The Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s top seven teams were within seven points of each other with seven regular-season game remaining entering play Saturday night.
And the No. 3-ranked Minnesota Duluth men were battling to regain form, break a losing streak and remain in the hunt for the MacNaughton Cup, which goes to the league regular-season winner.
The Bulldogs got what they were looking for in a scintillating 5-4 victory over No. 16 North Dakota played before the largest crowd in the brief history of Amsoil Arena, 6,790.
Two-time All-American center Jack Connolly was at center stage of the physical battle with the best night of his career, earning two goals and three assists for five points in his 155th straight game, a school record. The victory pushed the Bulldogs within one point of first-place Minnesota, which lost 4-3 in overtime at Denver.
“We didn’t make any huge adjustments (from Friday’s 3-1 loss). We got good special teams play and the puck started to fall,” said Connolly, who has 185 points career points, 48 this season to rank No. 3 in Division I. “We got a great power-play goal (6:22 into the game from J.T. Brown) and that was a huge confidence builder. That set the tone.”
UMD (19-7-4 and 13-6-3 in WCHA) trailed 2-1 then raced to a 5-2 lead, and then withstood a stubborn North Dakota comeback.
The Fighting Sioux (16-11-2 and 12-10) got two goals from junior center Carter Rowney and outshot UMD 36-31, and Rowney had a puck just roll off his stick in the final seconds at the crease.
Senior goalie Kenny Reiter held on in the frantic final minutes to end North Dakota’s four-game win streak. North Dakota outshot UMD 16-5 in the final period. And UMD played the final two periods without goal-scoring leader Brown, who was injured late in the first period.
“They came out fast and we dug ourselves a deep hole,” said North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol. “But our team stayed true to character and kept battling. We created some of our problems and then tried to find solutions, and we threw everything we had them at the end.”
A wild first period put UMD up 4-2 as the Bulldogs scored three times in the final four minutes, two goals were 24 seconds apart.
After falling behind, UMD leaned on its power, which had been ineffective the last month. Center Travis Oleksuk tipped a Chris Casto drive in a 4-on-3 shift with 3:42 left in the first. Connolly stole the puck in the offensive zone and fed Mike Seidel who tucked a shot behind goalie Aaron Dell, after two or three moves, with 3:18 to go in a 4-on-4 shift. After North Dakota defenseman Ben Blood was called for a five-minute major penalty for checking from behind to Connolly, six seconds after a Mario Lamoureux elbowing minor, the Bulldogs had a two-man advantage. Connolly took a Caleb Herbert cross-crease pass for a goal with 22 seconds left. Oleksuk had three points in the game and has 103 in 123 career games.
UMD pushed its lead to 5-2 just 1:46 into the second period, as the major power play continued, as Connolly put in a Seidel rebound. Hakstol took out Dell and put in senior Brad Eidsness, who stopped all 14 shots he saw the rest of the way.
Rowney, who had two goals Friday, connected on a power play with 5:18 to go in the second. Through two periods UMD was 4-of-8 on power plays and led 5-3.
“We just simplified our game. We played hard-nosed hockey, just like North Dakota,” said UMD freshman winger Adam Krause, who took some shifts on the Oleksuk line in place of Brown. “We wanted to get pucks out of the zone and get back to protect our blue line, and not turn the puck over.
“We were probably too hesitant in the third period against a great team.”
Rowney’s 12th goal of the season got North Dakota within 5-4, from the slot, with 4:31 to play, and the Sioux kept pressing. Reiter had 15 saves in the final period.
“The first 40 minutes were closer to how we have to play,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “Our best players played that way and we got the power play going. We had more pace, we made more plays, and we knew North Dakota was not going to quit.”
UMD came into the game 1-3-1 the last five games and 3-4-1 the last eight. In the previous two games at Amsoil Arena, North Dakota had outscored UMD 8-1 and is 10-5-1 against UMD the last 16 games in the series.
UMD is on the road this weekend at Minnesota State-Mankato.
North Dakota…………………. 2-1-1—4
Minnesota Duluth……………. 4-1-0—5
First period — 1. UMD, J.T. Brown 18 (Brady Lamb, Jack Connolly), 6:22 (pp); 2. North Dakota, Brock Nelson 20 (Ben Blood), 10:38; 3. North Dakota, Stephane Pattyn 2 (Joe Gleason), 14:29; 4. UMD, Travis Oleksuk 17 (Chris Casto, Connolly), 16:18 (4×3 pp); 5. UMD, Mike Seidel 11 (Connolly), 16:42 (4×4); 6. UMD, Connolly 16 (Caleb Herbert, Oleksuk), 19:38 (5×3 pp). Penalties — Connor Gaarder, North Dakota (roughing), 2:07; Joe Basaraba, UMD (roughing), 2:07; Mark MacMillan, North Dakota (tripping), 5:18; Derik Johnson, UMD (tripping), 12:06; Andrew MacWilliam, North Dakota (high-sticking), 14:58; Brady Lamb, UMD (slashing), 15:19; Nick Mattson, North Dakota (holding), 15:27; Mario Lamoureux, North Dakota (elbowing), 18:18; Blood, North Dakota (checking from behind 5-minute major and game misconduct), 18:24.
Second period — 7. UMD, Connolly 17 (Seidel, Oleksuk), 1:46 (pp) 8. North Dakota, Carter Rowney 11 (Derek Forbort, Gleason), 14:42 (pp).; Penalties — Forbort, North Dakota (cross-checking), 2:41; Andrew Panzarella, North Dakota (roughing), 7:45; Connolly, UMD (roughing), 7:45; Oleksuk, UMD (tripping), 8:28; Andrew MacWilliam, North Dakota (elbowing), 10:44; Wade Bergman, UMD (tripping), 13:26.
Third period — 9. North Dakota, Rowney 12 (Gleason), 15:29. Penalties — Herbert, UMD (roughing), 8:04; Lamoureux, North Dakota (roughing), 8:04. Shots on goal — North Dakota 13-7-16—36, UMD 15-11-5—31. Goalies — Aaron Dell (12-9-2), North Dakota (17 shots-12 saves); Brad Eidsness, North Dakota (14 shots-14 saves); Kenny Reiter (18-6-4), UMD (36 shots-32 saves). Power plays — North Dakota 1-of-4, UMD 4-of-8. Referees —Don Adam, Timm Walsh. Linesmen — Jared Moen, Jeff Schultz. A — 6,790.
A very nice win for the BULLDOGS!!! Many good things to build upon but still some areas that need to improve. I would really like to see the boys come out next Friday in Mankato and play as if it is a must win weekend and never take their foot off the gas until they are back on the bus heading home.
I think that ND (and several others in the WCHA) gets away with a lot of extra stuff before, during and after the whistle. I would like to see the refs be more consistent (hopefully in the NCHC) and really crack down on the this type of activity. Funny when #23 makes a beeline to the bench with an arm injury (from a blatant whack!) there is no call. Huh?
Kevin, any update on the status of #23?
Kevin, thank you for the update or at least what you know so far…… hopefully it is not a bad injury!
Extremely proud of our Bulldogs who came charging at N.D. 95% of the game and got the result they needed. Having to fight through the goon shots and holding wasn’t easy, but the Dogs showed their true grit!
Guest # 2 is spot on, especially with the ref comments.
We lost track this weekend with the flagrant and dangerous elbows to the head shots thrown by N.D.’s big goons! These are 5 minute major infractions that Adam and Walsh could clearly see!! Hakstol refered to his teams “character”? So, cheap, dirty, obstruction, equals “character”?? Okee-dokie Dave? Hard to understand why the Sue fans are so proud of their team? A bunch of big tough guys who can only stop UMD’s smaller, skilled players, by blasting them in the head, or slashing their hands (J.T.), or grabbing on to their sticks all night. Rumor is it was local darling Forbort who slashed J.T. but we couldn’t see what happened from our seats.
It isn’t just the team that has earned the nickname “Dirty” Sioux. Their fans are a bunch of obscene, disgusting morons! Worse this year than I’ve ever seen before. The group in the upper deck, north end, were beyond belief! F-bombs at the top of their lungs all weekend, heckling, and swearing at little kids, challenging the kids parents to fights after the game. What was really disconserting is that it wasn’t a few of them, but the majority of them. What was equally upsetting is the DECC Security letting this go for 6 straight periods! In any other arena in the WCHA, they would have been thrown out in the first five minutes of the Friday game.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Sioux fans were just upset that they traveled so far, only to be accommodated by a crappy little arena with a bunch of whinny Dogs! What a waste of time and money!
The reason dirty Whioux fans were upset was their goon squad lost and then they realized that they have to go back to Grand Forks “The Armpit of America”.
Note to Dan Russell and UMD cops: Kick opposing fans out who cause a ruckus. Period. In no other arena are opposing fans allowed t get away with the swearing and BS they do here. They shouldn’t even be allowed to be in the student section, and if they get unruly as they did in the upper deck, throw a couple out, that should settle them down.
JT has a broken finger and will be in surgery Monday. Looks like 1-2 weeks. On another note there was so much let go by the refs last night it crossed the ridiculous line which is hard to do in the WCHA! I have no respect for Dave Hakstol and his GOON squad. ND should have pretty much spent the first 40 minutes in the box! I have never seen a team and their coach whine so much to the referees. As a league this has to stop!!!!
Did you watch Fridays game?! Special Eddy! A broken finger? BIG FRICKING DEAL! They could have easily broken two necks on Friday night! Quit whining about a broken finger!
MNSIOUX you need to start doubling your medication ASAP. I guess we’ll settle this when the NCAA tournament starts if you guys make it. Right now its not looking good for the ND Flickertails! It must suck to be a ND fan this year.
From our seats I saw the slash that Forbort gave Brown and I hope it got caught on film so the league can review it. The comments here are dead on UND is a goon squad. I’m glad to see UMD came out and threw some big time hits to start the game on Saturday. Bergman’s hit on Kristo on the first shift was a great check that sent the message. I’m sure UND fan’s (I use that team loosely) didn’t appreciate it at all because it was a clean hit. I thought And a side note to Hakstol when discussing your goon squad don’t use the terms character or class. You and your team have none.
They aren’t going to do anything about a broken finger you nube! Must be your first year watching college hockey! Go back to watching womens volleyball with the rest of your girlfriends!
WOW! You people are pathetic! Pretty sure the GOONS from that crappy lilttle hole in your crappy state started all of this with the major penalties on Friday night! Particularly the check from behind on Blood with less than a minute left in the game! Be thankful that your butt buddy Don Adams handed you Saturdays game on a platter! The Dogs are a mediocre team and this will show come playoffs!
Unfortunately, MNSioux shows the complete lack of class that has become standard behavior from both UND and NDSU.
Unfortunately you have proven what kind of hypocritical morons live in that dump of a welfare state!
I was at both games and Sioux fans were very vocal and some were carried away. But I also had a bull dog fan giving me the finger and cursing at me for cheering at the end of the 3rd. Fans are fans both sides have morons. Far as goons I seen two major checks from behind that were very dangerous by the dogs. Remember this is hockey. I didn’t analyze every hit. Duluth was an ok team but not as good as I thought they would be. If the Sioux suck this year then the whole league sucks. Better way to put it is that they are not as good as we are used to.