By Virg Foss

GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- When UND junior defenseman Robbie Bina (Grand Forks, N.D.) scored his first two goals of the season on Dec. 1 in a 5-4 overtime win over the U.S. National Under-18 team, his comment after that game was that he needed to pick his spots better.

That game was an exhibition contest, so Bina's two goals and one assist in that game didn't count on his season totals.

He's picked his spots with great regularity since then. Bina has run off 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in his last 12 games. He had just one goal in his first two seasons and one in his first 14 games this season.

Two goals apiece from Bina and sophomore defenseman Taylor Chorney (Hastings, Minn.) and a goal and three assists each from sophomore forwards T.J. Oshie (Warroad, Minn.), and Jonathan Toews (Winnipeg, Manitoba) rallied the Sioux to a 6-3 nonconference win over Bemidji State tonight and a weekend sweep over the Beavers.

The Sioux, down 2-0 on goals 25 seconds apart by BSU's David Deterding and Shane Holman before the game was seven minutes old, outscored the visiting Beavers 6-1 after that in front of a sellout crowd of 11,633 at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

It was just the second home sweep of the season for the Sioux, but ran their record to 6-1-1 over the last eight games and boosted their overall mark to 13-11-2.

The Sioux, who beat the Beavers 3-2 on Friday night in Bemidji, Minn., celebrated the sweep with a stick salute to the fans after the game. It was the first stick salute Sioux fans have seen at REA since UND swept Quinnipiac in the season-opening series on Oct. 6-7.

"It's been a while,'' Oshie said of the stick salute. "It's great to give our fans back what they give us night in and night out.''

UND coach Dave Hakstol said the game appears to be slowing down again for Bina, who missed all of last season after suffering a broken neck in the 2004-05 WCHA Final Five.

"It's definitely slowing down for me,'' Bina said. "I'm feeling more comfortable out there and am able to see more plays developing and jump in when I have to.''

The Sioux needed some jump from someone after being shocked into action by the two quick goals by the Beavers. Deterding's goal, for example, was his first in 95 career games.

Toews started the comeback with a power-play goal at 11:32 of the opening period when two BSU defensemen converged on Oshie as he drove to the net. The puck came free to Toews, who came in alone on BSU goalie Matt Climie and deked him to the ice. Toews then calmly took his time, walked around Climie and slid in a backhander for his sixth goal of the season, chopping BSU's lead in half after one period.

Oshie's backhand rebound off a strong rush by Toews at 3:07 of the second period tied the game at 2-2. It was the seventh goal of the season for Oshie, who had 24 as a rookie.

Bina slid in from the left point on a Sioux power play to wrist his shot past Climie on the stick side at 5:37 of the second period, putting the Sioux ahead to stay at 3-2. It was the the second power-play of the game for the Sioux, who scored four times with the man advantage (4 of 10) to tie their season high.

Chorney rolled a shot through Climie's legs on a power play at 10:46 of the second period to push the Sioux lead to 4-2.

After BSU's Joey Moggach scored on a power play at 16:46 of the second period to whittle UND's lead to 4-3, the Sioux closed it out with a pair of goals in the third period.

Bina scored again on a power play at 17:09 and Chorney added an empty-net goal 37 seconds later (his fourth of the season) to close the scoring.

The six goals is the most by the Sioux since an 8-5 win over Minnesota State-Mankato on Oct. 28.

An encouraging sign was the four-point games from Oshie and Toews, who team with sophomore Ryan Duncan (Calgary, Alberta) to form UND's top line. It was the second four-point game of the season for Toews and the first for Oshie.

"I thought T.J., Jonathan and Ryan were the best players on the ice tonight,'' UND coach Dave Hakstol said. "Those three guys certainly stepped forward for us tonight, along with a pretty good effort from Robbie Bina.''

They certainly helped the Sioux recover from a rocky start against the Beavers, who dropped to 1-13-1 all-time against UND.

A red-hot Sioux power play carried a big part as well. "Specialty teams have to be a difference-maker,'' Hakstol said. "I thought Bemidji was very ready to play in the first period, and I thought we were a little bit off. After they got up 2-0, scoring that first power-play goal was real important. We were able to regain a little of our composure, and went out and executed much better in the second period than we did in the first.''

Bina has played a major role in UND's reversal of fortunes of late. "He's gotten better and better throughout the year, once he got through the first couple of months of the season. He's gotten to the point that the game has slowed down for him again,'' Hakstol said. "To come back off a long layoff like that, everything is happening pretty quickly around you. His decision-making is very good, both in our end and offensively.''

The six-goal night left Hakstol wondering. "I can't remember the last time we scored six goals, to be honest with you,'' Hakstol said. "It's been a while. We got good contributions from our power play and we had some good 5-on-5 play. I thought those three guys (Oshie, Toews and Duncan) had a ton of energy tonight. They were dangerous most every time they were on the ice. That's a good sign.''

The Sioux stretched their unbeaten streak to five games (4-0-1), longest of the season. They are 9-for-29 on the power play (31 percent) over the last five games and have at least one power play in each of those games.

It took the Sioux 10 minutes to get going. "I don't know if we were really totally ready to play right away,'' Bina said. "We turned things around with that good power-play goal (by Toews, at 11:32 of the first period) and went from there.''

Junior Philippe Lamoureux (Grand Forks, N.D.) finished with 16 saves for the Sioux to push his won-lost record for the season over the .500 mark at 10-9-1. Climie had 30 saves for the Beavers as the Sioux outshot BSU 36-19 and held the Beavers to 1-of-7 on the power play.

"It's was huge to score four goals on the power play,'' Bina said. "If you score four on the power play, you're usually going to win every game.''

The Sioux return to Western Collegiate Hockey Association play next weekend, facing the Minnesota Gophers in Minneapolis. The Gophers have been ranked No. 1 nationally much of the season.

"We're feeling really comfortable and know what we have to do now in order to make it into the postseason again,'' Bina said. "We know we have to play every game as hard as we can.''

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