GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- North Dakota's 5-1 exhibition win over the visiting Russian Red Stars might not count for anything officially, but it could be considered a semester final that the Fighting Sioux passed with flying colors.
"I was happy with the professionalism that we played with," said UND coach Dave Hakstol. "Our intensity wasn't through the roof tonight, but we did a lot of good solid things. We played a solid 60 minutes."
With sophomore defenseman Derek Forbort (Duluth, Minn.) attending the U.S. national junior team camp and forwards Mario Lamoureux (Grand Forks, N.D.), Corban Knight (High River, Alberta) and Rocco Grimaldi (Rossmoor, Calif.) out with injuries, Hakstol had to put together some line combinations and defensive pairs that haven't been seen before.
The result was an impressive victory over a group of 19-21-year-old all-stars from Russia's MHL youth hockey league, the only "feeder" league to the country's KHL professional league.
UND got off to a quick start, taking advantage of the Russian team's first game together. Freshman forward Connor Gaarder (Edina, Minn.) banged in a rebound off Brock Nelson's (Warroad, Minn.) wraparound attempt to give the Sioux a 1-0 lead just 49 seconds into the game.
UND went up 2-0 at the 3:31 mark when Brendan O'Donnell (Winnipeg, Manitoba) forced a turnover in front of the Russian net. His linemate, sophomore Derek Rodwell (Taber, Alberta) pounced on the loose puck and fired it past Red Star goalie Rafael Khakimov for what proved to be the eventual game-winner.
"We came out hard and put two home quick," said Gaarder, the game's first star with a goal and an assist who played on the first line with Nelson and Danny Kristo (Eden Prairie, Minn.).
"That was the first time we played together as a team," said Red Star coach Alexander Sokolov. "At first, we were a little bit nervous because there were a lot of people who came to see the game. It was our first game, but we found our groove."
The Sioux struck for the first of their three power play goals at 14:21 of the second period. This time, Gaarder created a turnover in the Russian zone and dished the puck to O'Donnell, who sniped the top near corner to give UND a 3-0 lead.
In the third period, senior goalie Brad Eidsness (Chestermere, Alberta), who started for UND and stopped all 14 shots he faced, was replaced by junior Tate Maris (Denver, Colorado), usually the team's third goalie. He received a loud ovation from 10,865 fans at Ralph Engelstad Arena and an even louder cheer when he made an impressive glove save on Russia's Alexander Titov.
"I heard a little bit of it," Maris said of the crowd response. "I was trying to focus. I had a couple nerves going, so I was really just trying to focus on the game - pretty neat feeling."
With UND on the power play, Nelson made it 4-0 at 4:54 mark of the third when held the puck in the right circle, looked for an open man and then fired a wrister in short side.
The Russians capitalized on one of four UND penalties in the third to make it 4-1 at 13:26. Red Star forward Roman Lyubimov one-timed a pass from Artem Gareev past Maris to get his team on the board. But the Sioux responded with their third man-advantage tally when freshman forward Michael Parks (St. Louis, Mo.) slid a backhander through Khakimov's pads to make the final score 5-1.
UND outshot the Russians 42-21 and were 3-6 on the power play while the Red Stars were 1-7.
The Red Stars play two NAHL teams and five more college teams (Vermont, Yale, Northern Michigan, Notre Dame and University of Massachusetts-Lowell) between Dec. 19 and Jan. 5 before returning to Russia.
"It will take us some time to get used to our opponents because the way Americans play hockey is a little bit different from what we're used to," Sokolov said. "They play more actively and more aggressively. Right now, we still have some nerves we have to work on, but we hope we will adjust to the way Americans play."
The Sioux are off next weekend for the holiday break and return to action at Engelstad Arena for a nonconference series against Harvard Dec. 30-31.
Hakstol said the break comes at a good time for the Sioux, but the players must return ready for the second half of the season.
"The one message is that coming back, the intensity and importance of every game continues to rise," he said. "We've got three very important nonconference games coming back. In all likelihood, those are going to go a long way in determining our fate in the national tournament. We come back, we have to hit the ground running, not crawling or walking."
