Everyone knows Matt Frattin has the most goals in all of Division I and, lately, they’ve been coming at the best times.
The senior right wing scored his sixth game-winning goal of the season 5:11 into the second overtime period of the WCHA Final Five championship game Saturday. The night before, Frattin scored with 5:40 to go with the score tied at 3, but it took only a day to put the memory of Friday’s goal on the back burner.
Frattin said Saturday’s goal ranks high compared to other goals in his career.
“It’s definitely right on top,” Frattin said. “It’s probably the biggest goal I scored in my four years of college.”
His six game winners is tied for fourth in the country. He has 35 goals to lead the nation.
“We have a rule on the team that when you bring the puck into the zone and Frattin’s on the ice, you have to give it to him,” said UND coach Dave Hakstol.
Trupp sets up winner
Evan Trupp was responsible for making Frattin’s goal happen, using his speed and skill in space.
One night after Trupp’s soon-to-be YouTube hit in which he went over half the ice carrying the puck on his stick and threw it on net lacrosse-style, the senior wing decided to advance the puck in a more conventional way with the puck on the ice. It actually resulted in a goal Saturday.
“[Trupp] is a little Energizer Bunny,” Frattin said. “He has so much energy and I don’t know where he finds it.”
Trupp grabbed a loose puck near the UND blue line, circled and started up ice through the neutral zone and into the Denver zone. He kept his balance and control of the puck when Beau Bennett tried to knock him off it.
“There is some great chemistry between [linemates Frattin, Trupp and Brad Malone],” Hakstol said. “We figured if we were going to score the game winner, one of those guys would be in on it.”
Trupp also had the assist on Frattin’s game winner the night before when he dished the puck from below the goal line.
He got the puck back to Chay Genoway at the point and he fired on Denver goaltender Sam Brittain. The rebound came out to Frattin at the left dot and his shot barely snuck past Brittain’s stick.
UND’s slow start
When UND let St. Cloud State jump out to a two-goal lead in the first minute of the 2010 WCHA Final Five championship game, the Sioux responded right away and had the game tied by the first intermission.
UND allowed the first goal of the title game again Saturday but the Sioux’s response took a lot longer than a year ago. UND went without a shot on goal from the 6:49 mark of the first period until 2:18 into the second, when Brittain saved Brock Nelson’s one-timer.
And on the second shot on goal in 15:29, Danny Kristo threw the puck off Nick Shore’s skate and in the net to finally tie the game.
