GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Ralph Engelstad Arena is starting to look as Badger-friendly to the University of Wisconsin hockey team as does its home rink in Madison, the Kohl Center.

Wisconsin stunned the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux with three straight third-period goals tonight to beat the Sioux 4-2 and sweep the Western Collegiate Hockey Association series.

It was the second season in a row that Wisconsin, the defending NCAA champion, has pulled off a sweep of the Sioux in Grand Forks.

Three Badger seniors -- Dowell, Ross Carlson and Brian Elliott -- combined to spark Wisconsin's comeback win.

Dowell and Carlson scored two goals apiece and Elliott, an All-America goalie, stopped 29 of 31 Sioux shots.

The Sioux had taken a 2-1 lead into the third period on a strange play.

Sioux junior defenseman Robbie Bina (Grand Forks, N.D.) stepped out of the penalty box just in time to haul in a clearing pass from sophomore teammate Jonathan Toews (Winnipeg, Manitoba).

He somehow gathered in the bouncing puck at his skates enough to make a solo rush in at Elliott.

Bina, coming at Elliott form the left wall, beat him with a hard wrist shot to the far corner at 16:06 of the second period, staking the Sioux to a 2-1 lead.

It was just the second goal of the season and third of his career for Bina, who sailed in on Elliott with a shooter's mentality nevertheless.

"I was going to go top shelf on the glove side,'' Bina said. "I guess it worked out.''

Everything looked good for the Sioux until they were called for too many men on the ice at 13:20 of the final period.

With just 15 seconds left on Wisconsin's power play, Dowell backhanded in his own rebound at 15:05 to tie the game at 2-2. Just 84 seconds later, Carlson, crashing into the zone on the right wing, gathered in a long rebound left by Sioux junior goalie Philippe Lamoureux (Grand Forks, N.D.) and fired it past him before he could recover.

An empty-net goal by Carlson at 18:39 of the final period closed out the scoring. It came 18 seconds after Sioux coach Dave Hakstol had lifted Lamoureux for a sixth attacker.

It was a sharp turnaround for the Badgers, who had lost six in a row until beating Michigan State a week ago. "The bounces weren't going our way earlier in the year,'' Carlson said. "Tonight they did.''

The Sioux had taken the first lead of the game just 1:34 into the game on an early power-play opportunity.

Sophomore forward Brad Miller (Alpharetta, Ga.) slipped his low wrist shot through the pads of Elliott from the faceoff circle on UND's second shot of the game.

The Sioux even survived the troublesome second period tonight, but still lost. The Sioux, who had been outscored 26-14 in the second period in their previous 15 games, outscored the Badgers 1-0 in the third period tonight despite being outshot 12-6 in the period.

But a costly penalty in the third period and two rebound goals beat them in the closing period instead.

"It was very disappointing to lose that one,'' Bina said. "In the last couple of minutes, we had a couple of mistakes there and they were able to capitalize on them.''

It was the fifth WCHA loss in the last six games for the Sioux, who dropped to 5-6-1 in league play and 7-8-1 overall.

"We played pretty hard and we played pretty well through in all areas of the game,'' Hakstol said. "The way we played in the first 15 minutes of the third period is the way you have to play to close out games. It's penalties like that (the too many men on the ice call) that more often that, seem to come back to haunt you.''

The Sioux can't afford to stay haunted long. They've slipped into a tie for sixth place in the WCHA with the Badgers with 11 points.

The Sioux close out the 2006 portion of the WCHA schedule next weekend against Michigan Tech in a Friday-Saturday series.

"This (loss) is a tough one for our hockey team to take,'' Hakstol said. "We didn't get the two points which we needed. But as a team, we certainly took some very good strides tonight.''

The Sioux had a slight 31-30 shooting edge on Wisconsin, but the Badgers were 2-for-5 on the power play, UND 1-for -5.

Hakstol had praise for Miller, who was playing on a line with Chris Porter (Sr., Thunder Bay, Ontario) and sophomore Matt Watkins (Aylesbury, Saskatchewan). Miller finished tied for the team lead with Porter and T.J. Oshie (So., Warroad, Minn.) in shots in goal with four.

"He scored the early goal and that seemed to energize him a little bit,'' Hakstol said. "I thought that 5-on-5, he created as much as anyone else did. ''