GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- A flashback to the usual and a twist of the very unusual sparked the University of North Dakota's 4-2 National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) victory over visiting Denver University tonight.

Senior wing Michael Parks, who has made a living with wraparound goals, banked a wraparound off the right skate of DU freshmen goalie Tanner Jaillet at 4:42 of the third period, putting UND ahead for the first time at 2-1.

Parks later added a power-play goal at 15:17 to close the scoring for his second goal of the game and his 11th of the season. That goal came when Luke Johnson faked a wraparound attempt of his own, then dished out front to Parks for an easy tap-in as Jaillet was leaning to his right for the potential wraparound.

Rookie center Nick Schmaltz was credited with his fourth goal of the season, though it was a gift from the Denver defense.

Schmaltz walked a DU defenseman to get in tight on Jaillet for his initial shot, turned back by the DU goalie. DU senior defenseman and assistant captain Josiah Didier attempted to swat away the puck with his hand as the puck fluttered into the air. Instead, Didier batted the puck directly into the net for a 3-2 UND lead and what turned out to be the game-winning goal at 12:10 of the final period.

The victory was a big one for UND. Coupled with Omaha's loss to Western Michigan tonight, North Dakota (20-6-2 overall, 10-7 NCHC) took over first place in the league race with 34 points, two points ahead of Omaha.

It was also the 11th season of 20 or more wins for UND under coach Dave Hakstol, in his 11th year as head coach. UND joins Minnesota State and Michigan Tech as the only teams with 20 wins on the national scene so far this season.

UND, ranked No.2 nationally, mustered the first 10 shots of the game and had a 14-1 shot advantage 15 minutes into the game.

Even so, UND had to rally from a 1-0 deficit as the 9th-ranked Pioneers scored first at 7:20 of the second period on defenseman Joey LaLeggia's power-play snipe from the left faceoff circle.

Drake Caggiula scored his 12th goal -- a career high -- at 14:33 on a snipe of his own off a rush, beating Jaillet high to the glove side. Then UND outgunned DU 3-1 in the final period, sparked by Parks' patented wraparound.

Parks said it was his first wraparound goal since Miami in mid-November at The Ralph. He hadn't lost his touch.

"That one was pretty lucky,'' Parks said. "I got some help from the goalie's skate, I think.''

It's a move he had in mind from the moment he sailed down right wing and deep into the right corner.

"Yeah, coming around the net, that's what I was going to do," Parks said.

But the wraparound isn't what he wanted to talk about.

"It was a mature win for our team, coming off the bye week," Parks said."I've got to give a lot of credit to Zane (goalie Zane McIntyre). He was huge back there. I know we outshot them, but we gave up way too many Grade A chances."

Parks also passed on credit to the coaches.

"I've also got to give a lot of credit to our coaching staff, having us ready coming off this bye week," Parks said."It's not an easy thing to do."

As for Schmaltz, he agreed it was one of the stranger goals he's scored. It was his first in his last nine games.

"I kind of got a lucky bounce there,'' he said. "I think we created great chances all night, so it was good to get a lucky one like that.''

But the team win that moved UND into first place in the league stood above the fluke goal or wraparound.

"That's big for us,'' Schmaltz said. "That's one of our team goals, to win the Pennyrosa,'' he said, a mishmash reference to the Spencer Penrose Cup which goes to the NCHC regular-season champion.

Hakstol had just a trace of a voice left to answer questions post-game from the media.

"I thought both teams played very well,'' he said. "It was a pretty good pace to it. I thought we had the better of the opportunities, especially in the first half of the game. Great hockey game.''

UND missed on two chances to put it away late in the third period when Jaillet stopped Bryn Chyzyk and Brendan O'Donnell on clean breakaways with UND nursing a 3-2 lead.

But on O'Donnell's breakaway, a minor slashing penalty called on Denver led to the power-play goal by Parks to clinch the victory. There was no big team celebration planned for moving into first place.

"I don't think we're going to pay too much attention to what's going on out of town,'' Hakstol said. "Just go about our business, and make sure we come back tomorrow night and play our best game.''

Denver slipped to 16-10-1 overall and 9-8 in the NCHC.

Game notes: Denver head coach Jim Montgomery left the team Friday morning to go to Thunder Bay, Ont., after his father, Jim Montgomery Sr., passed away earlier in the day ... UND asked for a moment of silence from the crowd in memory of Jim Montgomery, Sr. before the game began ... David Carle took over the bench coaching duties for the Pioneers ... O'Donnell and Caggiula led UND in shots on goal with 5 ... Daniel Doremus had 7 shots on net for the Pioneers ... UND was 1-4 on the power play, Denver 1-3 ... DU's LaLeggia, with a goal and an assist, took over the NCHC scoring lead with 20 points ... Chyzyk, Paul LaDue and Caggiula were all plus-2 on the plus/minus rating to lead UND while Gage Ausmus led UND in blocked shots with 3 ... The game was a sellout with 11,754 tickets sold.

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