GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- The University of Denver's birthday boy helped blow out the candles tonight on UND's hopes of avoiding its first sweep at home since 2006.
Sophomore Joe Colborne had a goal and an assist on his 20th birthday as the Pioneers rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Fighting Sioux 4-2 and compete the Western Collegiate Hockey Association sweep.
It's the first time UND has been swept at home since Michigan Tech pulled off the trick on Dec.15-16, 2006. UND had played 25 two-game regular season series' at home since then without being swept.
"They're a great team and they brought out their best game tonight,'' Colborne said. "And we answered them.''
Goals by senior center Chris VandeVelde (Moorhead, Minn.) staked the Sioux to a 2-0 lead that lasted until halfway through the game.
VandeVelde tipped in a left point shot by freshman defenseman Andrew MacWilliam (Calgary, Alberta) at 12:19 of the opening period to stake the Sioux to a 1-0 lead.
VandeVelde collected his ninth goal of the season and his first two-goal game since the NCAA regional semifinal last season early in the second period for a 2-0 Sioux lead.
He converted a cross-crease pass from linemate Jason Gregoire (Winnipeg, Manitoba) at 2:42 of the second period, just three seconds after a Sioux power play had expired.
The Sioux failed to convert on four power-play chances tonight and are now 0-for-32 over the past six games, including 0-for-13 in the two games against Denver.
Denver's rally started when Anthony Maiani fed a backhand pass from behind the net to Kyle Ostrow for Denver's first goal at 10:31 of the second period.
Before the period ended, the Pioneers were in the lead for good. Drew Shore snapped off a wrist shot to tie it on a DU power play at 13:37. It snapped a string of 19 straight successful Sioux penalty kills.
Birthday boy Colborne than scored the game-winning goal four minutes later. He was left uncovered in front of Sioux sophomore goalie Brad Eidsness (Chestermere, Alberta) for his 11th goal of the season at 17:52 of the second period.
Rhett Rakhshani's team-leading 17th goal of the year at 12:16 of the final period closed the scoring and cemented UND's fate.
Denver, ranked No. 3 in the national polls, completed a sweep of all four games against the Sioux this season after beating them twice earlier in the year in Denver.
UND, ranked No. 4 nationally coming into the weekend, continued to struggled with offense. The Sioux have now scored just six goals in their last five games in losing four of them.
"We obviously got to work on a couple of things defensively, especially when playing against a talented team like Denver,'' VandeVelde said.
Denver's first goal by Ostrow seemed to change the momentum of the game.
"They popped one in there and that kind of took the wind out of our sail,'' VandeVelde said. "We've got to mature and grow from that.''
The Sioux will have a week to regroup. They are idle next weekend before resuming WCHA play at St. Cloud State on Feb. 12-13.
"St. Cloud isn't the first thing on my mind,'' UND coach Dave Hakstol said. "Our team is the first thing on my mind. We're going to concentrate on coming back to work coming off a very disappointing weekend. You have to show some real good mental strength and have to to be determined not allow this type of weekend to be the defining moment of our second half (of the season).''
It a series that the polls highlighted as a key one on the national scene, Denver did all the celebrating.
"This has got to be a moment that springboards us and kind of a slap in the face that pushes you in the right direction,'' Hakstol said.
The Sioux looked sharp the first part of the game until it fell apart for them. "For whatever reason, we didn't handle giving up the first goal very well,'' Hakstol said. "From there, we didn't recover for the rest of the second period.''
Hakstol felt it was more of a drop in the level of UND's play that a spring forward in Denver's game. "I think it was a dropoff in our play,'' Hakstol said. "They were playing solid hockey. The first goal was sloppy on our part.''
UND dropped below .500 in the WCHA for the first time this season at 8-9-3, and to 13-10-5 overall.
Denver improved to 12-4-4 in the WCHA and 16-6-4 overall.
SIOUX NOTES: Eidsness finished with 24 saves for UND and Marc Cheverie with 22 for the Pioneers . . . UND had a total of five shots on goal on its four power plays . . . VandeVelde and junior defenseman Jake Marto (Grand Forks) led UND in shots on goal with 5, followed by sophomore Mario Lamoureux (Grand Forks) with three. Lamoureux was named assistant captain prior to the series . . . Rakhshani, Denver's captain, led the Pioneers in shots on goal with 5 . . .UND had a 34-31 edge in faceoff wins, led by VandeVelde winning 12 of 18.
Virg Foss, who covered Fighting Sioux hockey for 35 seasons for the Grand Forks Herald until his retirement, reports on UND home games exclusively for fightingsioux.com. Contact him at virgfoss@yahoo.com or (701) 772-9272.
