GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Mixed feelings? You bet Dean Blais had them rumbling through his stomach at Ralph Engelstad Arena tonight.

The former Sioux coach returned to Grand Forks to coach against the Fighting Sioux, albeit in an exhibition game. He came away a winner, too, just like he did often in the 10 years he was on the Sioux bench.

His U.S. National Under-20 Junior Team beat the Fighting Sioux 4-2 in an exhibition game in front of an announced paid attendance of 10,241.

"Real strange,'' Blais said of being on the visitor's bench at REA. "It helped that we came in a few days early and had training camp here. I wasn't as nervous as I was at the start of the week.''

Team USA used the UND facilities this week to sort through players trying to make the final roster for the World Junior Tournament, opening next week in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Chris Kreider, who plays for Boston College, wrote his name in pen into the lineup with two goals and almost a third with a shot off a goal post to pace Team USA's offense.

"It was always an emotional thing to look out there and see the green and white,'' Blais said. "Not cheer against them, but try to beat them. That was hard. I knew I'd have a tough time with it.''

It was the first test for his team prior to the World Juniors and Kreider made certain the team had a passing grade.

He scored the first goal of the game on a power play deflection at 6:51 of the second period and scored again to put his team in front 2-1 at 3:36 of the third period, one second after the Sioux had killed a minor penalty.

UND actually outshot the U.S. National Team 34-26, including by a 16-9 margin in the third period when the Sioux were outscored 3-1.

The final goal for Team USA was scored into an empty net by Danny Kristo, a UND freshman and the leading scorer for the Sioux.

Blais was supposed to coach the 2005 U.S. team in the World Junior Tournament played in Grand Forks. Instead, he accepted a job as associate head coach of Columbus of the National Hockey League. "Went to the NHL in a lockout year,'' Blais chuckled. "Not a good decision.''

Kristo made his presence felt. He led Team USA in shots on goal with five, and clinched the victory with his empty-netter with 17 seconds left.

"I put him out there to try to win the game 3-2,'' Blais said. "That was just a bonus, I guess, for Danny.''

It was a strange experience for Kristo, going from playing for the Sioux last week to skating against them tonight. "It was fun,'' he said. "Probably won't ever happen again. It was a good time.''

UND picked up a pair of goals from junior forward Evan Trupp (Anchorage, Alaska).

He scored on a power-play at 17:37 of the first period on a great setup by junior Brad Malone (Jr., Miramichi, New Brunswick) to tie the game at 1-1.

Trupp made it 3-2 with 49 seconds left in the game when he skated into the slot and whipped a backhander just inside the far post.

Though the game lacked the intensity of a WCHA game, UND's approach to it was no different, coach Dave Hakstol said.

"There were things we wanted to work on and things we wanted to try to accomplish,'' Hakstol said. "Focus was not a problem. Overall, our focus and effort was pretty good. We lacked execution.''

Besides missing Kristo from the lineup, the Sioux were without seniors Darcy Zajac and Chad Genoway, both sidelined with injuries.

"We wanted to get a look a couple new combinations, and we did that,'' Hakstol said. "I liked the play of a couple of young guys who got more ice time. There was good signs. But we didn't get the production that we were hoping for.''

One change Hakstol tried was using freshman Corban Knight (High River, Alberta) at the point on the power play, a spot normally occupied by Kristo.

"Considering first game out against a pretty good aggressive penalty kill,'' Hakstol said, "I thought he did a good job. He didn't try to do too much up there. Now that we have some video for him to look at, there are some simple adjustments that will allow him to open the entire zone a little more rather than be locked onto one side. Overall, he did a good job.''

The Sioux converted on 1-of-6 power plays. "Not good enough tonight,'' Hakstol said. "I thought early on, especially the first half of the game, we had very little cohesion coming up ice. We didn't do a good job attacking with speed. But we got better in the second half. How would I assess it? Below average the first half of the game, improved through the second half.''

Hakstol split the goaltending duties between sophomore Brad Eidsness (Chestermere, Alberta) and freshman Aaron Dell (Airdrie, Alberta). Eidsness stopped 13 of the 14 shots he faced, Dell nine of the 11 he faced.

Blais, in his first year as head coach of the University of Nebraska-Omaha, served as head coach of the Fighting Sioux from 1994-2004 and led UND to NCAA championships in 1997 and 2000. He is the second-winningest coach in UND history (262-115-33) and guided the Sioux to six MacNaughton Cup titles as Western Collegiate Hockey Association champions.

SIOUX NOTES: Trupp led the Sioux in shots on goal with 5, followed by Knight and freshman Mike Cichy (New Hartford, Conn.) with 4 each ... Kristo paced Team USA in shots on net with 5.

Virg Foss covered Fighting Sioux hockey for 35 seasons for the Grand Forks Herald until his retirement. He now reports exclusively on UND home games for fightingsioux.com