CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Sophomore forward Matt Frattin (Edmonton, Alberta) scored the game-winning goal with 12:27 remaining in the third period to give the Fighting Sioux a 4-3 victory and non-conference series sweep over Harvard tonight at the Bright Hockey Center.
Frattin's goal, his seventh in his last seven games, enabled the Sioux to rally from a 3-2 deficit early in the third period and claim their first series sweep of the season.
The win moves UND to within one game of .500 at 6-7-1 overall.
Frattin was stationed in the faceoff circle to the left of Crimson goalie Matt Hoyle when a Brad Malone (So., Miramichi, New Brunswick) rebound rolled to his feet. Frattin was able to gather the puck and get off a shot while falling down and beat Hoyle for his team-leading seventh goal of the season.
UND had tied the game just 90 seconds earlier while on the power-play. Senior forward Ryan Martens (Selkirk, Manitoba) was playing the right point on the man advantage and threaded a perfect pass to a streaking David Toews (Fr., Winnipeg, Manitoba) at the backside of the Harvard net, and Toews re-directed the pass past Hoyle for his second goal of the weekend.
It was UND's third power-play tally of the night and seventh of the weekend. The Sioux went 7-for-14 with the man advantage in the two games.
The goals by Frattin and Toews allowed UND to escape with the victory in a game that saw the Sioux take nine penalties for 29 minutes, compared to five for 10 by the Crimson. Harvard also held a 36-26 edge in shots on goal.
“We made it hard it on ourselves early on,” said Sioux head coach Dave Hakstol.
“It was a different officiating crew tonight and we didn't do a very good jub of adjusting. We had to overcome a little bit of adversity and we created a little bit of it for ourselves. But we overcame it and played an outstanding third period.”
The final period didn't begin in promising fashion for the Sioux, who gave up the go-ahead power-play goal to Harvard's Daniel Moriarty just eight seconds in. But a sixth series split of the year was not in the cards, thanks to the timely goals by Toews and Frattin.
Senior forward Ryan Duncan (Calgary, Alberta) and junior defenseman Chay Genoway (Morden, Manitoba) also scored for the Sioux, providing power-play goals 54 seconds apart in the first period.
Freshman goalie Brad Eidsness (Chestermere, Alberta) was strong once again, providing 33 saves for his seventh win. Eidsness' play was particularly critical late in the first period after junior forward Chris VandeVelde (Moorhead, Minn.) was given a five-minute major and game misconduct for checking from behind.
Eidsness stopped all six shots he faced during the five-minute penalty kill, including a pair of sprawling saves from in tight just 30 seconds into the major. His efforts allowed the Sioux to kill the entire major and take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.
Hoyle made 22 saves for the Crimson.
UND will now return to WCHA play next weekend when the Sioux host St. Cloud State on Friday and Saturday at Ralph Engelstad Arena. The Sioux will then close out the first half with an exhibition game against the U.S. Under-18 National Development Team on Dec. 19 in Grand Forks.
Notes: Marten's assist on Toews' game-tying goal gave him a six-point weekend ... Genoway's goal extended his point-scoring streak to six games, which matches his career high ... Miller pushed his point streak to five games with an assist on Duncan's goal ... Duncan had a goal and an assist to up his career point total to 147, moving him past Ryan Bayda (1999-02) and into 25th place on UND's all-time scoring list ... Eidsness made his 13th straight appearance in goal, the longest such streak by a Sioux freshman since Aaron Schweitzer played in the final 18 games of UND's 1996-97 national championship season.
