GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Mark MacMillan, one of three assistant captains on the University of North Dakota men's hockey team, carries a ton of clout, both because of his skill as a player and as a leader.

He certainly doesn't dictate what is shown nationally on ESPN's SportsCenter Top 10 plays of the day, though he felt he had a close look at the No. 1 play tonight, courtesy of linemate Drake Caggiula.

Caggiula entered the Miami defensive zone, turned around Miami defenseman Ben Paulides with drag move with speed, slipped the puck through his skates, deked Miami goalie Ryan McKay at the top the crease and slipped a backhand past him through the 5-hole.

That turned out to be the winning goal in North Dakota's 4-1 National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) victory over the RedHawks tonight in front of a sellout of 11,802 fans at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

Bryn Chyzyk set it up by taking a big hit at center ice, but managing to dish the puck ahead to Caggiula, who did the rest.

"Without Chyzyk taking that hit, making that play, that goal doesn't happen,'' Caggiula said.

The win salvaged a split of the two-game series for UND, which saw its 8-game unbeaten streak ended Friday night in a 3-2 loss to Miami.

Back to Caggiula, who highlighted a monster night for the line of Caggiula, MacMillan and Michael Parks with two goals and one assist.

"Heck of a goal,'' MacMillan said of Caggiula's goal, where he deked both the defenseman and goalie with his great hands and moves. "I hope it's No. 1 on SportsCenter when I watch later.''

The line of Caggiula, Parks (goal, assist) and MacMillan (goal, assist) combined for seven of the nine scoring points for UND, with defensemen Nick Mattson and Jordan Schmaltz adding single assists.

After a late first-period goal by Miami's Cody Murphy was disallowed after a video review because of interference with the goalie, the RedHawks broke the scoreless tie on Anthony Louis' backhand flip at 1:07 of the second period.

But that was it for the RedHawks, as goalie Zane McIntyre stopped the next 19 shots he faced and a total of 28 for the game in backstopping North Dakota's victory.

Parks found MacMillan all alone at the edge of the crease and fed him perfectly for the tying goal at 3:47 of the second period with teams skating four a side. It was the sixth of the season for MacMillian, who had missed four games with a cut wrist from a skate blade accident and wears a protective cast on his left wrist.

Caggiula's fifth goal gave UND its first lead of the weekend after 86 minutes, six seconds of play, making it 2-1 for UND at 6:06 of the second period.

MacMillian fed a perfect cross-ice from right wing to the left wall to Parks, who buried a one-time slapper for his fifth goal of the season at 15:22 to make it 3-1 after two.

Caggiula closed the scoring on a UND power play, banking his shot off the body of McKay at 9:07 of the final period for the 4-1 final.

"We started a little better, and I just think we were harder on pucks in all three zones,'' UND coach Dave Hakstol said. "That's probably the biggest difference (from Friday). They sound like simple, small differences, but they make a pretty big difference over 60 minutes.''

Caggiula agreed.

"We just played with speed, the whole game,'' Caggiula said. "We had two guys on every loose puck. When you take away their time and space, they're going to turn over the puck. We created our own offense by our speed.''

The win improved UND to 3-1 in the NCHC, tied for third place with Denver, and moved UND to 8-2-1 overall. Miami, tied for first in the NCHC with Minnesota Duluth, fell to 4-2 in league play and 8-4 overall.

And it was UND's big line of Caggiula, MacMillan and Parks that led the way.

"Everybody's got a role, everybody's got to do their job,'' Hakstol said. "Tonight those guys scored, produced points, which we hoped they can do for us. But they were also part of the mentality of playing simple, hard, fast hockey.''

And if a play of the day was included in that, all the better.

Game notes: Caggiula took over the NCHC scoring lead from Miami's Sean Kuraly. He now has 16 points (6g, 10a) in 11 games ... Caggiula and Luke Johnson led UND in shots on goal with four each, followed by MacMillan with three ... Riley Barber's six shots led Miami ... UND was 1-3 on the power play, just the third conversion in the last 28 chances over the last five games ... Miami was 0-3 on the power play with just one shot on goal ... UND, which trailed 28-20 in faceoff wins after two periods, won 17 of 25 in the final period to finish with a slight 37-36 edge, paced by Connor Gaarder (8 of 13) and Stephane Pattyn (3 of 3) ... Miami's Blake Coleman won 15 of the 22 draws he took.

Virg Foss covered UND hockey for 35 seasons for the Grand Forks Herald until his retirement in 2005. He's now in his 10th season of reporting on UND games exclusively for UNDsports.com.