North Dakota ended the 2016 season with 5-1 win over number one seeded Quinnipac University. The  Fighting Hawks has just claimed their eighth NCAA division one title with two consecutive years of being the champion of American college hockey.

The Quinnipac Bobcats were certainly the favorite to win it all. The Bobcats had a 32-4-7 overall record resulting them as the number one seeded college team in the regular season. Forwards Sam Anas, Travis St.Dennis,Landon Smith and Tim Clifton were clearly the team’s best offensive producers as each of them scored more than 37 points in the regular season.

Another reason why the Bobcats had a great year was because their defense also put up numbers offensively. Defensemen Devon Toews, Connor Clifton, and Chase Priskie each put up more than 26 points on the scoresheets.

However, this offensive powerhouse team could only pull off one goal in a 5-1 defeat. During the entire season, Quinnipac averaged about 4 goals per game.

Quinnipiac (32-4-7) lost in the title game for the second time in four seasons. The Bobcats trailed 2-1 entering the third period, but their hopes for a first championship faded quickly when forward Drake Caggiula beat goalie Michael Garteig twice in just two minutes.

Freshman Andrew Urban said, “North Dakota had good everything, offense, defense and goaltending. They did not let Quinnipiac to be on the scoresheet a whole lot.”

The Fightning Hawks has offensive talent themselves as well. Their top point producers include forwards Brock Boeser, Drake Caggiula, and Nick Schmaltz each producing more than 46 points in the regular season. Caggiula on top of scoring two goals in the finals, scored in every tournament game played and was named the most valuable player.

“I just played like it was my last weekend because it was, and I wanted to lay everything out there that I could for this university,” Caggiula said. “They’ve done so much for me, and I wanted to give everything I could back. There’s no better way to repay the university than by giving them a national championship.”

Perhaps however, it was the defense that allowed North Dakota to bring home the gold medal. Despite only giving up one goal in the Champonship, their defense let up a league low of 2.24 goals per game. Their penalty kill was also superb as they killed off 87% of the oppositions power plays this season. Their defense also contributed offensively as North Dakota defender’s led the nation in points. Their last line of defense includes goaltender Cam Johnson. He had stopped a total of 32 shots in the final game and has a tremendous .950 save percentage in the regular season.

This wonderful defense and winning streak was also greatly produced from the guy behind the benches, coach Brad Berry. Being a former NHL defensemen, he specially worked with the defensive units all season to produce a constantly winning team.During his nine years on the UND staff, Berry helped lead the program to eight NCAA Tournament appearances, five NCAA Frozen Four berths , three regular season conference titles,one conference tournament championship and of coarse this win. As a result Berry is expected to make more than $405,000 this year when adding his salary and bonuses.

Sophomore Kyle Lange said, “The reason why North Dakota won was clearly because of this coach. Certainly such a great hockey figure.”

Teams looking forward for next year should simply either build a better team to get to first place or lose . This is because North Dakota will still be a dominant team because they will be only graduating four seniors. This results as the team keeping most of their core players and even the chance of getting recruits.

With this being said, do you think North Dakota will be on the top of the standings for another year?