By Virg Foss

GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- There are nights when even a strong effort isn't good enough.

That's what happened to the UND men's hockey team tonight, when a vastly improved effort from Friday's 6-2 loss to the visiting University of Maine Black Bears still resulted in a 3-1 defeat for the Fighting Sioux.

"Tonight without one of our better players in the lineup, we played extremely hard,'' UND coach Dave Hakstol said. "We played well enough to win tonight. But give Maine credit; they got the job done.''

The Sioux played without NHL first-round draft pick Jonathan Toews (Winnipeg), who was hurt during Friday's game and didn't suit up tonight.

Maine had taken a 1-0 lead into the second period on freshman Teddy Purcell's wrist shot past Sioux junior goalie Philippe Lamoureux (Grand Forks) just 3:20 into the game.

But the Sioux had a great chance to pull even or ahead when they had two 5-on-3 power plays early in the second period, one for 52 seconds, another for 30.

Bad luck tormented the Sioux as much as did Maine's 6-foot-7 goalie Ben Bishop (33 saves on 34 shots).

With the Sioux working the first two-man edge, Sioux sophomore center Matt Watkins (Aylesbury, Sask.) had nothing but a wide open net to shoot at from 10 feet away with Bishop off to the side of the net, way out of position to make a save.

Instead of pulling the Sioux even at 1-1 with his shot, Watkins clanked the goal post flush with his wrist shot.

"I don't think that was a momentum turner,'' Hakstol said,. "Probably 99 times out of a 100 that (shot) would go in the net. It didn't go in tonight.''

After the Black Bears killed the second Sioux 5-on-3 power play, they struck for two goals of their own to take command.

Michel Leveille, camped in the slot, blasted his second goal of the weekend past Lamoureux (25 saves) at 8:39 and followed that up at 11:37 with his second goal, when he walked in untouched from the corner to score on a backhand flip.

At that point of the second period, the Sioux had outshot the Black Bears 14-4 in the period, but had been outscored 2-0.

So for the second night in a row, the second period was UND's undoing. Friday night, Maine outscored UND 5-0 in the second period and rode the 2-0 scoring advantage tonight to the weekend sweep of the non-conference series.

UND's only goal tonight came from sophomore defenseman Brian Lee (Moorhead, Minn.).

With Maine's Matt Duffy serving a minor penalty for highsticking, Hakstol pulled Lamoureux for a sixth attacker and a 6-on-4 power play.

Lee's wrist shot from the right point appeared to deflect off the stick of a Maine player and beat Bishop high on the short side at 17:53 of the closing period.

Sioux senior captain Chris Porter (Thunder Bay, Ont.) and sophomore defenseman Taylor Chorney (Hastings, Minn.) drew assists on Lee's goal, Lee's fourth in 50 career games.

The Sioux finished 1-7 on power play tonight against a team that led the nation in killing penalties last year. "I felt like we were getting the puck to the net reasonably well,'' Hakstol said. "They did a good job penalty killing, but we certainly had our opportunities.''

The hit of the season belonged to Sioux sophomore center T.J. Oshie, who at 6-0, 188, dished out a blow that Maine's 6-7, 221-pound defenseman Simon Danis-Pepin will long remember.

Just shy of six minutes into the final period, Oshie caught Danis-Pepin up high just in front of the Sioux bench. Oshie's hard hit knocked him completely over the boards and into the Sioux bench. Danis-Pepin flipped upside down to a roar from the Sioux fans before emerging from the bench unhurt.

UND, 1-1 in the WCHA, swings back into league play next Friday and Saturday at Minnesota State, Mankato.

While Hakstol was very unhappy with UND's performance Friday night, he was not tonight.

"Our effort was very good tonight,'' Hakstol said. "Friday night, we had a lot of soft spots in our lineup. Tonight, I didn't think we had a soft guy in the lineup. Everybody played extremely hard. We didn't get the results. It's a disappointing tough weekend.''

The loss was the third in the row for the Sioux, who dropped to 3-3 overall while Maine improved to 5-0. Three of Maine's wins have come on the road over Western Collegiate Hockey Association powers, the other a victory over Minnesota earlier in the Hall of Fame game.

"The WCHA is always a strong league,'' Leveille said. "We want to prove that Hockey East (Maine's league) is just as strong. That's what we did this year, show that we can compete. It's tough to win on the road, especially like this when there's a crowd of 12,000 people that cheer against you.''

Virg Foss, who spent 35 years covering college hockey for the Grand Forks Herald before retiring in October 2005, can be reached at virgfoss@yahoo.com

Contact: Dan Benson