CROOKSTON, Minn. --- The University of North Dakota women's hockey team responded with three unanswered goals in the third period Friday after the Bemidji State Beavers tied the game at 6:25 of the third period for a 5-2 win at the Crookston Civic Center.

Jocelyne Lamoureux (Grand Forks, N.D.) led the Sioux with a 3-point game (0-3-3) while Michelle Karvinen (Rodovre, Denmark) had 2-points (1-1-2) and Alyssa Wiebe (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), Sara Dagenais (Montreal, Quebec) and Candace Molle (Anchorage, Alaska) each had one goal.

In a home game for the Beavers, the crowd erupted when Crookston natives Marlee Wheelhouse scored the game's first goal and her sister Erika Wheelhouse scored to even the game at two goals apiece in the third period.

The Beavers, who came into the night leading the nation in power-play conversion percentage, scored both of their goals on the man-advantage.  The Fighting Sioux however killed off two consecutive 5-on-3 attempts for the Beavers in the third period.

UND, who is also ranked in the top five in the nation on the power play, went 2-for-4 in their own attempts and is now clicking at 28.2 percent.

The Sioux controlled a majority of the play when skating 5-on-5 but the Beavers blocked 24 shots.

Dagenais scored the game's first even-strength goal and the eventual game-winner at 10:32 of the third period when Karvinen hit her with a tape-to-tape pass to spring her in on a breakaway.

Molle gave UND its first 2-goal lead of the game with a great individual effort to start a rush out of the zone, raced up the ice back into the play to start a 2-on-1 and redirected a pass from Allison Parizek (Minot, N.D.) at 17:37.

The Sioux would cap of the game's scoring as Karvinen scored an empty-net goal with 1:12 remaining in regulation in a closer game then the final score appeared.

The Sioux improve to 10-4-1 on the season and 7-3-1 in the WCHA while the Beavers fall to 9-5-2 and 5-5-1-1 in the league.

Stephanie Ney (100 Mile House, British Columbia) made 26 saves for the win in net while Zuzanna Tomcikova stopped 32 shots in the losing effort.

The two teams combined for 36 penalty minutes in physical game in the two teams' first meeting since the 3-game playoff series the ended the Beavers season a year ago in the first round of the WCHA playoffs.

The series finale will be played Saturday in the Sanford Center set for a 7:07 p.m. opening faceoff.

~GO SIOUX~