By Virg Foss
GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Minnesota State, Mankato hockey coach Troy Jutting took one look at UND's top line tonight and saw immediately his Mavericks were in deep trouble.
"Best line in college hockey,'' Jutting said after the Fighting Sioux laid a 8-4 Western Collegiate Hockey Association whipping on his Mavericks in front of 11,164 fans in Ralph Engelstad Arena. "Two of them will be scoring goals in the NHL next season.''
UND's all-sophomore top line of first-round NHL draft picks Jonathan Toews (Winnipeg, Manitoba) and T.J. Oshie (Warroad, Minn.), along with leading scorer Ryan Duncan (Calgary, Alberta) certainly did a number on Mankato tonight.
The line combined for nine points with Toews leading the way with two goals and two assists. Duncan, leading scorer in the WCHA, had a goal (his 22nd) and two assists and Oshie a goal and an assist.
Yet it was a balanced effort for the Sioux, who hung eight goals on the Mavericks for the second time this season in running their record to 3-0 against Mankato.
Ten of UND's 12 forwards contributed at least one point as did four of the six defensemen. The eight goals matched UND's season best. The sizzling Sioux offense now has scored 26 goals in the last four games.
The Sioux, now 9-1-1 in their last 11 games, broke open a 2-2 tie after one period by outgunning the Mavericks 4-1 in the second period, usually a troublesome period for the Sioux.
Maybe it just took the Sioux, who were idle last week, a period to get going.
"There was rust in certain areas mentally,'' UND coach Dave Hakstol said. "I thought we got a little bit better as the game went along. I thought we were fortunate in some situations in the first two periods. Some very good individual plays produced the lead for us.''
Freshman wing Darcy Zajac (Winnipeg, Manitoba) gave the Sioux the lead for good when he fired a wrist shot back across his body at 3:04 of the second period to beat Mankato goalie Mike Zacharias to the stick side for Zajac's sixth goal of the season and second in the last two games.
Toews walked around Mankato defenseman R.J. Lindner to score on a brilliant move at 9:25 to make it 4-2. Toews' goal was followed in short order by goal from sophomore defenseman Taylor Chorney (Hastings, Minn.) at 10:12 and by sophomore defenseman Brian Lee (Moorhead, Minn.) at 16:14 for a 6-2 Sioux bulge.
Sophomore wing Andrew Kozek (Sicamous, B.C.) and Toews added goals in the third period to close out UND's scoring as sophomores scored seven of UND's eight goals and rookie Zajac potting the other.
It was hard for Hakstol to find much fault with UND's effort. "There was some rust there, and mostly it showed on the defensive side of our game,'' Hakstol said. "We weren't all that solid, especially the first 40 minutes when the game was on the line.''
Two of Mankato's four goals were accidentally knocked in by the Sioux. A Mankato centering pass went off Lee's stick late in the first period and flipped past Sioux goalie Philippe Lamoureux (Grand Forks, N.D.) to create a 2-2 tie at 16:14 of the opening period.
Then late in the third period, a high shot by Mankato's Stephen Wagner sailed over the net and kicked back over the top of the net toward Lamoureux. As he reached for it with his glove hand, he knocked the puck into the net, with Wagner credited with the goal.
Several battles broke out in the final minute of the game with five players ejected for fighting, including UND's Erik Fabian and Lee.
"You never like to lose guys, but that's part of the game,'' Hakstol said. "That's why we have a roster of 24, 25 guys. Other guys have to step in and do the job.''
Fabian and Lee, along with Mankato's Matt Tyree, Lucas Fransen and Trevor Bruess, will have to sit out Saturday's rematch after drawing 5-minute majors for fighting and game disqualification penalties from referee Derek Shepherd.
Hakstol wouldn't endorse Jutting's comment of the Toews-Oshie-Duncan line being the best in college hockey
"I don't know right now,'' Hakstol said. "They're doing an awfully lot of good things. The No. 1 thing is that they are playing hard, like the rest of our team. They went through a lot of struggles in the first half (of the season). At times, there was criticism of them. I'm just to see them having success. Their work ethic is no different -- they've worked extremely hard through the year.''
Every Sioux line contributed to the scoring. "That's the only way we're successful, point blank,'' Hakstol said.
UND wasn't shook by accidentally knocking goals into its own net. "A couple of strange goals,'' Hakstol said. "Those things are going to happen. The most important thing is how you react to them, and in both cases, we reacted pretty well.''
UND didn't lose its scoring touch in the week off after the Sioux had averaged six goals a game in the last three games before the bye week.
"Some people can use that week off in a bad way if you don't practice properly,'' said Chorney, UND's top-scoring defenseman with 21 points after a goal and an assist tonight.
"I think coach Hakstol did a really good job of keeping us prepared,'' Chorney said. "We had some up-tempo practices and a couple of scrimmages. You knew coming in that right away we would be a little rusty with our playmaking and stuff, but we got it together pretty quick.''
With the win, the Sioux (16-11-2 overall, 10-9-2 WCHA) remained in fifth place in the WCHA, but crept to within three points of fourth place Colorado College and four points of third place Denver, both losers tonight. UND also moved into a tie for sixth place nationally in USCHO's Pairwise Rankings, which mimic the NCAA's tournament selection process. The Sioux were tied for eighth in the Pairwise going into Friday.
Mankato, which had been 4-1-2 in its last seven games, slipped to 7-12-4 in the WCHA and 10-16-5 overall. The Mavericks fell one place in the WCHA standings to eighth with Wisconsin bypassing the Mavericks by a point after the Badgers beat Alaska Anchorage tonight.
