Mario, a sophomore wing from Grand Forks, accomplished something a little less lofty but personally gratifying for the UND men's hockey team tonight.

Lamoureux broke his string of 21 games without a goal by scoring twice as the Fighting Sioux beat Minnesota Duluth 5-1 to complete a Western Collegiate Hockey Association sweep and stretch the Sioux win streak to three games. He was named the game's No. 1 star by the media and received the "hard hat" from his teammates.

More importantly, the sweep boosted the Sioux (11-10-3) into a tie for fifth place with Colorado College in the WCHA race with four games left for each team, including next weekend's big series between the two teams in Colorado Springs.

A top-five finish is important because the top five draw home ice for the first round of the league playoffs.

Lamoureux, who last scored a goal on Nov. 13 against St. Cloud State, collected his first two-goal game a night after sitting out a WCHA mandated one-game suspension.

He beat Duluth goalie Brady Hjelle short side with a wrist shot on a 2-on-1 rush with freshman Danny Kristo (Eden Prairie, Minn,) at 3:24 of the second period for a 3-1 lead.

He scored a huge unassisted goal to clinch it at 17:27 of the third period, beating Hjelle stick side with a backhander for his fifth goal of the season to make it 4-1.

"It's been a while since I scored a goal,'' Lamoureux said. "Definitely a big monkey off my back.''

Lamoureux didn't enjoy sitting out a game while watching his teammates win 5-2 on Friday.

"It was tough,'' Lamorueux said. "It was definitely a big reminder what I went through last year being out of the lineup. It was tough to watch. We didn't have our best game, but we played well enough to get a win.''

Lamoureux was not a lineup fixture last year, playing in 24 games and contributing three goals.

So sitting out a game suspension on Friday -- the first game he hasn't played this season -- gave him extra incentive.

"I definitely had some extra fire after the suspension,'' Lamoureux said. "Sitting out is no fun, watching the team. You want to be part of the wins.''

He was in integral part of tonight's win, which boosted the Sioux to a tie for seventh in the all-important pairwise rankings which mimic the process used by the NCAA later on to select its 16-team tournament field.

Just like Friday, the Sioux jumped to a 2-0 lead after one period with sophomore wing Brett Hextall (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) making a mark early.

He scored one of UND's first two goals Friday and opened the scoring tonight with sizzling wrist shot after junior wing Matt Frattin (Edmonton, Alberta) dug the puck out of the corner and fed Hextall in the slot for his 12th of the year.

Sophomore wing Jason Gregoire (Winnipeg) scored with a tough-angle wrist shot to the short side on Duluth starting goalie Kenny Reiter at 8:51 of the first period for a 2-0 lead. Reiter was lifted from the game at the point with six saves with Hjelle finishing up for the Bulldogs.

For Gregoire, it was his team-leading 15th goal of the season, three more than he had all last year.

Mike Connolly was credited with a power-play goal at 2:42 of the second period to chop UND's lead to 2-1. The puck went into the net off the stick of Sioux defenseman Derrick LaPoint (Eau Claire, Wis.), and snapped a streak of 19 straight penalty kills for the Sioux over three games.

But just 46 seconds later, Lamoureux held the puck on the rush with Kristo and beat Hejlle high to derail Duluth's rally.

Sophomore goalie Brad Eidsness (Chestermere, Alberta) had another big night. He finished with 22 saves, his best stop shutting down Duluth's Rob Bordson on a partial breakaway midway through the first period. Eidsness has given up just four goals in his last three starts, all wins.

On the flip side, the Sioux have averaged six goals a game during the mini win streak which started with an 8-1 whipping at St. Cloud State a week ago.

"It allows the guys to puff the chests out a little bit,'' UND coach Dave Hakstol said of UND's come-to-life offense and win streak. "And really believe in what they're doing, believe that the work they're putting in is paying off.''

The sweep came on a night that the 2000 national championship team was honored, and with such NHL players and former Sioux as Mike Commododre, T.J. Oshie and Dave Hale in attendance.

"It's important,'' Hakstol said. "You try not to think about that a whole lot I'm sure, as a player, but our guys knew those guys were here. We always talk about you want to build on the tradition of the people before have put in place. It's one weekend. You don't want to make too big of a deal out of it. But it is important. We wanted to play well in front of those guys.''

The Sioux certainly did that in grabbing the sweep and making a move up in the league and national standings.

"Our guys played Sioux hockey tonight,'' Hakstol said.

Duluth coach Scott Sandelin, a former Sioux player and assistant coach, pulled Hjelle for a sixth attacker with 1:57 left in the game and the Bulldogs trailing 4-1.

It didn't work. Sioux senior captain Chris VandeVelde (Moorhead, Minn.) scored into an empty net with 48 seconds left for his 12th goal of the season.

Eidsness stopped 53 of 56 Duluth over the weekend, his stop on Bordson ranking among the best.

"We had a turnover at the blue line, and he caught our defenseman flat-footed,'' Eidsness said. "I tried to wait him out and I think I ran him out of space.''

The Sioux won the season series from the Bulldogs 3 games to 1, the only loss a 3-2 setback in Duluth earlier in the season.

SIOUX NOTES: Lamoureux was joined in a two-point game by Gregoire, who had a goal and one assist . . . Nine Sioux players had at least one point and at least one player from all four lines had a goal or an assist . . . Lamoureux, Gregoire, Evan Trupp (Anchorage, Alaska), Ben Blood (Plymouth, Minn.) and Jake Marto (Grand Forks) tied for the team lead in shots on goal with 3 . . . The Sioux went 0-6 on the power play, but had 15 of their 28 total shots during the power plays . . . The Sioux had converted 7 of 14 on the power play during the previous two games ... Hextall extended his career-best point streak to seven games. He has eight goals and three assists during that stretch ... VandeVelde has 11 points in his last five games.