GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- UND needs to shovel itself out of a hole it dug for itself Saturday night if the Fighting Sioux men's hockey team is to continue on in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs.
Minnesota State senior center Rob Rankin scored at 3:18 of sudden-death overtime tonight to give the Mavericks a 3-2 win over the Fighting Sioux in the opening game of a best-of-three WCHA playoff series.
That means the Sioux must beat the Mavericks Saturday night and again on Sunday to win the first-round series and advance to the WCHA Final Five in St. Paul the following weekend.
Rankin's slapshot seemed to handcuff Sioux junior goalie Jordan Parise (Faribault, Minn.), the puck whizzing past his stick side. Parise, coming off consecutive shutouts of Michigan Tech last weekend, stopped 33 Maverick shots as Minnesota State outshot UND 36-31.
After a scoreless first period in which MSU outshot UND 15-7, the Sioux scored first on a power-play goal by sophomore center Travis Zajac (Winnipeg). Zajac tipped a pass from Rastislav Spirko (Vrutky, Slovakia) high on the blocker side of MSU goalie Dan Tormey at 5:55 of the second period for a 1-0 lead.
It didn't last long.
Mankato tied it just 35 seconds later when David Backes rifled a wrist shot off of right wing that beat Parise through the pads at 6:30.
UND fell behind 2-1 when Travis Morin of the Mavericks scored his 20th goal of the season at 19:31 of the second period.
The Sioux, though, tied it at 2-2 on freshman Matt Watkins' (Aylesbury, Sask.) sensational deflection of a shot from the left point by Sioux rookie defenseman Taylor Chorney (Hastings. Minn.)
With his stick at about waist height, Watkins tipped the shot by Chorney out of the air and just under the crossbar on the far side of Tormey. It was the fourth goal of the season for Watkins, his first in the last five games and just his second in the last 23.
For Rankin, it was his fifth goal in the last five games as the Mavericks won their fifth straight game.
"For two-and-a half years. Robbie has been one of the best defensive forwards in the league,'' Minnesota State coach Troy Jutting said. "I think he's scored more goals in the last two months than he did in the first two-and-a-half years.''
It was a tough loss for UND in more ways than one. Already playing without junior forward Erik Fabian (Roseau, Minn.) lost last weekend for the season with a leg injury, the Sioux lost their leading scorer, junior wing Drew Stafford (Faribault, Minn.) as well.
Stafford, who leads UND in goals (23) and points (44), suffered a lower body injury midway through the first period and played just one shift to start the second period before leaving for good.
"I won't say anything about what happened to him (Stafford),'' UND coach Dave Hakstol said. "Obviously he wasn't available for the rest of the game. We've got to adapt and overcome injuries this time of the year. They're part of the game. Whether or not he's available for Saturday night, we just adapt to that and overcome it.''
Hakstol did confirm it was a lower body injury, but had no additional comment on the injury to Stafford.
The Sioux beat the Mavericks 6-3, 4-2 earlier this season in Grand Forks. "We've had tight battles with virtually every time we've played them,'' Hakstol said. "It was a playoff-type hockey game tonight.''
The Sioux have lost the opening game of a best-of-three WCHA playoff series to Minnesota State before and come back to win.
In 1999, the Sioux lost the opening game 3-2 to MSU in overtime, then came back with 3-2 and 10-0 wins to advance to the WCHA Final Five.
UND dropped to 23-15-1 overall while Minnesota State improved to 17-16-1 overall.
