MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- UND rookie forward Evan Trupp (Anchorage, Alaska) scored 2:23 into overtime to lead the Fighting Sioux men's hockey team to a 2-1 win over Minnesota on Friday.
The goal, Trupp's seventh of the season and fourth game winner, was scored in spectacular fashion.
Sioux forward Ryan Martens (Jr., Selkirk, Manitoba) backhanded a saucer pass from behind the Gophers net out front, and a diving Trupp batted the puck out of mid-air with a forehand shot that went in off Minnesota goalie Alex Kangas's right pad, emptying UND's bench for an on-ice celebration.
It was the third time in the last five North Dakota-Minnesota games that a game has been decided by a dramatic overtime goal. UND has won two of those overtime contests and Minnesota has won one.
The win extended North Dakota's winning streak to eight games and upped UND's record to 17-8-1 overall and 14-7-0 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. The Gophers fell to 12-12-5 overall and 6-10-3 in the WCHA.
The Sioux, in second place in the WCHA standings, now trail league leader Colorado College by just three points, although CC does have a game in hand on UND. The Sioux gained two points on third-place Denver, which lost 5-1 to Minnesota State on Friday, and lead the Pioneers by four points in the league standings. Denver has four games in hand on UND.
UND's winning streak is its longest since the Sioux won nine in a row in the 2003-04 season.
The Gophers opened the scoring 3:16 into the game on a shorthanded goal by Evan Kaufmann when UND was caught deep in the Minnesota zone. The Gophers' Tony Lucia cleared the puck, and Kaufmann picked it up in the neutral zone and skated down the left side before backhanding a shot between UND goalie Jean-Philippe Lamoureux's (Sr., Grand Forks, N.D.) legs.
It was just the second shorthanded goal UND has allowed this season.
The Sioux tied it 1-1 at 7:49 of the first period during a 4-on-4 situation. Defenseman Chay Genoway (So., Morden, Manitoba) carried the puck over the Minnesota blue line and then left a pass for Joe Finley (Jr., Edina, Minn.), who blasted a shot from the left point that beat Kangas to the short side.
It was Finley's third goal of the season.
Minnesota outshot UND 8-2 in the period. It was the fewest shots by the Sioux in a period all season and marked the fourth period in a row that the Sioux had single-digit shots on goal.
The second period was scoreless, with the Sioux outshooting the Gophers 11-6 in the second.
UND appeared to score at 9:27 of the second when Chris VandeVelde (So., Moorhead, Minn.) banged in a loose puck that was in the crease, but the whistle had blown.
The Sioux applied more offensive pressure in the third period, outshooting the Gophers 17-8, but both goalies made big saves.
For the game, Kangas stopped 32 shots, while Lamoureux made 21 saves in his 51st consecutive start. Both teams were scoreless on the power play in the game, with UND going 0-for-6 and Minnesota 0-for-4.
NOTES: Attendance at the game was a sold-out 10,222, marking the 27th time in a row the Sioux and Gophers have played before a capacity crowd at Mariucci Arena ... Sioux forward T.J. Oshie (Jr., Warroad, Minn.) had a career-best eight-game point-scoring streak snapped.
