By Virg Foss
GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- University of North Dakota men's hockey coach Dave Hakstol hardly sounded like a coach who had just seen the Sioux drop their seventh Western Collegiate Hockey Association game in the last eight.
Hakstol, in fact, delivered a promise for brighter days ahead for the Sioux after Michigan Tech beat the Sioux 3-2 tonight to complete a two-game sweep over the slumping Sioux in front of 11,671 fans at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
"There are a lot of things we can do better and will do better,'' Hakstol said. "We have to find ways to win. Our team is working hard. Tonight, I thought we tried to work smart for 60 minutes.''
A couple of "puck-luck'' bounces that went against the Sioux proved to be costly. Tech's first goal in the second period went in off the skate of forward Alex Gagne, tying the game at 1-1.
Tech's winning goal at 9:08 of the third period came on a double deflection on a right point shot by defenseman Lars Helminen.
His wrist shot bounced off teammate Peter Rouleau and kicked at a 45-degree angle to the right to sophomore Malcom Gwilliam, who quickly redirected it past Sioux junior goalie Philippe Lamoureux (Grand Forks, N.D.).
The Sioux exerted all kinds of pressure on Tech goalie Rob Nolan (30 saves) in the last 10 minutes, and the game ended on a controversial note.
With Lamoureux pulled for a sixth attacker and a delayed penalty coming on Tech's Jimmy Kerr for holding, Helminen covered the puck in the crease with his hand, which could have resulted in a penalty shot.
But referee Derek Shepherd ruled that a Tech player had touched the puck before Helminen covered it in the crease, thereby stopping play. Shepherd reviewed the play, but only to determine the time remaining. He added 1.3 seconds to the clock once he sorted it out, but the Sioux couldn't get another shot on net in the final 1.4 seconds.
"He (Shepherd) said he blew possession down before that point (Helminen covering the puck),'' Hakstol said.
The Sioux received an outstanding game from sophomore center T.J. Oshie (Warroad, Minn.), who scored both of UND's goals and led the team with eight shots on net, or one-fourth of UND's total team shots (32) for the game.
Oshie scored his fourth goal of the season 49 seconds into the second period to give UND its only lead of the game. He fired a hard wrist shot from Nolan's right that bounced into the net off Nolan's catching glove.
But Tech came back with goals 57 seconds apart by Gagne and Kerr at 12:24 and 13:21 of the second period to give the Huskies a 2-1 lead.
At that point, Hakstol lifted freshman goalie Anthony Grieco (Brampton, Ont.), who had started his eighth game at UND and stopped 16 of the 18 shots he faced. Lamoureux finished the game and took the loss while finishing with eight saves.
It was a frustrating night and weekend for the Sioux. "We can do a lot of things offensively, but we can't find a way to score,'' Hakstol said. "I don't know what more we can do. We have to stay strong and find a way to make our own bounces.''
The Sioux don't play against until heading to the Dartmouth Tournament on Dec. 29-30. "This is a tough way to go into the Christmas break,'' Hakstol said. "Maybe we can all clear our minds a little bit.''
Hakstol remains confident that the Sioux will snap out of this slump.
"The biggest thing is we've come through a real rough stretch the last five weeks,'' Hakstol said. "A real key for this team is that five weeks doesn't define our season. We'll define our season in another way. It's going to be tough sledding for our hockey team right now.''
Hakstol said he made the goaltending change to try to spark the team, not because he didn't think Grieco was playing well. "He earned himself another start,'' Hakstol said.
Why the goalie change? "Off the recent history of the past five weeks, I did it to spark our hockey team,'' Hakstol said. "I'm proud of the way Anthony played. I thought he battled hard. We made the switch to make sure we didn't have a sag there.''
Oshie, who has struggled to score goals this season after collecting 24 in a brilliant rookie season, tied the game at 2-2 just 32 seconds after Lamoureux replaced Grieco in goal.
Oshie got his stick on a center point shot by sophomore defenseman Taylor Chorney (Hastings, Minn.), tipping it past Nolan. It was his fifth goal of the season and the fourth multi-goal game in his 62 games in a Sioux uniform.
"Finally, a couple went in for him tonight,'' Hakstol said of Oshie's two-goal game.
Hakstol sees brighter days ahead for the Sioux, even though they will be missing three players in sophomore Jonathan Toews (Winnipeg), sophomore defenseman Brian Lee (Moorhead, Minn.) and Chorney, who be gone for the Dartmouth Tournament and a series at Colorado College on Jan. 5-6 while playing in the World Junior Championship in Sweden. Toews will play for Canada, Chorney and Lee for the United States.
"There's a lot of fight left in this dog,'' Hakstol said.
Michigan Tech coach Jamie Russell said he knew the Sioux would come out hard early on. "They're like a wounded animal and I thought we weathered the storm,'' Russell said. "We were fortunate to get out of the first period 0-0. I thought our goaltender made a number of very good saves.''
Russell, in his fourth year at Tech, said it is significant in that Tech now has eight wins (8-8-2) this year after finishing with seven all of last year.
With the two wins, Michigan Tech leapfrogged the Sioux and Wisconsin in the WCHA standings. The Huskies (5-7-2 in the WCHA) have 12 points, one more than the Sioux (5-8-1) and Wisconsin (5-6-1), who have 11 each.
With the loss, the Sioux (7-10-1 overall) slipped into a tie for seventh in the WCHA with Wisconsin as the Sioux reached the halfway mark of their WCHA schedule tonight.
NOTES: The series sweep of UND was the first by Michigan Tech over the Sioux since Jan. 31-Feb. 1, 1992, when the Huskies swept the Sioux (6-3, 9-6) in Houghton, Mich. It was Tech's first sweep in Grand Forks since Dec. 11-12, 1987, when the Huskies beat UND 4-3 and 5-4 in overtime...UND senior captain Chris Porter (Thunder Bay, Ontario) played in his 150th career game tonight, more than any other active player in Division I men's hockey.
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
