By Virg Foss
GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- UND sophomore right wing Ryan Duncan (Calgary, Alberta) says he can't remember scoring a goal on a backhander this season.
The leading goal scorer in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association will certainly remember his backhander tonight. He found the net for the 24th time this season with that backhander and lifted the Fighting Sioux to a 1-0 Western Collegiate Hockey Association victory over visiting Minnesota Duluth.
Duncan's goal at 3:14 of the first period over the glove of Duluth goalie Josh Johnson (20 saves) stood up as the only goal of the game . As a result, the Sioux stretched their nation-best unbeaten streak to 11 games (8-0-3) with a hard-fought victory over the Bulldogs.
Junior goalie Philippe Lamoureux (Grand Forks, N.D.) stopped 19 shots for his second shutout of the season and third of his career. His other shutout this season was a 29-save effort in a 4-0 win over Alaska Anchorage on Jan. 13.
"It's a tough game for probably both goaltenders to play,'' UND coach Dave Hakstol said. "They both had some tough shots through traffic. They had some rebound chances in front, not too many, and each of them had Grade A saves they had to make. In a 1-0 game, I feel Phil was our first star tonight.''
He'll have to share the big stage with Duncan, who continues to thrust himself into the picture for the Hobey Baker Award as the nation's best college player.
Linemmate T.J. Oshie (So., Warroad, Minn.) hit Duncan in the skates with his pass from the faceoff circle to Johnson's right. But Duncan managed to kick the puck to the blade of his stick, then took a couple of strides to his right before lofting his backhander over Johnson's catching glove.
"I think that was my first (backhand goal),'' Duncan said. "I was surprised that one went in. I don't get too many backhanders, that's for sure.''
Duncan saw an opening and set up his backhand. "I tried to go up top,'' Duncan said. "I saw that he (Johnson) was down a little bit and I tried to outwait him. Just a little spot opened up. It's hard to be accurate with your backhand sometimes, but I was just fortunate it went right up there.''
It turned out to be a huge win for the Sioux, who closed the home portion of the regular-season schedule with an 8-7-4 record.
Coupled with Colorado College's 3-2 loss to Minnesota, the Sioux (11-9-4) moved into a tie for fourth place in the WCHA with the Tigers and moved them to within one point of idle third-place Denver University with four games remaining for all three teams. It also gave the Sioux a two-point lead over sixth-place Wisconsin. The top five teams in the standings when regular league play ends in two weeks draw home ice for the first round of the WCHA playoffs.
Lamoureux finished with 19 saves, 12 of them coming in the final period. Lamoureux had just seven saves through the first 40 minutes, including just two in the second period.
"I've really got to say I was just the benefactor of guys playing great in front of me tonight,'' Lamoureeux said. "They allowed me to see shots. To only give up seven shots in the first two periods, I can't remember the last time that happened. Guys just did a tremendous job of blocking out and eliminating second chances.''
The victory also boosted UND to a tie for seventh with Denver in the U.S. College Hockey Online PairWise Rankings after the Sioux went into the game tied for ninth. The PairWise Rankings mimic the formula the NCAA will eventually use to pick the 16 teams for its postseason tournament.
It was a hard-hitting, tight-checking series throughout with puckhandlers finiding little room to move unemcumbered.
Hakstol said it wasn't a defensive battle by design. "Every series takes on its own personality. That's just the way this series went. It wasn't poor play offensively. Guys were working extremely hard. It was just very good team defense both ways, really for 120 minutes.''
The fact the Sioux could win with one goal after averaging six goals a game over the previous five games heading into the weekend gave Hakstol encouragement.
"It's maybe another building block,'' Hakstol said. "Certainly for us we can look at it that way. We scored the game-winning goal with 56 minutes to go (actually closer to 57). That's a hard 1-0 game to win. I thought we had good patience for 60 minutes. A combination of some hard play by everybody in the lineup; we were able to get it done.''
The Sioux finish out their regular-season the next weekend with road trips to Denver and St. Cloud State.
Sioux notes: Captain Chris Porter (Sr., Thunder Bay, Ont.) played in his 164th consecutive game, tying him for fourth all-time at UND with Jeff Panzer...The teams combined to go 0-6 on the power play and had just combined six shots on goal with a man advantage . . . Duncan and Oshie had three shots on goal apiece, tying them for top on the team...Attendance Saturday was 11,818, the fourth-highest ever for UND in its six years at the new Ralph Engelstad Arena.
