DENVER, Colo.?Sophomore forward T.J. Oshie (Warroad, Minn.) scored three goals and an assist as the Fighting Sioux men's hockey team rallied from a pair of two-goal deficits to defeat Michigan 8-5 tonight at the Pepsi Center in the NCAA West Region semifinal.
UND advances to Saturday's regional championship game against top-seeded Minnesota - which edged Air Force 4-3 earlier in the day - in a rematch of last Saturday's WCHA Final Five championship.
It wasn't until Oshie notched his hat trick with an empty netter with 1:13 left on the clock that UND was able to seal the win in a game that saw the two teams combine for an NCAA tournament record-tying 13 goals.
UND was particularly effective on the power-play, converting a season-high five times on eight chances.
However, the Sioux found themselves trailing by two goals before the game was a minute old. Just 26 seconds into the game, Michigan scoring leader T.J. Hensick found Kevin Porter alone in the slot, and Porter whistled a shot high glove side past UND goalie Phil Lamoureux for a 1-0 lead. Then just 32 seconds later Lamoureux stopped Andrew Cogliano on a breakaway, but Chris Summers followed up to bang home the rebound for the two-goal lead.
The Sioux got on the board just over two minutes later on their first power-play, as senior captain Chris Porter (Thunder Bay, Ont.) buried a Chris VandeVelde (Fr., Moorhead, Minn.) rebound to make it 2-1.
But the Wolverines restored their two-goal cushion 70 seconds later when Hensick stole the puck deep inside the Sioux zone, walked in front and slid the puck past Lamoureux for a 3-1 lead.
The pace seemed to settle down for the next 10 minutes until UND erupted for three late goals to take its first lead. Porter deflected a Brad Miller (So., Alpharetta, Ga.) shot for his second power-play goal of the game at 14:36, and then T.J. Oshie scored his first of the night one minute later.
UND capped the explosion while on a 5-on-3, as Robbie Bina (Jr., Grand Forks) hit a streaking Jonathan Toews (So., Winnipeg, Man.) on the way to the net, and Toews redirected the pass past Michigan goalie Billy Sauer for a 4-3 UND lead heading into the first intermission.
In a carbon copy of the game's opening 58 seconds, Michigan again put two on the board before the second period was a minute old. Hensick scored his second of the game just 14 seconds in, and Cogliano stole the puck behind the net from Lamoureux and wrapped it around to make it 5-4 Michigan.
It took the Sioux just two minutes to even the score again, with Bina wristing a point shot through traffic on the power play at 3:16. Then Rylan Kaip (Jr., Radville, Sask.) beat Sauer from the high slot at 4:53 to give UND the lead for good.
Lamoureux was the story the rest of the way, recovering from a rough start to make several spectacular saves over the game's final 30 minutes to protect the UND lead, including a stop on a Hensick breakaway while the Wolverines were shorthanded.
Michigan threw 14 third-period shots at Lamoureux, but the junior netminder slammed the door at every turn. Trailing 7-5 with 2:20 left on the clock, Michigan pulled Sauer in favor of the extra attacker, but Oshie won a faceoff in his own zone, then won a race for a loose puck in the neutral zone and buried his empty-net, hat trick goal for the victory.
Tomorrow's rematch against Minnesota will mark the fourth straight appearance in the regional final for UND, which has gone to the Frozen Four in each of the past two seasons. The puck drops at 5 p.m. Central. The game will be televised live on ESPNU (DirecTV channel 609) and on Fox Sports Net North in Minnesota and North Dakota (Channel 28 in Grand Forks, N.D.). Check with local cable affiliates for specific channels that carry Fox Sports Net North.
Notes: The announced attendance was 11,171 ... UND sophomore forward Ryan Duncan (Calgary, Alta.) had three assists and has a team-leading 56 points this season ... Porter enjoyed the second two-goal NCAA postseason game of his career; he also notched two goals against Boston College in the 2005 East Region final ... UND's eight goals were one shy of the team record for goals in an NCAA tournament game; the Sioux defeated Brown 9-5 in the third-place game of the 1965 NCAA tournament and defeated Harvard 9-1 in the 1958 national semifinal.
