North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol hoped that some shakeups in the Fighting Sioux lineup would produce better results.<\/p>\n
The line juggling paid off in UND\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 3-1 win over visiting Hockey East opponent New Hampshire before 11,721 fans at Ralph Engelstad Arena. However, Hakstol probably never envisioned that most of his team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s offense would come from a line that played just four games together since late last season.<\/p>\n
Senior Kyle Radke, a converted defenseman from Bashaw, Alberta, had not been in the lineup for the past month and a half. Winnipeg native Darcy Zajac, a sophomore center, struggled in the first half of the season. Junior forward Ryan Martens of Selkirk, Manitoba, had been in and out of the lineup.<\/p>\n
But these three players, who had four points between them in UND\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first 15 games, proved to be the difference-makers against UNH, tallying two goals and three assists.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the whole Canadian thing or what,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Radke joked, after picking two assists on his linemates\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 two goals. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was pretty rested, I guess you could say.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Quite frankly, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a guy that we missed in our lineup,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hakstol said of Radke. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Heart and soul is tough to replace, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what he brings. He made some plays tonight. He brought a physical presence. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attitude, and he brings that to the locker room.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Zajac notched his first goal of the season when Martens took the puck off the end boards and threw a pass into the slot. Zajac one-timed a shot that beat UNH senior goalie Kevin Regan far side, giving UND a 1-0 lead at 19:20 of the first period.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Darcy Zajac\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a guy who had his struggles through the first half,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hakstol said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For him to get off to the start that he did and score the first goal of the game was real important.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
UND\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lead held until 5:49 of the third period when UNH junior forward Jerry Pollastrone fired in a beautiful cross-ice pass from Peter LeBlanc that beat Sioux senior goalie Jean-Philippe Lamoureux high glove side.<\/p>\n
The 1-1 tie lasted for 27 seconds. UND sophomore forward Chay Genoway spotted freshman winger Matt Frattin at the UNH blue line and hit him with a long pass that sent him in alone. Regan made the initial save, but freshman center Even Trupp, trailing the play, put in the rebound for the game-winner.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was an ugly goal, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of the things we talked about after the first 20 minutes,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hakstol said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We had to find a way to get there and get some rebounds. Evan Trupp did a good job of going right to the top of the crease and finding a way to punch that one in.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
UNH coach Dick Umile said UND\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quick response wiped out his team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s momentum. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Kevin made the save and our second defenseman over skated it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He puts in the rebound. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a killer.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
It took UND just 41 seconds to score again. Martens collected his first goal of the season at 6:57, giving the Sioux a 3-1 lead that the Wildcats could not overcome. His wrist shot from the left circle went in short side.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The goalie read a pass and I was just able to sneak it underneath him, under the arm,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Martens said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I wish I could say I was trying to put it there, but I just put it in the right spot at the right time.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Lamoureux stopped 29 of 30 shots he faced, and his goaltending was praised by Umile and Hakstol.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We had some scoring chances and he made some great saves,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Umile said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We missed the net early in the game when we had some good scoring opportunities. In the second period and in the third period, we had some good scoring chances and he made some great saves.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Hakstol said Lamoureux\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s play made up for a three-week layoff.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We had some breakdowns, and you can predict that those types of things are going to happen after being off for as long as we have,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When we did have breakdowns, Phil was there to slam the door and give us an opportunity.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
UNH assistant captain Brad Flaishans though the Wildcats played well overall, but not well enough to win.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We came out a little bit flat at first,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We battled back in the second and third. Two little mistakes and that took the game away from us.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
UNH falls to 9-5-1 overall and is 6-4-1 in conference play. The Sioux improve to 9-6-1 overall and are 6-6-0 in the WCHA. The two teams meet at 7:05 p.m. Saturday in Engelstad Arena for the second game of the series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol hoped that some shakeups in the Fighting Sioux lineup would produce better results. The line juggling paid off in UND\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 3-1 win over visiting Hockey East opponent New Hampshire before 11,721 fans at Ralph Engelstad Arena. However, Hakstol probably never envisioned that most of his team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s offense would come from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8543"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8543"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}