By Virg Foss

 

GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- It could be said that it was as simple as the fact that Minnesota's North Dakotans outscored the Minnesota natives on the Fighting Sioux roster Saturday night.

 

Former Grand Forks Red River high school players Ryan Potulny (two goals) and Danny Irmen (one) accounted for three-fourths of Minnesota's offense as the Gophers beat the Sioux 4-3 in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association men's hockey play.

 

The victory gave Minnesota (9-5-4 overall, 8-4-2) a sweep over the Sioux, the first time the Gophers have pulled that off in Grand Forks since Feb. 8-9, 2002.

 

Minnesota built a 4-1 lead after two periods ! and held on as the Sioux outshot the Gophers 11-5 in the final period and outscored them 2-0.

 

Goals by freshman defenseman Taylor Chorney (Hastings, Minn.) at 3:21 and by senior right wing Mike Prpich (Kenaston, Sask.) at 17:16 chopped Minnesota's lead to 4-3 and aroused a crowd of 11,723 at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

 

 When Irmen - a Fargo native - took a holding penalty with just over a minute left in the game, Sioux coach Dave Hakstol pulled sophomoe goalie Philippe Lamoureux (Grand Forks) for a sixth attacker.

 

The Sioux managed two shots on Gopher goalie Kellen Briggs with the power play, but could not get the tying goal.

 

Just like in Friday's 4-3 victory, Minnesota got the early again Saturday and never gave it up. The Gophers never trailed the Sioux in either game.

 

"I thought a real key was for us to get the early lead,'' Minnesota coach Don Lucia said. "We played with the lead all weekend, just the opposite of last weekend when we trailed Wisconsin all the way in both games.''

 

Freshman Justin Bostrom scored first for Minnesota at 5:54 of the first period, beating Sioux starting goalie Jordan Parise (Jr., Faribault, Minn.) with a wrist shot through the legs of Parise.

 

Potulny pushed the cushion to 2-0 with his goal at 7:21, his hard wrist shot set up by a feed from the corner from Irmen.

Sioux sophomore center Travis Zajac (Winnipeg) cut Minnesota's lead in half with a power-play goal at 4:25 of the second period, pulling the Sioux to within 2-1.

 

Potulny derailed that rally in a hurry, burying his second goal of the game and his 15th of the season through Parise's pads at 5:50. Irmen then added a power-play goal for a 4-1 Gopher lead at 19:43.

"One good period out of six periods this weekend is not very good for this team," Zajac said. "We're not going to win a lot of games doing that."

 

"We had our opportunities to dig ourselves out of the hole,'' UND coach Dave Hakstol said. "When we were down 3-1, we had a 5-on-3 power play (for 81 seconds) and we were unable to capitalize on that. When we went down 4-1 late in the second period, that left a pretty steep uphill climb.''

 

It was a step back to the top of the mountain for the Gophers, who had been ranked No. 1 nationally earlier this season. "This was a big sweep for us going into the holidays,'' Irmen said. "We can look back at this now after the break and say, 'look what we did in Grand Forks and build off that.''

 

The Sioux lost their fifth straight home game, tying the school record for consecutive home losses last matched in the 1993-94 season. The Sioux, who came into the weekend ranked No. 4 nationally, dropped to 10-7-1 overall and 6-6 in the WCHA.

 

Hakstol took little consolation in UND's comeback in the third period. "Unfortunately, the third period is little more than a moral victory,'' Hakstol said.

North Dakota outshot Minnesota 33-29 with Briggs finishing with 30 saves. Parise (20 saves, 4 goals) and Lamoureux (5 saves, 0 goals) combined for 25 saves for UND.

 

"We generated a lot more offensive chances than we did Friday,'' Hakstol said, "but I don't think we played with the desperation that we needed until the third period. That's something that has to sink home very quickly here. The word desperation isn't the right one to use at this time of the year, but there's just so many points available on the WCHA level and on a national level.''

 

The Sioux play a home-and-away nonconference series with Bemidji State next weekend, facing the Beavers in Bemidji on Friday and in a rematch in Grand Forks on Saturday.

Virg Foss can be reached at virgfoss@yahoo.com