Mike Kraft/MDN Minot United junior forward Kayden Daniels (5) skates the puck through the offensive zone as Notre Dame Academy’s Kohl McDaniels (12) gives chase during a game on Saturday, Nov. 29, at Maysa Arena.

Minot United boys hockey co-head coach Jordan Willert had his hands full when he walked into the locker room following the team’s non-conference game against Notre Dame Academy (Sask.).

Willert’s hands weren’t metaphorically full, but literally full, as he delivered not just a postgame victory speech but four game pucks to the four Minot United skaters who recorded their first career varsity goal in their 6-1 win over the Hounds on Saturday, Nov. 29, at Maysa Arena.

Minot United received goal contributions from six different skaters and 12 registered at least one point. Jaxon Dahl, Nolan Knowles, Quinn Killmer and Landin Slind all recorded their first varsity goal, helping Minot United record its first win of the season.

“You go up and down the roster and you see we lost quite a bit in terms of goal-scoring and points, but on any given night it’s going to be who’s going and who’s playing within our systems correctly,” Willert said. “It’s nice to spread the wealth around. It’s nice to see some different kids have success. We had four kids score their first-ever goals tonight as varsity hockey players and for Minot United.”

Minot United’s first three goals came from the first-timers. Knowles got Minot United on the board early, lighting the lamp 2:30 into the contest.

Notre Dame struggled to generate offense over the course of the afternoon, with Minot United holding possession in their offensive zone for extended periods of time. The Hounds managed just 14 shots on net, but Peter Forbes tied the game 1-1 at 8:20 of the first period.

Minot United held the Hounds off the scoreboard the rest of the way and broke the game open with a pair of goals to end the first period and another two in the second. Dahl and Killmer notched their first goals a little over a minute apart on the power play to put Minot United in front 3-1 heading into the first intermission. Knowles added the primary assist on Killmer’s goal for a two-point game. Blake Haaland and Jayce Lemon also finished with two points.

“We have to grow throughout the year and this was a huge start, exactly what we need as a team,” Dahl said. “We want to be as spread out and good throughout the team. We don’t want to have one standout guy. We want to be good throughout.”

Michael Ell and Slind found the back of the net in the second period to further extend Minot United’s advantage to 5-1. Oliver Thompson added a shorthanded tally in the final minute of regulation.

“We took care of the little things today,” Willert said. “We talked about getting pucks behind their D so that we could get our forecheck going. We talked about moving pucks from D-zone to neutral zone, neutral zone to offensive zone and we really stressed going low to high. If we can go low to high in the offensive zone, try to go D to D or get shots to the net, bodies to the net, usually that spells success for us over the last couple of years.”

Minot United heavily outshot Notre Dame. They peppered Hounds goaltender Hudson Pooler with 43 shots. Pooler finished with 37 saves. Luke Richeson had a much quieter afternoon, facing just 14 shots. He picked up his first win of the season with 13 saves.

“I thought our neutral zone was good,” Willert said. “If we can get pucks behind their D and keep it low in the offensive zone, they can’t get shots. We did a good job of holding pucks in deep, playing offense, applying pressure to their D so they couldn’t get pucks out and I thought our kids did a good job of when the puck did get into the D zone, they did a good job of moving north instead off east-west and get it out of the zone.”

Minot United opened its season last weekend with a pair of contests against members of the EDC. Minot United was outscored 8-1 in losses to Fargo Davies and Fargo North. The Eagles put up 57 shots on net.

Minot United begins its WDA schedule on Tuesday, Dec. 2, when they travel to play Bismarck Legacy at 5 p.m. Minot United was the preseason No. 1 in the WDA Coaches Poll, receiving six of 10 first-place votes. Bismarck Century and Bismarck Legacy were picked second and third, respectively, and both received two first-place votes.

“The East swing and today were ‘a preseason’ and now we get into WDA play next week,” Willert said. “We’ve gotten better from day to day and we’re not looking to peak until February, but we want to build. Today, we built on top of what we started last week and hopefully that continues next week.”

Mike Kraft/MDN
Minot United junior forward Brady Grosz skates past a loose puck in the offensive zone as Notre Dame Academy’s Maddox Prout during a game on Saturday, Nov. 29, at Maysa Arena.