GRAND FORKS -- The UND Fighting Sioux were treading on thin ice tonight when the Western Collegiate Hockey Association contest with visiting Minnesota Duluth headed into overtime.
It marked the fourth time in the last six games the Bulldogs have been involved in OT.
And thanks to Justin Fontaine's goal 58 seconds into overtime to cap a 2-on-1 rush, the Bulldogs have now won their third straight OT game, this one 3-2.
Mike Connolly carried the puck down the left wing on the outmanned rush and made a stick-to-tape pass behind his back to Fontaine, on his right. Fontaine buried his wrist shot high on the glove side of Sioux goalie Aaron Dell (Airdrie, Alberta) to give Bulldog coach Scott Sandelin a rare win in Grand Forks.
It's only the fourth time 21 games that the former Sioux player and assistant coach has seen his team win since becoming head coach of the Bulldogs.
"They made a good play,'' UND coach Dave Hakstol said. "We gave up a 2-on-1 with zero back-pressure that two gives two good players an awful lot of time and space to make type of play. Very nice play by them, poor play on our part.''
The victory puts the Bulldogs (4-1-1) back into first place in the WCHA and drops the Sioux (4-2) out of first place and into a tie for third.
"This is a tough place to get points,'' Sandelin said. "So I'll take anything. Believe it or not, I would have been happy with a point the way we played tonight.''
The Bulldogs, limited to 16 shots in Friday's 4-2 loss to the Sioux, managed 28 shots tonight compared to 29 for the Sioux.
The sixth goal of the season by Fontaine, a senior wing, was the only time the Bulldogs took the lead.
Freshman Brock Nelson (Warroad, Minn.) bagged his first career goal on a power play rebound at 18:39 of the opening period to give the Sioux a 1-0 lead after one.
Mike Connelly tied it at 2:48 of the second period, his goal coming just as a slashing penalty on UND's Corban Knight (High River, Alberta) expired.
The Sioux then had to kill off a 5-minute major on Mario Lamoureux (Grand Forks) for checking from behind.
UND did a masterful job killing that, allowing five shots on goal, but no score.
Just 21 seconds after the Sioux killed the major, senior wing Evan Trupp (Anchorage, Alaska) scored his second goal of the weekend and third of the season. He collected the puck after a faceoff in the Bulldog zone and cranked a wrist shot off the far post into the net from the top of the faceoff circle for a 2-1 Sioux lead at 8:53.
Duluth's J.T. Brown tied it at 13:41. He was left alone on front of the net to slam in a centering feed from Kyle Schmidt.
The Sioux outshot the Bulldogs 12-7 in the scoreless third period and had several golden opportunities, only to be turned back by Duluth goalie Kenny Reiter, who finished with 27 saves to 25 for Dell.
"Both teams had a couple of chances the last couple minutes (of the third period),'' Nelson said. "Tough loss.''
Nelson expected a stronger performance from Duluth tonight. "I think you can expect that most times when you win Friday night,'' Nelson said. "I think the team has a little motivation Saturday to come back. I know it's a tough feeling to get swept.''
Dell was making his first back-to-back start of the season. "It's nice to play more this year,'' said Dell, a sophomore. "I had a good game Friday. I guess the coach thought I should start tonight. I was happy with my game.''
"It was a heckuva game,'' Sandelin said. "I was really pleased with our play after last night. I didn't know what the heck we did (Friday night). Tonight we played much better.''
Hakstol felt that having to kill the major penalty in the second period took a toll on the Sioux. "We put ourselves in a position pretty much the first half of the second period to sap our energy killing penalties,'' Hakstol said. "That really destroyed our second period. We didn't regain any energy and get anything going whatsoever in the second period. It's pretty disappointing to make a mistake in overtime and lose the game that way.''
SIOUX NOTES: Nelson tied with teammates Ben Blood (Plymouth, Minn.), Brett Hextall (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and Brad Malone (Miramichi, New Brunswick) for the team lead in shots on goal with three . . . . UND had a 35-26 edge in faceoff wins, led by Knight (14-9) and Malone (7-2). . . The Sioux were 1-5 on the power play with eight shots on net, Duluth 0-6 with eight shots. . . The Sioux go on the road the next two weekends for WCHA series' at Wisconsin and Nebraska Omaha.
Virg Foss, who covered Fighting Sioux hockey for 35 years for the Grand Forks Herald until his retirement, now reports on UND home games exclusively for FightingSioux.com. Contact him at virgfoss@yahoo.com or at (701) 772-9272.
