Box Score
Jordan Parise |
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Forward Ryan Duncan (Fr., Calgary, Alberta) scored two goals and added an assist and goalie Jordan Parise (Jr., Faribault, Minn.) made 37 saves to lead UND to a 5-3 win over St. Cloud State on Saturday in the championship game of the WCHA Final Five.
Parise was named the Final Five’s most valuable player.
The win allowed UND (27-15-1) to claim the WCHA’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Sioux will play in the NCAA West Regional next weekend at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks. The complete tournament bracket will be announced at 10 a.m. Central time Sunday on ESPN2.
St. Cloud State finished its season with a 22-16-4 record.
The first three goals of the game came in a 25-second span in the first period.
St. Cloud opened the scoring with a power play goal by Konrad Reeder at 3:50, but UND answered just 10 seconds later.
Sioux freshman T.J. Oshie (Warroad, Minn.) stole the puck from a St. Cloud State player, fired a shot off Huskies goalie Bobby Goepfert, then picked up his own rebound and backhanded a shot that went in off the knee of UND’s Rastislav Spirko (So., Vrutky, Slovakia). It was Spirko’s 10th goal of the season.
Fifteen seconds later Jonathan Toews (Fr., Winnipeg, Manitoba) knocked in his own rebound for his 19th goal of the season.
UND then raised its lead to 3-1 at 17:41 when Oshie one-timed a slap shot from the top of the left circle past Goepfert with the Sioux on the power play.
The Sioux upped their lead to 4-1 on a goal by Duncan at 4:58 of the second period. Duncan took a pass from Toews, carried up the left side, faked a slap shot that caused Goepfert to go down and then fired a wrist shot past the sprawling SCSU goaltender.
Duncan made it 5-1 at 14:41 of the second with his second goal of the game and 14th of the season. With the Sioux on the power play, Toews drove hard to the net, and backhanded a pass out in front that Duncan tipped in.
St. Cloud State cut the lead to 5-2 on a power play goal by Brock Hooton at 16:20 of the second and then made it 5-3 on a goal by Billy Hengen at 5:07 of the third period.
That was all the scoring, however, as UND hung on to win its eighth WCHA playoff title and fifth Broadmoor Trophy. It’s the first UND WCHA playoff title since 2000.
Parise was named to the all-tournament team along with Oshie, defenseman Matt Smaby (Jr., Minneapolis, Minn.), Minnesota's Ryan Potulny, Wisconsin's Kyle Klubertanz and St. Cloud State's Brock Hooton.
Contact: Dan Benson
