The new look No. 8 North Dakota Fighting Sioux continued their ascension in the hockey world with a 4-3 victory on the road against the No. 3 University of Minnesota Golden Gophers in front of 915 fans at Ridder Arena.<\/p>\n
In the first 28 meetings in the rivalry, the Sioux (3-2-0, 2-1-0 WCHA) had never won. On this night, they changed that. The Sioux erased one-goal deficits three times before Jordan Slavin’s unassisted goal 32 seconds into the final period gave UND a lead that they held on to for the win over the Gophers (3-1-0, 0-1-0 WCHA).<\/p>\n
“We got a bounce tonight, and that’s the way it goes in tight hockey games with two good teams,” Sioux coach Brian Idalski said. “A bounce here or there, a mistake there, and that was the difference; it could have gone either way.”<\/p>\n
The deciding bounce came off the stick of defenseman Slavin while the teams were skating four-on-four. She carried the puck into the zone wide around the Minnesota defense before cutting back to the crease and getting the puck behind goalie Alyssa Grogan.<\/p>\n
UND is starting the season with an intimidating schedule, with series against three opponents ranked in the top four in the country coming into that weekend.<\/p>\n
“No. 4 (Boston University), No. 1 (Minnesota-Duluth), and No. 3 (Minnesota) for the first six games,” Idalski said. “It wasn’t long ago that would have been 0-and-6, and I don’t know if we recover from that. So it’s nice that we’ve been able to pull out some wins to start the year and give us some confidence.”<\/p>\n
Some of that confidence came with the arrival of twin sisters Jocelyne Lamoureux and Monique Lamoureux-Kolls via a transfer from Minnesota after a year with the United States Olympic Team. Though the twins were held to a combined two points, Slavin and Sara Dagenais each stepped up with a goal and assist to lead the Sioux to the big win.<\/p>\n
“A lot of people thought that two superstars were coming to the team, but obviously as you can see, we’re getting scoring from all lines,” said Lamoureux-Kolls, who scored a five-on-three goal late in the first period to forge a 2-2 tie. “It quiets the critics to see that everybody on the team is contributing.”<\/p>\n
The Sioux answering Gophers’ goals was the pattern through the first two periods. Minnesota’s Becky Kortum sniped an unassisted goal on the game’s second shift; Margot Miller immediately converted a feed from Alyssa Wiebe to knot the score at 1-1.<\/p>\n
After Amanda Kessel spotted Jen Schoullis alone on the far post for a 2-1 Minnesota lead at 7:57, the Gophers got in penalty trouble by committing four minors in less than seven minutes. UND capitalized with Lamoureux-Kolls’ fourth tally of the year at 16:03 off an assist from her sister.<\/p>\n
When Kelly Terry found the top shelf on a two-on-one for her first Gophers goal and a 3-2 score at 9:40, Dagenais put the Sioux even four minutes later on a rush of her own.<\/p>\n
Idalski said that it was key that his team, which dressed only ten forwards, was always able to counter quickly.<\/p>\n
“When we play from behind, we exert a lot of energy; we can’t afford to do it.”<\/p>\n
Of course, every time a coach is happy to erase a deficit, his rival laments a lead lost.<\/p>\n
“It’s not the way that we would have wanted to respond after we started the game 1-0 early,” Minnesota coach Brad Frost said.<\/p>\n
He found his team’s first league contest to be a mixed bag.<\/p>\n
“We did a lot of good things, but we did some things that we can correct as well,” Frost said. “It was what I would consider a pretty hard-fought game between two pretty good teams. Unfortunately, tonight we came out on the wrong end of it.”<\/p>\n
Fortune did not favor Minnesota on the injury list either, as All-American goalie Noora R\u00e4ty joined Minnesota’s top returning scorer Emily West to watch the game in street clothes from the stands due to an undisclosed injury.<\/p>\n
Following the final horn, a melee broke out and 70 minutes of penalties were issued. Kelly Seeler and Wiebe had five-minute majors for slashing. Sarah Erickson, Schoullis, Dagenais and Ashley Holmes were all called for hitting after the whistle and assessed game misconducts.<\/p>\n
Grogan got the start in her stead and stopped 24 of 28 shots, while UND’s Jorid Dagfinrud turned back 30 of 33 Gopher attempts in evening her personal record at 2-2. <\/p>\n
Additional success appears to await the Sioux.<\/p>\n
“We were a young team last year,” Idalski said. “We took our lumps, but we were in a lot of hockey games. Now, they’re a year more mature. You add the twins on top of that, who are extremely dynamic and deserve every accolade they get, so I think we have a nice club and we’re building for the future.”<\/p>\n
The teams play again at Ridder Arena on Saturday at 4:07 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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