North Dakota 8, Manitoba 3 Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015 • Grand Forks, N.D.

Ralph Engelstad Arena

Attendance: 10,590 1st 2nd 3rd Final Manitoba 1 1 1 3 North Dakota 1 5 2 8 Scoring Summary 1st 13:21 MAN Bilton (Brooks, Bruyere) 1st 17:29 UND Boeser (Thompson, Janatuinen) 2nd 4:12 MAN Merasty (Augert 2nd 7:29 UND Gersich (Schmaltz, Boeser) 2nd 7:41 UND Gersich (Stecher) 2nd 9:21 UND Simonson EX (Thompson, Poganski) 2nd 15:14 UND Simonson (Chyzyk, Poganski) 2nd 16:27 UND Caggiula (Olson) 3rd 3:03 UND Janatuinen PP (Stecher, Wilkie) 3rd 11:01 UND Simonson (Stecher, Poganski) 3rd 12:42 MAN Kelly (Hunter, Schreyer) Goaltender Summary Min GA Sv MAN Spriggs (L) 40:00 6 29 MAN Paulic 20:00 2 19 UND Johnson (W) 53:27 3 12 UND EMPTY NET 00:05 0 -- UND Hrynkiw 6:28 0 2 Statistical Comparison

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GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- North Dakota raised a banner and dropped a hammer in tonight's 8-3 exhibition men's hockey victory over the University of Manitoba at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

Sophomore Johnny Simonson scored three goals and freshman Shane Gersich potted two goals. NHL first-round pick Brock Boeser opened eyes with his three-point game on a night where UND raised the banner over the rink to celebrate UND's National Collegiate Hockey Conference championship of a year ago.

Though this was an exhibition game and won't count on the record, youngsters like Simonson, Gersich and Boeser gave the 10,590 fans in attendance a taste of what could be an exciting season ahead.

UND outshot Manitoba 60-17 in attempts, saw Simonson, Boeser, Austin Poganski and Troy Stecher all post three-point games, and dominated faceoffs 42-16 against the Bisons, losers of 14 exhibitions in a row to UND dating to 2001. The eight goals is the second-most UND has scored against Manitoba in that span, one shy of the nine vs. the Bisons in 2008.

It was an impressive debut for new head coach Brad Berry to direct from behind the North Dakota bench as well.

"I knew the execution would be a little rusty early and it was to some degree,'' Berry said. "The biggest thing I liked was our compete factor. I liked when we were down 1-0 and 2-1, it didn't shake our bench and put panic into our group with a bunch of young guys.''

Instead, in a lineup dotted by seven freshmen, all acquitted themselves well, with rookies Boeser, Gersich (two) and Joel Janatuinen all scoring goals.

"I think they're pretty opportunistic when they put the puck on the net and have chances to score,'' Berry said.

Simonson, a Grand Forks product who had 5 points -- all assists -- in 22 games in limited playtime as a freshman, gave indication he's ready to be a a major contributor this season.

"I just see a focus and a mentality of a guy who wants to be in the lineup every single night,'' Berry said. "He's just a humble, hard-working guy. Not a guy with a lot of words coming out of his mouth. He says what he has to say on the ice when he gets out there. He does that every single day in practice and it emulates what we're about. I think it paves the way for the younger guys as far as what we do.''

UND roared away from a 1-1 deadlock after one period with a 5-goal second period. Gersich got it rolling with goals 12 seconds apart at 7:29 and 7:41, first on a 2-on-1, then on a rebound. That put UND ahead to stay at 3-2.

Simonson scored on a delayed penalty with an extra attacker at 9:21 and then again on a turnaround blast from the faceoff circle at 15:41 to make it 5-2. Senior Drake Caggiula sniped a wrister at 16:27 to cap the big period for UND. Janatuinen's deflection of a Troy Stecher power-play shot and Simonson's second rebound goal to complete his hat trick rounded out UND's offense in the third period.

Teams played an exhibition 3-on-3, sudden-death overtime session following regulation play, since that will be part of the NCHC format during the regular season in overtime games. UND's Nick Schmaltz scored at 1:47 of the OT session to end that.

It was everything Boeser hoped for in his debut.

"All the fans, and the tradition here, it's a blast,'' Boeser said. "Maybe I had a few butterflies, but it wasn't too bad. It was just a great experience.''

Said Simonson: "We saw a lot of good things, especially as the game went on. Coach Berry warned us the execution might not be there from the start. He just wanted us to play hard.''

Mission accomplished. and with a promising mixture of young guns into the lineup heading into the season opener in Maine on Friday vs. Lake Superior State in the Ice Breaker Tournament.

UND notes: UND captain Gage Ausmus, a senior defenseman from East Grand Forks, led UND in the plus/mihus rating with a plus-5 while Boeser, Simonson and Bryn Chyzyk were all plus-4 ... Simonson, Boeser and Gersich were named the three stars by the media, in that order ... UND was 1-for-5 on the power play, but generated 13 shots on goal. Manitoba was 0-1 with just one shot.

Virg Foss covered UND hockey for the Grand Forks Herald for 35 seasons until his retirement. He is now in his 11th season of reporting on UND games exclusively for UNDsports.com.