GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- The UND men's hockey team defeated Minnesota State 5-2 on Friday in the opening game of the teams' first round WCHA playoff series at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
The Fighting Sioux raised their season record to 20-12-5 overall. Minnesota State fell to 13-18-6.
UND was in control of Friday's game throughout, taking a 2-0 lead after one period on goals by T.J. Oshie (So., Warroad, Minn.) and Kyle Radke (Jr., Bashaw, Alberta).
Oshie's goal, his 13th of the season, came at 9:05 of the first on a backdoor play while UND was on the power play. Sioux defenseman Taylor Chorney (So., Hastings, Minn.), who had two assists on the night, sent the puck to Jonathan Toews (So., Winnipeg, Manitoba) at the right of the goal, and Toews found Oshie camped all alone at the left doorstep. Oshie knocked down Toews' pass and whacked it in.
Radke got his second goal of the season as a result of hard work behind the Mavericks' net. After Darcy Zajac (Fr., Winnipeg, Manitoba) fired the puck behind the MSU goal, Radke muscled his way to the front of the net, fired a shot that was stopped by MSU goalie Mike Zacharias, but picked up his own rebound and backhanded it past Zacharias at 18:03.
Minnesota State cut the Fighting Sioux lead to 2-1 with a power play goal by Kurtis Kisio 1:09 into the second period, but it took UND just 47 seconds to regain its two-goal lead when Sioux forward Ryan Duncan (So., Calgary, Alberta) scored a power play goal at 1:56. It was Duncan's WCHA-leading 28th goal of the season.
On the play, Duncan collected a seeing-eye pass from Chorney through traffic and fired a wrist shot from the right circle that beat Zacharias up high.
North Dakota made it 4-1 on a goal by forward Erik Fabian (Sr., Roseau, Minn.) at 2:26 of the second, and Toews made it 5-1 UND at 9:07 of the second.
Fabian's goal, his fifth of the season, came after a behind-the-net pass from Andrew Kozek (So., Sicamous, B.C.).
Toews' goal was his 14th of the season. He made a nice move around the MSU defense after Oshie headmanned a short pass to Toews at the Mavericks' blue line.
MSU's Mick Berge scored at 16:22 of the second, but there was no further scoring after that.
UND outshot Minnesota State 38-31 in the game.
Sioux goalie Philippe Lamoureux (Jr., Grand Forks, N.D.) was solid in net, making 29 saves in his 19th consecutive start.
The teams will play the second game of the best-of-three series at 7:07 p.m. Saturday in Grand Forks. If UND wins, it will earn a berth in the WCHA Final Five next weekend. If MSU wins Saturday, the teams will play a deciding game on Sunday in Grand Forks.
NOTES: In other WCHA first round playoff games, #1 seed Minnesota defeated #10 Alaska Anchorage 6-2; #9 Minnesota Duluth defeated #2 St. Cloud State 3-1; #7 Wisconsin beat #4 Denver 3-2; and #6 Michigan Tech downed #5 Colorado College 2-1 in overtime.
