DENVER, Colo. - Already down to 18 healthy skaters coming into tonight's game at Denver, North Dakota found itself without Andrew MacWilliam (ejection), Taylor Dickin (injury) and Mario Lamoureux (10-minute misconduct) midway through the second period.
No matter.
The 14th-ranked Fighting Sioux built a 4-0 lead midway through the third period and withstood a late DU rally to defeat the ninth-ranked Pioneers 4-3 at Magness Arena.
UND's win, along with losses by Colorado College and Nebraska Omaha, enabled the Sioux to take sole possession of fourth place in the WCHA, one point behind the third-place Pioneers.
Junior forwards Corban Knight (High River, Alberta), Danny Kristo (Eden Prairie, Minn.) and Carter Rowney (Sexsmith, Alberta) and freshman Stephane Pattyn (Ste. Anne, Manitoba) scored for the Sioux, who dominated all facets of the game through the first 55 minutes. UND played arguably its best period of the season in the opening 20 minutes, outshooting the Pioneers 17-4 and winning 17 of 23 faceoffs.
Knight opened the scoring when Kristo found him all alone in front of DU goalie Sam Brittain, and Knight deked Brittan to put UND up 1-0 at 7:07.
The Pioneers responded by collecting the first 10 shots of the second period, but were unable to solve senior netminder Brad Eidsness. The Sioux regained momentum when Kristo was awarded a penalty shot at 7:21 of the middle frame. Kristo cruised in on Brittan and calmly beat him 5-hole to put the Sioux up 2-0.
Rowney extended the lead to 3-0 with a power-play tally at 6:16 of the third period, capitalizing on a dogged play by freshman winger Connor Gaarder. Gaarder picked the pocket of a DU defenseman attempting to break out of the zone in the faceoff circle, spun and fed a cross-ice pass to Rowney, who took the puck off his skate and found the open net.
Pattyn made it 4-0 two minutes later, streaking up the left side and beating Brittan high.
The Pioneers made it interesting with three goals in the final 5:26, two in the final minute. Jason Zucker made it 4-3 on the power-play with 11 seconds remaining, but UND won the ensuing faceoff and killed the remaining seconds to hang on for the win.
Eidsness stopped 29 of 29 shots in his third straight start. Brittain made 28 saves before being pulled for Adam Murray following Pattyn's goal.
The two teams will close out the series Saturday night at 8:07 p.m. Central.
Notes: Kristo also added an assist and now has 99 career points ... His penalty shot goal was the first by a Sioux since Drew Stafford at Maine in 2004, Dave Hakstol's debut as UND head coach. It was the first attempt by a Sioux since Darcy Zajac hit the post in the 2010 regional against Maine ... Kristo's 15 goals match his career high ... Eidsness' win was the 56th win of his career, moving him past Jordan Parise (2003-06) for sole possession of third on UND's all-time wins list ... Rowney has seven goals in the last five games and moved into a tie with Brock Nelson for the team lead with nine power-play tallies ... MacWilliam was give a 5-minute major and game misconduct for contact to the head on a first-period hit.
~Go Sioux ~
