2021–22 North Dakota Fighting Hawks men's ice hockey 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-10 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-5 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 #2 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 wasn't able to play a single game after January 29 due to joining Team USA at the 2022 Winter Olympics.^[1] During the competition, He came down with COVID-19, forcing him to miss the first game, and was then injured during the preliminary round.^[2] 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.^[3] While the team had demonstrated an ability to win without the big defenseman, they weren't 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 #2 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.

As of September 6, 2021.^[4]

No.	S/P/C	Player	Class	Pos	Height	Weight	DoB	Hometown	Previous team	NHL rights
1		Kaleb Johnson	Freshman	G	5' 11" (1.8 m)	178 lb (81 kg)	2001-01-07	Grand Forks, North Dakota	Minnesota Wilderness (NAHL)	—
2		Brady Ferner	Junior	D	5' 10" (1.78 m)	193 lb (88 kg)	1997-08-27	Dakota Dunes, South Dakota	RPI (ECAC)	—
4		Cooper Moore	Sophomore	D	6' 1" (1.85 m)	182 lb (83 kg)	2001-02-16	Cos Cob, Connecticut	Chilliwack (BCHL)	DET, 128th overall 2019
5		Dane Montgomery	Freshman	F	5' 10" (1.78 m)	170 lb (77 kg)	2002-01-07	Grand Forks, North Dakota	Waterloo (USHL)	—
6		Brent Johnson	Freshman	D	5' 9" (1.75 m)	174 lb (79 kg)	2003-03-20	Frisco, Texas	Sioux Falls (USHL)	WSH, 80th overall 2021
7		Chris Jandric	Graduate	D	5' 10" (1.78 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	1998-10-03	Prince George, British Columbia	Alaska (WCHA)	—
8		Jake Schmaltz	Freshman	F	6' 2" (1.88 m)	183 lb (83 kg)	2001-04-24	McFarland, Wisconsin	Green Bay (USHL)	BOS, 192nd overall 2019
9		Brendan Budy	Sophomore	F	5' 10" (1.78 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	2000-06-06	Langley, British Columbia	Langley (BCHL)	—
10		Gavin Hain (A)	Senior	F	6' 0" (1.83 m)	184 lb (83 kg)	2000-04-03	Grand Rapids, Minnesota	USNTDP (USHL)	PHI, 174th overall 2018
11		Griffin Ness	Sophomore	F	5' 11" (1.8 m)	174 lb (79 kg)	1999-12-10	Wayzata, Minnesota	Waterloo (USHL)	—
13		Carson Albrecht	Junior	F	5' 10" (1.78 m)	193 lb (88 kg)	1998-05-23	Martensville, Saskatchewan	Melfort (SJHL)	—
15		Ethan Frisch (A)	Junior	D	5' 11" (1.8 m)	187 lb (85 kg)	2000-10-29	Moorhead, Minnesota	Fargo (USHL)	—
16		Ashton Calder	Junior	F	6' 1" (1.85 m)	195 lb (88 kg)	1998-02-09	Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan	Lake Superior State (WCHA)	—
17		Riese Gaber	Sophomore	F	5' 8" (1.73 m)	161 lb (73 kg)	1999-10-10	Gilbert Plains, Manitoba	Dubuque (USHL)	—
18		Matteo Costantini	Freshman	F	6' 1" (1.85 m)	187 lb (85 kg)	2002-08-16	St. Catharines, Ontario	Sioux City (USHL)	BUF, 131st overall 2020
19		Mark Senden (C)	Senior	F	5' 11" (1.8 m)	194 lb (88 kg)	1998-01-22	Medina, Minnesota	Fargo (USHL)	—
20		Nick Portz	Freshman	F	5' 11" (1.8 m)	174 lb (79 kg)	2000-05-15	St. Cloud, Minnesota	Muskegon (USHL)	—
21		Connor Ford	Graduate	F	6' 0" (1.83 m)	186 lb (84 kg)	1998-02-05	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	Bowling Green (WCHA)	—
24		Luke Bast	Freshman	D	5' 10" (1.78 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	2000-11-20	Red Deer, Alberta	Waterloo (USHL)	—
25		Tyler Kleven	Sophomore	D	6' 4" (1.93 m)	198 lb (90 kg)	2002-01-10	Fargo, North Dakota	USNTDP (USHL)	OTT, 44th overall 2020
26		Jake Sanderson (A)	Sophomore	D	6' 0" (1.83 m)	183 lb (83 kg)	2002-07-08	Whitefish, Montana	USNTDP (USHL)	OTT, 5th overall 2020
27		Louis Jamernik	Sophomore	F	5' 11" (1.8 m)	190 lb (86 kg)	2000-02-22	Calgary, Alberta	Okotoks (AJHL)	—
28		Judd Caulfield	Junior	F	6' 3" (1.91 m)	203 lb (92 kg)	2001-03-19	Grand Forks, North Dakota	USNTDP (USHL)	PIT, 145th overall 2019
29		Jackson Kunz	Freshman	F	6' 3" (1.91 m)	220 lb (100 kg)	2002-08-13	Grand Forks, North Dakota	Green Bay (USHL)	VAN, 113th overall 2020
32		Jakob Hellsten	Freshman	G	5' 11" (1.8 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	2000-02-02	Ljusdal, Sweden	Halmstad (Hockeyettan)	—
33		Zach Driscoll	Senior	G	5' 11" (1.8 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	1997-02-25	Apple Valley, Minnesota	Bemidji State (WCHA)	—
35		Harrison Feeney	Senior	G	6' 1" (1.85 m)	217 lb (98 kg)	1998-02-04	Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania	Lone Star (NAHL)	—

^[6]

Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 24.^[7]

2022 NHL Entry Draft

† incoming freshman^[13]