GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Rust? What rust?
 
University of North Dakota sophomore goaltender Peter Thome, who hadn't played a game since losing to Minnesota Duluth 5-0 on Nov. 30, came back as a well-oiled, puck-stopping machine Friday night in a time of need for his Fighting Hawks.
 
Thome stopped 22 of 23 Bulldog shots as UND knocked off the No 3-ranked team in the Pairwise ratings, beating the Bulldogs 4-1 in front of a sellout of 11,605 at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
 
Thome got himself out of position and gave up a goal-mouth rebound  to Nick Swaney just 1:25 into the game, 41 seconds after UND freshman Mark Senden opened the game with a sharp-angle shot from the end line through the legs of Bulldog goalie Hunter Sherpard (18 saves).
 
From that point on, Thome was unbeatable as defenseman Hayden Shaw scored shorthanded in the first period for a 2-1 lead. Then Casey Johnson saw a rebound of his initial shot go off his leg and into the net at 13:22 of the opening period for a 3-1 UND lead after one period, Johnson scoring his second of the season.
 
Cole Smith's empty-net goal at 18:30 of the third period clinched it and gave UND (9-9-12 NCHC, 15-13-2 overall) its seventh win this season over a team ranked in the top 10 nationally at the time of the meetings.
 
Thome has not played of late because of the outstanding goaltending of freshman Adam Scheel, who was injured in last Saturday's loss at Western Michigan.
 
The inactivity didn't seem to bother Thome. Asked how he felt after the game, he smiled and said, "I feel like a million bucks''
 
So did his teammates after knocking off the defending national champs for the second time in three meetings this season.
 
UND, missing top forwards Nick Jones, Grant Mismash and Joel Janatuinen due to injuries or illness, in addition, to Scheel, responded with one of its better games of the season.
 
Senden's goal just 44 seconds into the game was the second time in a week UND scored first _ and first. Last Friday, USenden scored 18 seconds into the game in a 5-1 win at Western Michigan.
 
"That's the start we wanted,'' UND coach Brad Berry said. "It carried over to the rest of the game. I know they got one right right after, but I thought our guys did a pretty good job of getting back on the rails.''
 
Indeed they did, UND tracked downs Duluth shooters to hold the Bulldogs to 11 total shots on net over the first two periods including just three in the scoreless second period.
 
Thome admitted to some nervousness before the game, but he settled down quickly after Duluth's responding goal. He also  saw teammates Shaw and Colton Poolman stop potential goals by the Bulldogs later in the game to help him out.
 
"There was definitely some nerves before the game,'' Thome said. "I hadn't actually started in a real game for so long. You can't really replicate that in practice.''
 
He said allowing the nearly goal was frustrating. "It sucked, too, because of kind of a weird bounce off my glove. Just the reality that it went in,'' Thome said.
 
Nothing else went by him, allowing UND to pull off another impressive win over a ranked team. "They played great,'' Thome said of his teammates. "I thought that was one of our more complete games of the year.''
 
Game notes: UND's Dixon Bowen and Jordan Kawaguchi hit goal posts in the third period ... UND, best in the nation on faceoffs this season, blitzed the Bulldogs 40-18 in faceoff wins, led by Rhett Gardner (20 of 30) and Senden (9 of 11) ... Shaw's shorthanded goal, which goes down as the game-winner, was set up by a puck battle along the side boards won by Gardner over Duluth defenseman Dylan Samberg ... It was UND's third short-handed goal of the season ...  UND will look for just its third sweep of the season in Saturday's 7:07 p.m. rematch ... Senden led UND with a +3 plus/minus rating in addition to his faceoff success and adding a goal and an assist to win No. 1 star honors by media voting. Shaw and Thome were voted 2-3 stars respectively ... Both teams had 22 shots on goals and both were 0-4 on the power play ...  Ludvig Hoff and Matt Kiersted led UND in shots on goal with 3, the same as Cole Koepke, who led the Bulldogs ... UND blocked 13 shot attempts, led by 3 from Poolman ... UND drew a very rare bench minor penalty for bench interference when officials called a UND player on the bench for holding a Duluth player in a melee in front of the UND bench ... Senden's goal at 44 seconds is just the second scored in the opening minute of a game for UND this season, the other was last Friday at Western Michigan (18 seconds) ... North Dakota picked up its 10th win over a nationally-ranked team this season ... Denver lost, 3-1, at Miami Friday, pulling DU and UND into a tie for fourth place in the NCHC standings.