Chyzyk caps UND career with NCAA crown

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This article was published 11/04/2016 (3706 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Saturday night, Bryn Chyzyk slept with the trophy he so desperately sought to claim.

The six-foot Virden product and the rest of his University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks teammates jubilantly celebrated the school’s first NCAA championship in men’s hockey since 2000 with a 5-1 victory over the University of Quinnipiac Bobcats in Saturday’s Frozen Four finale at Amelie Arena in Tampa Bay, Fla.

“There’s just so much happiness,” Chyzyk said Sunday from Grand Forks, N.D. “When you’ve worked so hard for four years to accomplish that goal and to wait until the very possible end to achieve it. It’s something we wanted really badly as a team and we were so thrilled when it happened.”

A day after the senior forward ended his UND career in the most perfect way imaginable, the feeling had yet to sink in.

“I think it’s still going to take a bit of time to realize the accomplishment we made on Saturday night,” Chyzyk said. “We’re obviously excited and thrilled, but just seeing the support from Grand Forks was absolutely crazy.”

He estimated 1,000 UND supporters greeted them at the airport when they returned home. There’s also a celebration planned at Ralph Engelstad Arena tonight to recognize the program’s eighth championship — second only to the Michigan Wolverines, which has nine titles.

But it almost didn’t happen.

Nick Schmaltz scored the game-winner with 56.8 seconds left in the third period of UND’s 4-2 semifinal win over the Denver University Pioneers on Thursday. The Fighting Hawks had a two-goal lead entering the third period only to see the Pioneers tie the game and nearly force overtime.

In the final, Shane Gersich and Brock Boeser gave UND a 2-0 first-period lead with goals 2:20 apart. The Bobcats drew within one when Tim Clifton netted a power-play goal with 67 seconds left in the first, but that was as close as they would come.

After a scoreless second period, Drake Caggiula went to work. The Whitby, Ont., native scored 1:21 into the third and again at the 3:41 mark, his fifth and sixth goals of the tournament to give UND a 4-1 lead. Austin Poganski also lit the lamp before Chyzyk and his teammates rushed the ice to celebrate the victory.

“I thought we played one of our better games of the season and on Thursday we kind of snuck it out in the semifinals,” Chyzyk said. “In the final we brought our A-game.”

He also spoke highly of the five-foot-10 Caggiula, also a senior, who was named tournament MVP: “He’s absolutely clutch and is a heck of a player. Whatever NHL team gets their hands on him is going to be a lucky team.”

But for Chyzyk, who made news early in his tenure at UND for a pair of off-ice incidents, one of which led to a suspension during his sophomore season, he couldn’t have scripted the ending any better.

“If you win a national championship at UND, you’re a team to be remembered and the players and the town remembers you,” he said. “It is an absolute honour and privilege to be a national champion at UND and it’s something I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.”

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