St Joseph's Prep Hawks

CHICAGO - Special Report to Pa Hockey North Dakota is facing Pittsburgh for the third time in each of the past three years and the first two meetings in pool play resulted in victory for Team North Dakota, including a 5-4 game a year ago in Pool A play, prior to Pittsburgh running off wins to advance to the Semi-final before bowing to Minnesota. Team North Dakota is unique collection of players from the North Dakota High School Hockey League, in which totals 18 schools from the hockey fanatic areas of eastern North Dakota of Grand Forks and Fargo bordering Minnesota to the far reaches of the flatlands in places like Devil's Lake, Williston, Bismarck and of course Minot. It's a special group of players who represent the pride of North Dakota hockey and the 2006 version has much of the flavor with players who have come together from over 450 miles apart to form the team. North Dakota battled through the preliminary round after a setback to Michigan in the opening game to mount a big comeback to tie New Jersey after trailing 3-0 and then defeating rival Wisconsin twice on consecutive nights to make their way in to the Semi-Finals. Pittsburgh would be making its second consecutive semi-final appearance and hoping to advance to the finals for the 2nd time in 22 years and the first time since 1999. North Dakota came out smoking in the opening minute as Cody Krynock made two big saves on good scoring chances and earned a power play opportunity at 16:11. ND's Andrew Peterson scored the games first goal with a wrist shot just inside the far post from the bottom of the circle. A Pittsburgh miscue at 13:34 resulted in another scoring opportunity as North Dakota just missed taking an early two goal advantage. Pittsburgh's hot line of Fodor, Mandic and Ferguson went to work and created the first opportunity just a half a minute later. The momentum from that shift carried Pittsburgh to its first power play at 10:45 and they capitalized as Chris Urso set up on the far boards and threaded a perfect pass to Matt Bartkowski, who blistered a slapshot just inside the post to tie the game at 1-1 at 9:37. North Dakota came right back and pounced on a Pittsburgh miscue as Devil's Lakes Peter Jerome jammed home a loose puck to give ND a 2-1 lead at 9:17. Pittsburgh came back as Dustin Roux weaved through the high slot and set up Zach Hepler, who bombed a snapshot high over the glove side of goaltender Anthony Kringstad to tie the game again at 2-2 with 6:11 to go in period one. Dustin Roux gave Pittsburgh its first lead of the game as he fought off three North Dakota defenders and chipped the puck past Kringstad with 5:36 remaining to make it 3-2. After Pittsburgh killed off a North Dakota power play opportunity, the game had a huge momentum swing as Marc Mikulka took a puck from behind the goal line and banked it off the backside of Cody Krynock with 2:22 left in a wild first period and the score was tied 3-3 as North Dakota outshot Pittsburgh 12-7. North Dakota played opportunist early in the 2nd period as the Pittsburgh defense mishandled the puck and Mike Harrie scored on a shot from in between the circles with 15 and a half left in period two to make it 4-3. Another bad clearing attempt resulted in disaster for Team Pittsburgh as Dakota's David Hovet swooped in and buried a rebound past Bryan Ross, who replaced Krynock late in the first and now Pittsburgh was in a hole and down 5-3. Pittsburgh picked up their game a this point and pulled back within a goal on the power play as Josh Fodor finished off a nice passing sequence as Timmy O'Brien, Matt Bartkowski, Paul Dittrich and Josh Mandic touched the puck before the goal at 11:09 cut the lead to 5-4. Team Pittsburgh outshot North Dakota 17-7, but goaltender Anthony Kringstad would deny Pittsburgh for the remainder of the period. On to the third period and while Pittsburgh began to pour the shots on Kringstad, the North Dakota goaltender just seemed to get sharper stopping all 12 Pittsburgh shots in the final period, while North Dakota only managed to post five on Bryan Ross. Josh Fodor nearly tied it with 12:52 to play in regulation on a tip of Shane Ferguson's shot. A Pittsburgh power play ensued but Pittsburgh seemed out of rhythm. The Pittsburgh team's climb would get much steeper as Matt Batrkowski was whistled for a hit from behind resulting in 12 minutes in penalties with 9:44 to play. Unfortunately for Pittsburgh the call was made but the team forged on as their captain could only sit and watch the remaining 10 minutes from the penalty box. Pittsburgh dominated play and their best chance to tie the game came with 3:25 to play as Zach Hepler was in alone but Anthony Kringstad stopped him to keep North Dakota on top 5-4. A play in the final minute was the peak of frustration for Pittsburgh as with a player from North Dakota down behind the net, Josh Mandic had control of the puck coming out of the corner with a golden scoring opportunity and the referee inadvertantly blew the whistle stopping play with 52 seconds left to the dismay of the Pittsburgh bench. Team Pittsburgh pulled their goalie in the final minute and could not get the equalizer ending their dreams of moving onto the finals with a 5-4 setback to North Dakota. Pittsburgh outshot ND 36-24, including 29-12 over the final two periods only scoring one goal on Anthony Kringstadm the North Dakota goaltender from Grafton / Park River, who didn't appear in any of the post season honors in the ND State Tournament, but scored a huge victory for North Dakota hockey.