The Four Freshmen were a popular singing group some 40 years ago.
Four freshmen were a big hit at Ralph Engelstad Arena tonight, leading the University of North Dakota men's hockey team to a 5-1 Western Collegiate Hockey Association victory over Minnesota Duluth.
Coupled with UND's 4-0 victory over the Bulldogs Friday night, the Sioux slipped into fifth place in the WCHA standings ahead of St. Cloud State, which lost twice at Minnesota State, Mankato.
The Sioux (13-11-0, 26 WCHA points) are battling St. Cloud State (12-11-1, 25 points) and Colorado College (13-10-1, 27 points) for the fourth and fifth positions in the standings and home ice for the first round of the league playoffs in three weeks. All three teams have four league games remaining.
Freshman Jonathan Toews (Winnipeg) scored twice to lead the Sioux. The two-goal game was the first of his career. Toews picked up goals 12 and 13 of the season and also added an assist to match his career high with a three-point game.
Freshman Ryan Duncan (Calgary, Alta.) scored his ninth goal of the season and freshman Matt Watkins (Aylesbury, Sask.) banged in his third of the year as the first four goals of the game came off the sticks of Sioux rookies.
UND's last goal capped a three-goal second period by the Sioux and came from sophomore center Travis Zajac (Winnipeg), closing the scoring for the game at 16:04 of the second period.
Meanwhile, junior Jordan Parise (Faribault, Minn.) was rock solid in goal again, finishing with 22 saves in allowing Duluth just one goal on the weekend while making a total of 50 saves. He's 10-0 in career decisions against the Bulldogs.
Parise had a chance to become the first Sioux goalie to record back-to-back shutouts of the same team on consecutive nights since Aaron Schweitzer did that against Alaska Anchorage on Feb. 21-22, 1997.
But that possibility ended at 13:52 of the second period when Andrew Carroll slipped a pass through the crease to the far side to Matt McKnight, who tipped the pass by the outstretched arm of a diving Parise.
The Sioux dazzled a crowd of 11,619 at REA with highlight-reel goals.
The goals by Duncan, the second by Toews and the final one by Zajac all came on the back end of three-way passing plays.
Toews and Drew Stafford (Faribault, Minn.) set up Duncan's goal, Rastislav Spirko (Vrutky, Slovakia) and Duncan set up the second goal by Toews and freshman T.J. Oshie (Warroad, Minn.) and Spirko made the unselfish plays to make Zajac's goal possible.
"You never intend to score goals like that,'' Toews said of UND's precision playmaking to set up key goals. "It just happens. It just so happens we had some nice cross-crease passes and some empty netters (goals). We were just buzzing and moving the puck really well.''
The Sioux struck first on their first power-play chance of the game. With Duluth's Jim Jensen off for hooking, Toews took a feed in front from Duncan and scored his fifth goal in the last nine games with a quick wrist shot just 22 seconds into the power play.
Duncan's second goal in his last 11 games boosted UND's lead to 2-0 at 13:30 of the first period, a cushion the Sioux took into the second period.
Goals nine seconds apart by Toews and Watkins early in the second period quickly put the Sioux in front by 4-0. Toews scored his sixth goal in the last nine games on a drop pass by Spirko at 5:59 of the second period.
That goal was followed by Watkins' goal at 6:08 when sophomore Rylan Kaip (Wilcox, Sask.) won a faceoff in the attacking zone and pushed the puck to his left, where Watkins banged it past Duluth goalie Isaac Reichmuth.
UND coach Dave Hakstol said after Friday's game that the Sioux showed some rustiness in their play after a weekend off.
Someone put oil into the machinery Saturday.
"Everyone seemed to know where each other were out there,'' said Toews, projected to be a high first-round NHL draft pick in June. "When you're on the same page like that and things are clicking, it's bound to go in for you. I think we sensed the desperation of our situation.''
The sweep of Duluth pushed UND's home record over .500 for the year at 9-8, but more importantly boosted the Sioux stock toward claiming home ice for the WCHA playoffs while bolstering their chances of making in to the NCAA tournament, a big goal with UND set to host of the four regional tournaments.
"It was great to get the crowd into it tonight,'' Toews. "We kind of owed it to them to give them a good weekend. Regardless of our situation this season, it was good to go out and get two wins this weekend.''
The sweep pushed UND's overall record to 20-13-1, the fourth straight year the Sioux have won 20 or more games.
Hakstol said he's stayed away from letting his team look too far down the road.
"We didn't discuss anything else coming into the weekend,'' Hakstol said. "We needed to focus on this weekend. We needed to take one step, and that's all it is. We're a long ways away yet, but it is one real positive step toward solidifying home ice.''
The Sioux took 10 of the 15 penalties called in the game, but limited Duluth to 1-for-7 on the power play while going 1-of-2 themselves.
UND travels to Denver University next weekend for a key series. The teams, who met for the NCAA championship last April, split an earlier series this year in Grand Forks.
