ST. CLOUD, Minn. -- Ryan Duncan (Jr., Calgary, Alberta) scored two goals and added an assist to lead the UND men's hockey team to a 6-2 win over St. Cloud State in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association game on Saturday.
T.J. Oshie (Jr., Warroad, Minn.) had a goal and assist for UND, and Sioux goalie Jean-Philippe Lamoureux (Sr., Grand Forks, N.D.) stopped 29 shots while making his 44th consecutive start.
The win gave UND a split of the weekend series, and allowed the Fighting Sioux to move into third place in the WCHA. The Sioux are now 10-8-1 overall and 7-7-0 in the WCHA. St. Cloud State dropped to 10-10-2 overall and 5-8-1 in the WCHA.
UND grabbed a 3-1 lead after one period and never trailed in the game.
North Dakota opened the scoring 13 seconds into the game. On the play, Rylan Kaip (Sr., Radville, Saskatchewan) scored his sixth goal of the season when Chris VandeVelde (So., Moorhead, Minn.) won a faceoff from the right circle directly to Kaip, who fired a shot from the edge of the circle that beat Huskies goalie Dan Dunn low.
St. Cloud State tied it 1-1 at 12:07 when Ryan Lasch scored his 17th goal of the season. Lasch took a pass out front and although he slightly fanned on his shot, he got enough so that the puck fluttered off the cross bar and into the net.
The Sioux took a 2-1 lead at 16:48 on a shot by Duncan from the top of the right circle. It was Duncan's eighth goal of the season and came after UND defenseman Chay Genoway (So., Morden, Manitoba) sent a pass to Duncan in the neutral zone. Duncan carried the puck over the blue line, cut to his left and unleashed a wrist shot that beat Dunn high.
UND upped its lead to 3-1 at 18:24 of the first when Matt Watkins (Jr., Aylesbury, Saskatchewan) buried a shot from in close. Sioux forward Darcy Zajac (So., Winnipeg, Manitoba) worked the boards behind St. Cloud State's net, and made a short touch pass to Matt Frattin (Fr., Edmonton, Alberta), who found Watkins in front.
St. Cloud State replaced Dunn with Jase Weslosky in goal to start the second period.
SCSU cut the UND lead to 3-2 at 5:20 of the second on a power-play goal by Aaron Marvin. UND had killed off all three Huskies power-play opportunities in the first period.
The Sioux got their two-goal lead back on a power-play goal by Oshie at 8:57. Oshie picked up a rebound of a Robbie Bina (Sr., Grand Forks, N.D.) shot and backhanded it by Weslosky and into an open net.
UND continued the offensive onslaught at 15:02 when Duncan made it 5-2 with his second goal of the game while the teams were skating 4-on-4.
Just 1:09 later, VandeVelde caught the corner of the net with a high wrist shot to make it 6-2. It was VandeVelde's seventh goal of the season.
There was no scoring in the third period.
SCSU outshot the Sioux, 31-30. The Huskies were 1-of-8 on the power play, while UND was 1-of-3.
NOTES: Kaip's six goals are a career high ... Kaip's goal 13 seconds into the game was the fastest by the Sioux to start a game this season ... UND will play host to Michigan Tech next weekend in a two-game series at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
