Denver downs UND in Final Five, Sioux to face Colorado College in third-place game

Men's Hockey UND Athletics Media Relations

Denver downs UND in Final Five, Sioux to face Colorado College in third-place game

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Denver forward Anthony Maiani's goal with 1:20 to play broke a 1-1 tie, and the Pioneers added an empty net goal with six seconds remaining in a 3-1 win over the UND men's hockey team in a Friday afternoon WCHA Final Five semifinal game at the Xcel Energy Center.

North Dakota (25-10-4 overall), the No. 2 seed in the Final Five, will play in the Final Five third-place game at 2:07 p.m. Saturday against No. 1 seed Colorado College, which lost 2-1 in overtime to No. 5 seed Minnesota in the Friday night semifinal matchup. No. 3 seed Denver (25-13-1 overall) will play in the 7:07 p.m. Saturday championship game against Minnesota.

UND head coach Dave Hakstol said the loss was difficult, but that the Sioux would focus immediately on Saturday's game.

"This time of the year any loss is a tough loss," said Hakstol.

Maiani's goal came when he intercepted a pass in his own end, skated down the right side into the Fighting Sioux end and fired a backhand shot from in deep that beat Sioux goalie Jean-Philippe Lamoureux (Sr., Grand Forks, N.D.) high stick side.

Denver forward Matt Glasser's empty-net tally with six seconds left sealed the win for the Pioneers, who have now beaten UND in all three WCHA Final Five games (1999, 2005 and 2008) between the teams.

"North Dakota has had one of the most amazing runs of the year," said Denver head coach George Gwozdecky. "It's an honor to compete against them and come out with a win."

In today's game, UND made a bid to come back from a 1-0 deficit after two periods, tying the score at 6:16 of the third when UND defenseman Taylor Chorney (Jr., Hastings, Minn.) jammed home a rebound of a Darcy Zajac (So., Winnipeg, Manitoba) shot.

Chorney's goal was the only shot that the Sioux were able to get by Denver senior goalie Peter Mannino, who stopped 32 of 33 UND shots. Lamoureux stopped 27 of the 29 Pioneers' shots he faced.

The Pioneers opened the scoring with a power-play goal by Rhett Rakhshani at 5:58 of the second period. Rakhshani took a pass from Patrick Mullen in the left circle and fired a high wrist shot past Lamoureux.

Denver was on the power play three times in the second period and outshot UND 8-6.

The teams played a scoreless first period, with North Dakota outshooting Denver 12-11. The Pioneers attempted 30 shots to 17 for the Fighting Sioux in the first.

There were 11 minor penalties called in the first, with Denver receiving seven for 14 minutes and UND four for eight minutes. Seven of the penalties were called after a scrum in front of the Denver net at 19:01.

UND had two 5-on-3 power plays, one for 1:25 in the game's first five minutes and one for 1:38 in the last 59 seconds of the first period that carried into the first 39 seconds of the second period. Denver killed off both.

North Dakota, which is 2-2-2 in its last six games, will make its first appearance in the Final Five third-place game since 2005, when the Sioux defeated Minnesota 4-2 after falling to Denver 2-1 in overtime in a Friday afternoon semifinal contest.

NOTES: Attendance at Friday's North Dakota-Denver game was 16,768, the second-highest for a Friday afternoon contest in Final Five history.
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Players Mentioned

Taylor Chorney

#4 Taylor Chorney

D
6' 0"
Junior
Jean-Philippe Lamoureux

#1 Jean-Philippe Lamoureux

G
5' 8"
Senior
Darcy Zajac

#11 Darcy Zajac

F
6' 1"
Sophomore

Players Mentioned

Taylor Chorney

#4 Taylor Chorney

6' 0"
Junior
D
Jean-Philippe Lamoureux

#1 Jean-Philippe Lamoureux

5' 8"
Senior
G
Darcy Zajac

#11 Darcy Zajac

6' 1"
Sophomore
F