Fighting Sioux off this weekend, return to action Feb. 9-10: North Dakota (15-11-2 overall, 9-9-2 WCHA) is idle this weekend. UND will return to action on Feb. 9-10 with a two-game home series against Minnesota State at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
Sioux unbeaten in last seven games, move up in national polls: The Fighting Sioux are coming off a two-game sweep (5-3, 7-3) over Minnesota at Mariucci Arena. The two wins extended UND's unbeaten streak to seven games (6-0-1), the longest current unbeaten streak in the nation. The Sioux are now 8-1-1 in their last 10 games.
North Dakota's hot streak has resulted in the Sioux moving up in the national polls this week. UND was ranked 12th nationally in both the USCHO and USA Today national polls that were released Monday. The Sioux are now tied for ninth in USCHO's Pairwise Rankings (see page 4 for complete poll information).
Duncan, Chorney honored: UND forward Ryan Duncan (So., Calgary, Alberta) and defenseman Taylor Chorney (So., Hastings, Minn.) were named WCHA offensive and defensive players of the week, respectively, today by the league office.
Duncan and Chorney were honored for their performances in leading UND to its weekend sweep of Minnesota.
One of the hottest scorers in the country, Duncan led all WCHA players over the Jan. 26-27 weekend with seven scoring points on four goals and three assists. Duncan had two goals and one assist in UND's 5-3 victory over Minnesota on Friday and two goals and two assists in a 7-3 win on Saturday. He scored the game-winning goal in both games and earned a +5 plus/minus rating in the series.
Duncan now leads the WCHA in scoring with 26 points (16g,10a) in league play and is tied for the league overall scoring lead with 36 points (21g,15a). Duncan leads the league in goals in both league games (16) and overall (21). In his last four WCHA games, Duncan has 11 points (7g, 4a).
Duncan's 21 goals are the third-highest total in the nation.
Duncan was also named national player of the week today by InsideCollegeHockey.com, the first such honor for a UND player this season.
Chorney was named WCHA defensive player of the week after making an impact at both ends of the ice in the Minnesota series.
Chorney had four assists, fired four shots on goal, blocked nine shots and was a key part of a North Dakota defense that did not allow an even-strength goal in the Minnesota series.
Chorney assisted on Duncan's game-winning goals in both games. Chorney had one assist, two shots on goal and six blocked shots in Friday's win and had three assists, two shots on goal and three blocked shots in Saturday's win.
Chorney also was a key part of UND's penalty kill that killed off 18 of Minnesota's 23 power-plays on the weekend. The Sioux were shorthanded for 17:33 last Friday and 19:17 last Saturday. Chorney drew just one minor penalty of his own on the weekend.
Chorney now has six points (2g,4a) in his last three games and is tied for 13th in the nation in scoring among defensemen with 19 points (4g,15a).
UND sweeps Gophers: North Dakota downed No. 1-ranked Minnesota 5-3 on Friday and followed that up with a 7-3 win over the Gophers on Saturday.
It was UND's first sweep of Minnesota in Minneapolis since Feb. 15-16, 1980, and just the second time since 1972 that the Sioux have swept the Gophers in either Minnesota's new or old Mariucci Arena.
The weekend sweep of the Gophers marked the eighth time since 1948 that UND has swept Minnesota on its home ice. Since 1948, the Sioux have defeated the Gophers in Minneapolis more times (50) than any other Minnesota opponent.
UND Notes:
? North Dakota has now scored 18 goals in its last three games.
? Duncan ranks third in the nation in goals scored. Only Niagara's Ted Cook (26 goals) and Northern Michigan's Mike Santorelli (25 goals) have more goals than Duncan.
? Defenseman Robbie Bina (Jr., Grand Forks, N.D.) scored a shorthanded goal in each game against Minnesota, giving him 14 points (7g, 7a) in his last 14 games.
? Bina's two SHG allowed Bina to tie the UND school single-season record for most shorthanded goals in a season by a defenseman (2). Bina joins Murray Baron (1988-89), Ian Kidd (1986-87) and Bill Himmelright (1978-79) as UND defensemen to tally two shorthanded goals in a season.
? Bina's goal on Saturday has been estimated to have traveled anywhere from 170-190 feet. The goal was shown Saturday evening and Sunday morning on ESPN's SportsCenter as Saturday's “top play” and on Monday was replayed on a variety of ESPN shows, including “Pardon the Interruption” and “Around the Horn”.
? UND forward Jonathan Toews (So., Winnipeg, Manitoba) had five points (1g, 4a) in the series against Minnesota and forward T.J. Oshie (So., Warroad, Minn.) had four points (2g, 2a) against the Gophers.
? Toews now has 12 points (3g, 9a) in six games since returning from the World Juniors tournament.
? Oshie extended his point-scoring streak to five games. Oshie has 11 points in those five games (4g, 7a).
? Oshie is only in his second season, but he is already tied for third in the school record books for most career game-winning goals.
Here is the list:
Career Game-Winning Goals
1. Mark Taylor (1976-80) 18
2. Brandon Bochenski (2001-04) 15
3. T.J. Oshie (2005-current) 13
Lee Goren (1997-00) 13
Cary Eades (1978-82) 13
? Goalie Philippe Lamoureux (Jr., Grand Forks, N.D.) was outstanding in net, posting a season-high 35 saves in Friday's game and then making another 20 saves on Saturday. Lamoureux's weekend save percentage was .902, and he made
? UND was 3-of-10 on the power play in the series, while Minnesota was 5-of-23 on the power play in the two games.
? UND did not allow an even strength goal on the weekend.
? Forward Erik Fabian (Sr., Roseau, Minn.) scored a goal in each game against the Gophers and now has five goals in eight career games against Minnesota. Fabian played in his 100th career game on Saturday.
? UND Head Coach Dave Hakstol is now 6-4 all-time against Minnesota.
“Iron Man” Porter leads nation in career games played: UND senior captain Chris Porter (Thunder Bay, Ontario) played in his 160th collegiate game this past weekend in the series at Minnesota. Porter has never missed a game in his college hockey career and is 11 games short of the WCHA record for consecutive games played (171), shared by Wisconsin's John Johannson (1980-84) and Colorado College's Calvin Elfring (1994-98).
The second-longest current streak is 151 games by Michigan's Jason Dest, who missed only the first game of his college career.
According to research by the UND media relations office, Porter has played in more career games than any current NCAA college hockey player, men's or women's, Division I or Division III. The research is based on rosters and statistics compiled on www.collegehockeystats.net, the official source for NCAA hockey statistics.
As of Sunday, Dec. 17, there were 4,508 NCAA college players listed on more than 212 teams on collegehockeystats.net. The total included 1,575 Division I men's players, 775 Division I women's players, 1,193 Division III men's players and 965 Division III women's players.
According to UND research, current all-time national games played leaders (through Jan. 29) are: Porter (160 games), Michigan's Jason Dest (151 games) and Michigan's T.J. Hensick (151 games).
The leading Division I women's games played leader (as of Jan. 29) is St. Lawrence's Crystal Connors (146 games). The leading Divison III men's games played leader (through Jan. 29) is Plattsburgh's Ryan Busby (113 games). The leading Division III women's games played leader (through Jan. 29) is Middlebury's Emily McNamara (103 games).
