ST. CLOUD, Minn. ? St. Cloud State junior goalie Jase Weslosky stopped all 36 North Dakota shots he faced to lead the Huskies to a 3-0 victory over the 12th-ranked Fighting Sioux tonight at the National Hockey Center, bringing to an end UND's eight-game unbeaten streak.
The loss was the first of the 2009 calendar year for the Sioux, who fell to 15-11-3 overall and 10-6-3 in Western Conference Hockey Association (WCHA) play. SCSU improved to 14-11-3 overall and 9-9-1 in league action.
UND had entered the game with a 6-0-2 record since the beginning of January only to suffer its first shutout loss since Nov. 30, 2007 at Denver.
SCSU used a pair of goals in the final five minutes of the second period to turn a one-goal game into a three-goal cushion that Weslosky would not relinquish. With the Huskies leading 1-0 on a Ryan Lasch first-period goal, WCHA scoring leader Garrett Roe gathered a wide shot behind the Sioux goal and wrapped it around the far post before UND goalie Brad Eidsness (Fr., Chestermere, Alberta) had a chance to recover.
It was Roe's team-leading 13th goal of the season and put the Huskies up by two with 4:09 left in the period.
SCSU stretched the lead to 3-0 just three minutes later when Aaron Marvin found Nicholas Rioux open at the far point, and the freshman defenseman drilled a slap shot low to the glove side of Eidsness for his second goal of the season. After dominating much of the period territorially, the Sioux found themselves down by three heading into the locker room.
“We gave up two goals that were preventable in the last five minutes of the second period and that was the ballgame,” said UND head coach Dave Hakstol. “There's a fine line when we're on and when we're not and we really have to push that envelope.
“We had some poor play out of a couple of guys tonight. I thought we stood around. We kept a lot of things to the perimeter but I thought we stood a lot in our zone. I thought we had guys watching a bit too much in the defensive zone and that's not good.”
UND had several quality chances to get on the scoreboard in the third period, but Weslosky was equal to the task on every occasion. He stymied Chris VandeVelde (Jr., Moorhead, Minn.) on a shot down low with a kick save with eight minutes remaining, then slammed the door on a Brett Hextall (Fr., Manhattan Beach, Calif.) one-timer from the slot moments later.
The Hextall opportunity came with the Sioux enjoying a 5-on-3 power-play for 98 seconds.
“(If we) get one there, I don't care how much time is left, the way the third period is going a lot can still happen,” said Hakstol.
The Sioux outshot the Huskies 36-18, including a 28-13 edge over the final two periods.
“It comes down to burying the puck and getting one. If we do that somewhere in the second period it's a whole different game,” added Hakstol.
UND went 0-for-5 on the power-play, its second straight game without a power-play goal after a seven-game stretch scoring at least one. The Sioux were able to kill all six SCSU man advantages.
Eidsness, making his 26th straight appearance and 20th straight start, finished with 15 saves.
The two teams will close out their two-game WCHA series tomorrow night at 7:07 p.m. Central.
Notes: Senior F Ryan Duncan led all players with eight shots on goal ... Duncan was playing in his 161st career game and will move into UND's all-time top 10 tomorrow night ... Sophomore F Evan Trupp (Anchorage, Alaska) had his career-long point streak snapped at six games.
