Games 29 & 30 ? Fri.-Sat., Feb. 9-10, 2007
#11 North Dakota (15-11-2 overall, 9-9-2 WCHA)
vs.
Minnesota State (10-15-5 overall, 7-11-4 WCHA)
7:37 p.m./7:07 p.m. Central Standard Time
Grand Forks, N.D.
Ralph Engelstad Arena (11,406)
Sioux wrap up homestand this weekend: North Dakota (15-11-2 overall, 9-9-2 WCHA) will resume action this week after being idle last weekend.
The Fighting Sioux will play host to Minnesota State (10-15-5 overall, 7-11-4 WCHA) in a Friday-Saturday series at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
UND currently has a five-game winning streak and seven-game unbeaten streak (6-0-1), tied with Michigan State for the longest current unbeaten streak in the nation.
This is the first of two consecutive home series for UND, with Minnesota Duluth coming to Grand Forks for a two-game set on Feb. 16-17.
After the two home weekends, UND will close the regular season with back-to-back road weekends, traveling to Denver (Feb. 23-24) and St. Cloud State (March 2-3).
Series with Minnesota State: UND and MSU will be meeting for the second time this season. The two teams played two games in Mankato, Minn., on Oct. 27-28, with the Sioux sweeping that series (5-4 and 8-5).
North Dakota has a four-game winning streak against Minnesota State and has won six of the last seven and eight of the last 10 games between the teams.
UND is 23-9-6 all-time against the Mavericks and 14-6-2 all-time against MSU in Grand Forks.
About Minnesota State: MSU is 4-1-2 in its last seven games, including a three-point weekend against Michigan Tech on Feb. 2-3. After a 2-2 overtime tie on Friday, Minnesota State defeated the Huskies 2-1 in overtime on Saturday.
The Mavericks have played 22 league games and are just two points behind UND in the league standings, with the Sioux having played 20 WCHA games.
Minnesota State's head coach is Troy Jutting, who is in his seventh season as head coach of the Mavericks.
Sioux up to No. 11 in national polls: UND was ranked 11th in the Feb. 5 USCHO and USA Today national polls.
Last UND games: UND's last action came Jan. 26-27, when the Fighting Sioux swept Minnesota (5-3, 7-3), then ranked No. 1 in the nation, in Minneapolis.
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 moves up special teams rankings:
North Dakota ranks fourth nationally in power play percentage (22.6 percent) and ninth nationally in overall special teams percentage (52.8 percent). UND's national rankings are listed on page 5 of the PDF version of this release.
UND was 3-of-10 on the power play in the Minnesota series, while Minnesota was 5-of-23 on the power play in the two games.
The 23 power play opportunities is a series high for a UND opponent this season.
The last time UND faced as many as 23 opponent power plays in a weekend was at last season's season-opening Lefty McFadden tournament in Dayton, Ohio. That weekend (Oct. 8-9, 2005), UND killed off all 12 Miami power play opportunities in a 3-0 win and 10 of 11 Michigan State power play chances in a 3-0 loss for a total of 22 of 23 power plays killed in a weekend.
Until the Jan. 26-27 Minnesota series, the most power play chances by a single opponent in a series was Jan. 13-14, 2006, when Minnesota had 19 power play chances in a two-game series in Minneapolis. The Gophers converted 6-of-19 power plays in that series.
UND Notes:
? North Dakota has now scored 18 goals in its last three games.
? Sophomore forward Ryan Duncan (Calgary, Alberta) leads the WCHA in goals in all games (21 goals) and in WCHA games only (16 goals). Duncan is second in the WCHA in scoring in all games (36) and in conference games, Duncan is tied for the league lead with 26 points (16g, 10a).
? Duncan is tied for third in the nation with Nebraska-Omaha's Scott Parse in total goals scored (21). Only Niagara's Ted Cook (27 goals) and Northern Michigan's Mike Santorelli (26 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.
? 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).
? Defenseman Taylor Chorney (So., Hastings, Minn.) had four assists against Minnesota, including three in the series finale on Jan. 27. Chorney, who has 19 points (4g, 15a) on the season, now ranks 12th in the nation in defenseman scoring with a 0.79 point per game average.
? Chorney was named the Jan. 30 WCHA Defensive Player of the Week for his efforts.
? Goalie Philippe Lamoureux (Jr., Grand Forks, N.D.) was outstanding in net in the Minnesota series, posting a season-high 35 saves in the series opener and then making another 20 saves in the second game of the series. Lamoureux's weekend save percentage was .902.
? 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.
? 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
“Iron Man” Porter leads nation in career games played: UND senior captain Chris Porter (Thunder Bay, Ontario) played in his 160th collegiate game 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).
T
he second-longest current streak is 153 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 Feb. 5) are: Porter (160 games), Michigan's Jason Dest (153 games) and Michigan's T.J. Hensick (153 games).
The leading Division I women's games played leader (as of Feb. 5) is St. Lawrence's Crystal Connors (148 games). The leading Divison III men's games played leader (through Feb. 5) is Plattsburgh's Ryan Busby (115 games). The leading Division III women's games played leader (through Feb. 5) is Middlebury's Emily McNamara (105 games).
