ANCHORAGE, Alaska - In the span of just two weeks, the Fighting Sioux have vaulted from 11th place in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) standings to a tie for fourth.
Led by two more goals from sophomore forward Brock Nelson (Warroad, Minn.), North Dakota won its fourth straight game with a 4-1 victory at Alaska Anchorage tonight. The win pulled the Sioux (8-7-1, 6-6-0 WCHA) even with fourth-place Colorado College, which was idle.
Nelson, who scored twice in Friday's 5-1 UND win, continued his torrid pace by opening and closing the scoring tonight.
The reigning WCHA co-Offensive Player of the Week was the beneficiary of a fortunate bounce just 1:50 in, as Dillon Simpson (So., Edmonton, Alberta) rimmed the puck around the boards into the UAA zone. As UAA goalie Chris Kamal went behind his net to meet the puck, it took a wild bounce directly in front of the net to Nelson for the easy goal. For Nelson, it was his NCAA-leading ninth power-play goal of the season.
The Seawolves were able to answer six minutes later when an errant puck deflected off of Sioux defenseman Ben Blood's (Jr., Plymouth, Minn.) skate during a UAA power play. Sam Mellor was credited with his third goal of the season, sending the two teams to the locker room tied 1-1.
It was all Fighting Sioux after that, as UND scored three unanswered goals and outshot the Seawolves 8-1 in the second period to secure the sweep.
"We got a good bounce to start the game, but I didn't think we had a very good first period," said UND Head Coach Dave Hakstol. "But we had an outstanding second period."
First it was Blood finding a measure of retribution for the UAA goal, beating Kamal between the legs from the right faceoff circle during a power play. Just over two minutes later, junior Danny Kristo (Eden Prairie, Minn.) turned in one for the highlight reel. With linemate Corban Knight (Jr., High River, Alberta) joining for a 2-on-2 rush, Kristo cut across the high slot with the puck, beat the UAA defenseman to the outside on his backhand, then quickly beat Kamal up high on his forehand to extend the lead to 3-1.
Nelson sealed the victory with 1:16 left in the middle frame when a loose puck found him at the bottom of the right circle, and Nelson quickly unloaded a wrist shot to give UND a three-goal lead.
It was Nelson's second goal of the night, fourth of the series, 10th in his last seven games, and team-leading 14th on the season.
At the other end of the ice, junior Aaron Dell (Airdrie, Alberta) was spectacular despite only facing 20 shots. Dell turned aside several quality chances from in tight, with the ricochet off of Blood's skate his only blemish on the box score.
"Aaron did a great job, I thought he was very good," said Hakstol. "Sporadically, throughout the game, he had to make some good saves. Good goaltending, and we got it both nights."
Kamal stopped nine of 13 shots through two periods before giving way to Rob Gunderson, who stopped all four shots he faced in the third period.
UND went 2-for-5 with the man advantage to finish the series 5-for-11. The Sioux killed five of six UAA power play chances.
"We kept moving forward this weekend," said Blood. "It's huge for momentum, it's huge for our team, it's huge for our confidence and our mentality as a whole. We'll enjoy this one tonight, but we're back at it on Monday. There's no rest until we get home for Christmas."
The Sioux will return home to host Nebraska Omaha next Friday and Saturday in UND's final regular season games prior to the Christmas break. UND trails the third-place Mavericks by three points in the WCHA standings.
Notes: UND's power play is 9-for-22 (41.0 perecent) during the team's four-game winning streak ... Nelson has five 2-goal games season. His nine power-play goals are more than halfway to the school record of 17, shared by Ryan Duncan (2006-07) and Doug Smail (1979-80). Matt Frattin, who went on to lead the NCAA with 36 goals, led the Sioux with 10 PPG last season ... Blood and Kristo each had a goal and an assist ... Blood had a three-point weekend and now has six points (1g, 5a) during a four-game point streak ... Simpson has an assist in four straight games and six in his last six games.
~Go Sioux ~
