the six.”

UND hasn’t often played from behind this season, but it has displayed a knack for comebacks.

The Fighting Hawks have trailed after two periods six times. They’ve only lost one of those games (3-1-2).

“It’s belief,” Jamernik said. “We have a great bench and we’ve got such a tight group. I think that’s what differentiates us from other teams, I want to say, is just that tightness and belief in that locker room. You look to the left and to the right and we’re just like ‘We’re going to get it done. Somebody is going to step up.'”

Blake added: “No matter what the score is, we’re going to go out there and work our butts off and play the best we can.”

Miami received goals from Thomas Daskas, Ryan Sullivan, Albin Nilsson and John Waldron.

After UND took a 2-1 lead on a Kunz goal in the second, the RedHawks answered with three straight.

“I thought we were a little bit loose in our play the first two periods and they capitalized,” Berry said. “I’ve got to commend them, Miami. They played hard, they played fast, they were physical. They played an urgent game tonight.”