The 2021–22 North Dakota Fighting Hawks men's ice hockey season was the 82nd season of play for the program. They represented the University of North Dakota in the 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season and for the 9th season in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC). The Fighting Hawks were coached by Brad Berry, in his seventh season, and played their home games at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
Season North Dakota's lineup saw a great deal of change with 14 of the team's 26 players in their first year with the program. While several were transfers from other schools, head coach Brad Berry had his work cut out for him in getting the team to work together. Despite the turnover, UND was still seen as having a good chance at the title and was ranked in the top ten in the preseason polls. However, the Hawks struggled with consistency early in the season and only possessed a middling record after the first month of the campaign. Once the team got into its conference schedule, they began playing much better and rose to the top of the NCHC.
When they returned after the winter break, North Dakota was in the top five in both polls but the offense sputtered. UND lost four games in a row, all to ranked teams, and began sinking in both the rankings and the standings. They recovered at the end of January and then had a tremendous month by winning seven out of eight games in February. The extended winning streak put them back atop the conference standings and had the Hawks set up for a 1st-place finish. Unfortunately, losing to Omaha in the final game of the regular season put UND into a tie with Denver and, because the Pioneers possessed the tie-breaker, meant that North Dakota received the number two seed for the NCHC tournament.
The entire second half of the Hawks season was dominated by the status of Jake Sanderson, the team's top prospect. He was not able to play a single game after January 29 due to joining Team USA at the 2022 Winter Olympics. During the competition, He came down with COVID-19, forcing him to miss the first game, and was then injured during the preliminary round. He remained out of the Fighting Hawks lineup for the rest of the regular season before returning for the team's quarterfinal match against Colorado College.
Sanderson opened the scoring on his return, however, in spite of the boost his reappearance provided, the Hawks did not play well against the Tigers. North Dakota had almost three times as many wins as CC during the season but they got a huge fight from their opponents. UND only managed to score twice in each of the two games and it was only through the heroics of Zach Driscoll in goal that they managed to squeeze through into the semifinals. To make matters worse, Sanderson was injured while blocking a shot in the second match and ended up needing wrist surgery to repair the damage. While the team had demonstrated an ability to win without the big defenseman, they were not able to replicate that effort in the semifinal and fell to Western Michigan.
NCAA tournament Though the loss was disappointing, North Dakota was already guaranteed a bid for the NCAA tournament and received a number two seed, one of five NCHC teams in the field. They opened against Notre Dame, a team that played an almost identical style of defensive hockey. The match lived up to predictions as a slow, methodical game with few scoring attempts and solid goaltending. Brent Johnson scored near the end of the first period to give UND the lead but their advantage lasted less than 3 minutes before ND evened the match. Near the end of regulation, when it appeared that the game was heading into overtime, Notre Dame got the puck deep into the Hawks' end before passing it out to an open man in the slot and scored with less than a second to play. While the Irish celebrated, however, the referees reviewed the play and found a discrepancy in the time. The broadcast clock and the official game clock were not in synch, and the file was reviewed to determine which was correct. After a long process, it was determined that the game had ended moments before the puck entered the goal and the Hawks were saved from defeat.
UND began the extra session on the power play, however, a gaff at the blueline forced Chris Jandric to take a penalty to stop a Notre Dame breakaway. After the ensuing 4-on-4 finished, The Irish got an abbreviated man-advantage and made no mistake, potting the winner and ending North Dakota's season.
Departures Collin Adams Forward Graduation (signed with New York Islanders) Gabe Bast Defenseman Graduation (signed with KalPa) Jacob Bernard-Docker Defenseman Signed professional contract (Ottawa Senators) Harrison Blaisdell Forward Transferred to New Hampshire Jordan Kawaguchi Forward Graduation (signed with Dallas Stars) Jackson Keane Forward Signed professional contract (Wheeling Nailers) Matt Kiersted Defenseman Graduation (signed with Florida Panthers) Grant Mismash Forward Graduation (signed with Nashville Predators) Shane Pinto Forward Signed professional contract (Ottawa Senators) Josh Rieger Defenseman Graduate transfer to Calgary Adam Scheel Goaltender Signed professional contract (Dallas Stars) Peter Thome Goaltender Graduate transfer to St. Thomas Jasper Weatherby Forward Signed professional contract (San Jose Sharks)
Recruiting Luke Bast Defenseman 20 Red Deer, AB Ashton Calder Forward 20 Sault Ste. Marie, MI; transfer from Lake Superior State Matteo Costantini Forward 19 St. Catharines, ON; selected 131st overall in 2020 Zach Driscoll Goaltender 24 Apple Valley, MN; transfer from Bemidji State Brady Ferner Defenseman 24 Dakota Dunes, SD; transfer from Rensselaer Connor Ford Forward 23 Pittsburgh, PA; graduate transfer from Bowling Green Jakob Hellsten Goaltender 21 Ljusdal, SWE Chris Jandric Defenseman 22 Prince George, BC; transfer from Alaska Brent Johnson Defenseman 18 Dallas, TX; selected 80th overall in 2021 Kaleb Johnson Goaltender 20 Grand Forks, ND Jackson Kunz Forward 19 Grand Forks, ND; selected 113th overall in 2020 Dane Montgomery Forward 19 Grand Forks, ND Nick Portz Forward 21 St. Cloud, MN Jake Schmaltz Forward 20 McFarland, WI; selected 192nd overall in 2019
Roster As of September 6, 2021.
Standings
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular season
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular season
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Scoring statistics RW 34 15 22 37 28 RW 37 4 24 28 8 D 23 8 18 26 6 C/LW 39 8 16 24 10 F 34 11 10 21 14 C 35 8 13 21 4 RW 39 11 9 20 10 RW 37 9 10 19 32 C 34 5 12 17 16 D 36 9 6 15 16 D 38 1 14 15 39 D 38 7 3 10 93 C 18 6 3 9 18 D 38 2 7 9 49 F 39 2 5 7 18 C 31 3 3 6 31 D 26 2 4 6 4 RW 29 2 4 6 8 F 36 2 4 6 23 D 29 0 4 4 6 D 23 2 1 3 12 RW 16 1 2 3 2 LW 22 1 0 1 6 G 1 0 0 0 0 G 7 0 0 0 0 G 34 0 0 0 0 Total 110 194 313 453
Goaltending statistics 34 1970 22 11 1 77 757 2 .908 2.35 7 364 2 3 0 18 131 0 .879 2.97 Empty Net - 17 - - - 4 - - - - Total 39 2351 24 14 1 99 888 2 .899 2.53
Rankings
PollWeekPre12345678910111213141516171819202122232425 (Final) USCHO.com8 876687667755109131212974557-9 USA Today776661076577551110131112107555899 Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 24.
Awards and honors Brad Berry Herb Brooks Coach of the Year Zach DriscollLowes' Senior CLASS Award Zach Driscoll NCHC Second Team Jake Sanderson Connor Ford NCHC Defensive Forward of the Year Ethan Frisch NCHC Defensive Defenseman of the Year Riese Gaber NCHC First Team Jakob Hellsten NCHC Rookie Team Matteo Costantini Jake Sanderson AHCA West First Team All-American Jake Sanderson NCHC Preseason All-Conference Team Mark Senden NCHC Sportsmanship Award
Players drafted into the NHL
2022 NHL entry draft 2 40 Dylan James† Detroit Red Wings 7 209 Abram Wiebe† Vegas Golden Knights 7 210 Ben Striden† Nashville Predators † incoming freshman
References