GRAND FORKS, N.D.--  UND junior center Jordan Kawaguchi added something else to his impressive resume with the Fighting Hawks hockey team this season.

Along with being the leading scorer on the team and third-leading scorer in the nation, he showed a sellout crowd of 11,760 at Ralph Engelstad Arena Saturday night that he's a master magician as well.

He scored a highlight reel goal which proved to be the game-winner at 3:51 of the second period when he pulled the puck back between his legs with his stick, yet managed to roof the shot from close range past Alabama-Huntsville goalie Mark Sinclair in a repeat 5-2 UND win in the non-conference contest.

Simply put, it was the No. 1 scorer on the UND team pulling off a remarkable play for the No, 1-ranked team in the nation and in front of the 2000 NCAA championship Fighting Sioux team, being honored between periods on the 20th anniversary of their accomplishment


The victory set a record for most consecutive home wins (13) at the Ralph since it opened in 2001 and also pushed UND's season unbeaten streak to 15 games, the longest active streak in the nation.

But the big buzz after the game came from Kawaguchi's goal scored against his teammate with Chilliwack in the British Columbia Junior Hockey League, Hunstville goalie Sinclair, who Kawaguchi says is one of his better friends.

It wasn't a move that Kawaguchi had even tried in practice in his three years at UND. He said he used it once in Chillwack to set up a teammate for a goal with a backward pass.

"He wouldn't dare do that in practice,'' said UND defenseman Matt Kiersted, pimping his teammate a bit. 

Said UND coach Brad Berry: "Not many guys can make that play. His high-skill level allowed him to do that. . . I commend Jordan on doing it. Hopefully he has some more of that in his bag.''

This time, a sellout crowd saw the dazzling move. "It worked in a game, which is the good part, right?,'' Kawaguchi said. 

His buddy Sinclair wasn't too pleased with the move. "He wasn't too happy that I did that,'' Kawaguchi said Sinclair said to him in the post-game handshake line. "He just said, 'you had to do that, hey.' ''

North Dakota outshot the Chargers 38-13 but needed the goal by Kawaguchi and third-period goals from freshman defenseman Ethan Frisch (his first) and an empty-netter by freshman Shane Pinto for his team-best ninth goal with 20 seconds left pull away from the one-win Chargers (1-16-3.) Pinto just returned to Grand Forks Saturday morning  after leading the United States in goals in the World Juniors in Europe.

Setting the record for consecutive home wins in the Ralph was special as well.

"It's a pretty nice honor, a great team award,'' UND coach Brad Berry said. "I think our focus was to just get the win, get the sweep and finish our non-conference record and try to keep going in that regard. Just trying to find all different ways to try to get those wins.

UND finished its non-conference record with a 9-1-1 record, a glaring improvement after struggles in that area the last two seasons helped keep the Fighting Hawks out of the NCAA tournament.

Game notes: Frisch became the 21st UND player to score a goal this season with his booming slap shot from center point . . . UND was 1-5 on the power play with 8 shots, Huntsville 0-1 with 0 shots . . . Westin Michaud, who had one of two early UND goals along with Collin Adams, led his team in shots on goal with 6, followed by Adams with 5 and 4 each from Frisch and Cole Smith . . . Adam Scheel made 11 saves to earn his nation-best 16th win (16-1-2) for UND . . . Sinclair had 33 stops for Huntsville . . . National Collegiate Athletic Conference leader UND returns to league play next weekend at home with a two-game series against Nebraska-Omaha. UND's final 16 regular-season games are all league contests. . . UND improved to 16-1-2 on the season. . . Kawaguchi and Adams, both with a goal and an assist, were voted first and second star by the media with Frisch taking third star with his first career goal.

Virg Foss is in his 15th season of reporting on UND home games exclusively for UNDsports.com. He covered UND hockey for 35 seasons for the Grand Forks Herald until his retirement from newspapers. This is his 50th season of covering UND hockey.