Showing posts with label Aaron Dell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aaron Dell. Show all posts

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Through these doors episode 19


This should get you in the mood for the NCAA regional championship this weekend. No matter how this season ends, it has been an exciting group to follow and cover. This team started out 4-7-1 and 1-5 in the WCHA and ended on a hot streak that covered almost three months that saw them go 21-5-2, that's a pretty impressive run in any league. 
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Saturday, March 17, 2012

Dell backstops Sioux to 4-0 victory over the Pioneers

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St. Paul Minn. –  Back in November, who would have thought that the Fighting Sioux would face off against Denver University and win the championship game of the Red Baron WCHA Final Five?

Especially on Sunday the 20th of November 2011. The Fighting Sioux had just suffered an unimpressive 1-0 loss to the Bemidji State Beavers at the Sandford Center in Bemidji, Minnesota.  After that loss, the Fighting Sioux had a lackluster record of 4-7-1 overall and 1-5 in the WCHA. That record was good for 11th place in the WCHA standings.

After the game, the Fighting Sioux took the two hour bus trip down highway two back to Grand Forks, they regrouped and on Monday morning the Fighting Sioux coaching staff conducted a bag skate on the Fighting Sioux hockey team at six o’clock.

Since that early morning bag skate, the Fighting Sioux have gone an impressive 21-5-2. That is the best overall record in Divison I hockey since November 26 , 2011.

Coming into the game, the Denver Pioneers had played five games in eight days and there was the question of fatigue, the last three games the Pioneers played in, had gone to overtime including yesterday’s double overtime win against the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs. You had to wonder how much was left in the tank for the Pioneers.

The Sioux would test the Pioneers tired legs early and often.

The Fighting Sioux got on the board first and broke the 0-0 dead lock at the 17:43 mark of the first period when sophomore Brock Nelson scored his 27th goal on the power play.

Before the public address could announce the first goal, the Fighting Sioux would score again with a goal from junior forward Carter Rowney at the 18:29 mark of the first period. That was the 18th goal of the season for Rowney.

The Fighting Sioux never looked back as they added a power play goal by Michael Parks in the second period and a shorthanded goal in the third period by Mark MacMillan.

Pioneers Head Coach George Gwozdecky was very complimentary of the Fighting Sioux after the game.

“Congratulations to North Dakota,” Gwozdecky said. “They did a nice job tonight, they are a good defending champion, they took advantage of a couple of leg weary defensemen and they did a nice job. They were better than us, pretty much in every area of the game and they are a good champion.”
The Sioux took advantage of the Denver Pioneers being a step slower and they kept moving their feet and making plays.

In the third period, the Fighting Sioux didn’t miss a beat, with Carter Rowney in the box for cross checking the Sioux cashed in shorthanded as well with a goal from Mark MacMillan to seal the game for the Fighting Sioux.

Goaltending was the story in this game as Fighting Sioux junior goalie Aaron Dell was the difference stopping all 22 shots that he faced, to record his second shutout of the season. Dell ended up securing a spot on the all-tournament team and was also awarded the WCHA Final Five tournament MVP.
With tonight’s win, the Fighting Sioux have won three Broadmoor Trophies in a row for the Fighting Sioux. No other WCHA team has ever done that.

Overall, Fighting Sioux head coach Dave Hakstol seemed pleased his team’s effort after the game.
“I am really proud of my team,” Hakstol said. “We tried to come into today and play a complete hockey game, right from the drop of the puck, try and play 60 minutes, third game in three days, energy levels aren’t going to be necessarily at the top end. We won the game through small details, plus one, five on five, we score two power play goals and a short hander, and we got very good goaltending. That’s a pretty good formula for a playoff time especially going in to a championship game.

“Denver has been one heck of a run here, in terms of the battles they have been through; maybe they ran out of gas just a little bit with the amount of hockey that they played. That was one of the things that we had try to exploit if we possibly could by being a really tough team to play against. We are proud to be Broadmoor Cup Champions.”

With the win tonight, the Fighting Sioux improve to 25-12-3 and will find out where they are going in the first round of the WCHA tourney.

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UND vs. DU lines


Fighting Sioux Forward Lines

29 Brock Nelson–10 Corban Knight (A) –7 Danny Kristo
16 Mark MacMillan–27 Carter Rowney–15 Michael Parks
Stephane Pattyn 28 –9 Mario Lamoureux (C) – 20 Joe Gleason
8 Dan Senkbeil–13 Connor Gaarder– No forward.

UND Defensive Pairings.

4 Derek Forbort – 24 Ben Blood
2 Andrew MacWilliam (A) – 5 Nick Mattson
18 Dillon Simpson–22 Andrew Panzarella

UND Goalies 

32 Aaron Dell
31 Brad Eidsness
Fighting Sioux Players Stats 

Denver Pioneer Lines
12 – Ty Loney – 15 Drew Shore (C) – 18 Luke Salazar
17 Jason Zucker -23 Nick Shore – 19 Daniel Doremus
37 Nate Dewhurst – 26 – Shawn Ostrow – 8 Dustin Jackson (C)
14 Larkin Jacobson – 25 Matt Tabrum – 22 Jarrod Mermis
16 Zac Larraza

Pioneer Defense Pairing


21 Joey LaLeggia – 5 John Lee
24 John Ryder – 4 Josiah Didier
2 Scott Mayfield 

Goalies


31 Juho Olkinuora
33 Adam Murray
1 Sam Brittain

Pioneer Player Stats

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Sioux vs. Pioneers Final Five championship game notes

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The University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux will play the Denver Pioneers in the WCHA Final Five Championship game tonight. This is the rematch of last years Final Five Championship game where the Fighting Sioux beat the Pioneers 3-2 in double overtime.

Game Time: 7:07 pm CT

Records and Rankings: 

University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux (24-12-3); ranked 12th in both the USCHO and USA Today polls. The Fighting Sioux beat the Minnesota Golden Gophers 6-3 in the semifinals of the Final Five on Friday night. Ranked 4th in the Pairwise Rankings.

The Denver University Pioneers (25-12-4) are ranked 9th in both the USCHO Poll and USA Today Poll. The Pioneers beat the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs 4-3 in double O.T. in the semifinals of the Final Five on Friday afternoon. Tied for 8th in the Pairwise rankings

Series History:  The University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux lead the all-time series against the Denver Pioneers 131-116-8. Fighting Sioux head coach Dave Hakstol’s teams have a 12-15-1 record against the Denver Pioneers. The Fighting Sioux have won five of the last seven games the Pioneers.  The Fighting Sioux and the Pioneers split the season series (4-3 W and 3-5 L).

Radio:  UND 96.1 (KQHT-FM) – The Fox.

Webcast Audio: WCHA.COM and Fighting Sioux.com

TV Saturday: Fox Sports North – 668 DirecTV

Players to Watch: 

North Dakota: Forwards: Danny Kristo (18-25a—43pts), Corbin Knight (15g-23a—38pts) and Brock Nelson (26g-17a—43pts). Defense: Nick Mattson (6g-13a—19pts), Dillon Simpson, (2g-15a—17pts), Ben Blood (3g-17a—20pts), Andrew MacWilliam (2g-5a—7pts). Goaltenders: Aaron Dell .898 save percentage and a 2.74 goals against average. Brad Eidsness .920 save percentage and a 2.17 goals against average.

North Dakota injuries: Taylor Dickin (lower-body injury), forward Rocco Grimaldi (season, knee surgery), Brendan O’Donnell (season-ending surgery) and Derek Rodwell (season, shoulder surgery) are all out of the lineup.

For DU  Forwards: Jason Zucker (22g-24a—46pts), Drew Shore (21g-31a—52pts), Nick Shore (13g-28a—41pts) Luke Salazar (12g-17a—29pts) Defense: Joey LaLeggia (11g-27a—38pts), Jon Lee (3g-11a—14pts)   Goaltenders: Sam Brittain .931 save percentage and a 2.39 goals against average, Juho Olkinuora .928 save percentage and  a 2.39 goals against average.

Denver University Injuries: Paul Phillips, Beau Bennett (wrist)
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Friday, March 16, 2012

UND vs. UMN

Video online for all Final Five Games
The game is on Midco and 668 on DirecTV.


Fighting Sioux Forward Lines

29 Brock Nelson–10 Corban Knight (A) –7 Danny Kristo

16 Mark MacMillan–27 Carter Rowney–15 Michael Parks
Stephane Pattyn 28 –9 Mario Lamoureux (C) – 20 Joe Gleason
8 Dan Senkbeil–13 Connor Gaarder– (No forward). 

UND Defensive Pairings

4 Derek Forbort – 24 Ben Blood
2 Andrew MacWilliam (A) – 5 Nick Mattson
18 Dillon Simpson–22 Andrew Panzarella

Fighting Sioux Goalies

32 Aaron Dell

31 Brad Eidsness
 

Fighitng Sioux Players Stats 


Minnesota’s Forward Lines

7 Kyle Rau–27 Nick Bjugstad–24 Zach Budish
11 Sam Warning–19 Erik Haula–21 Jake Hansen
16 Nate Condon–9 Taylor Matson–17 Seth Ambroz
14 Tom Serratore–22 Travis Boyd–13 Nico Sacchetti

Minnesota Defense Parings

4 Seth Helgeson–12 Justin Holl
10 Ben Marshall–20 Mark Alt
6 Jake Parenteau–29 Nate Schmidt

Goalies 

35 Kent Patterson
1 Michael Shibrowski
30 Jake Kremer

Gophers Players Stats 
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Sioux vs. Gophers game notes

2010 WCHA Final Five logo
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The University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux play the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers in the semi-finals of the Red Baron WCHA Final Five at the Xcel Energy Center.

Game Time: 7:07 pm Friday.

Television: FOX Sports North, DirecTV 668.

Radio: The games can be heard at 96.1 the Fox.

Internet: WCHA.COM

Records and Rankings: 

The UND Fighting Sioux (23-12-3) UND is ranked 12th in the USCHO and 12th in the USA Today Poll. The Fighting Sioux beat the Saint Cloud State Huskies (4-1) in the quarter finals of the Red Baron WCHA Final Five.

Minnesota Golden Gophers (26-12-1); is ranked 4th in the latest USCHO poll and 4th in the USA Today Poll. Minnesota swept the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves in the first round of the WCHA playoffs (2-1 W, 7-3 W).

Series History:  The Minnesota Golden Gophers have compiled a 143-129-14 record against the  North Dakota Fighting Sioux in 286 games. The Gophers won the 2011-12 regular season series by winning three out of four games.

 Players to Watch: 

For UND: Forwards: Danny Kristo (18-24a—42pts), Corbin Knight (14g-22a—36pts) and Brock Nelson (25g-17a—42pts). Defense: Nick Mattson (6g-12a—18pts), Dillon Simpson, (2g-15a—17pts), Ben Blood (3g-16a—19pts).  Goaltenders: Aaron Dell .899 save percentage and a  2.73 goals against average. Brad Eidsness .920 save percentage and a 2.17 goals against average.

UND Injuries: Taylor Dickin is out (lower body injury), forward Rocco Grimaldi is out (season knee surgery), Brendan O’Donnell is out (season ending surgery), Derek Rodwell is out (season shoulder surgery).

For the Gophers: Forwards: Erik Haula (19g-25a—44pts) Kyle Rau (16g-20a—36pts), Nick Bjugstad 24g-16a—40pts), Zach Budish (11g-19a—30pts). Defense: Nate Schmidt (3g-33a—36pts), Mark Alt (5g-17a—22pts). Goalie: Kent Patterson .914 save percentage and a 2.12 goals against average.


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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Sioux grind out 4-1 win against Huskies

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ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Saint Cloud State Huskies are always a tough draw; they have only been swept once all season long. The Huskies managed to get points every single weekend this season.

Tonight was no different, as the Fighting Sioux had to work hard to get the win against the Huskies. One can markup tonight’s game as another hard fought epic battle tonight as well.

Coming into tonight’s game, Huskies’ junior goalie Mike Lee has never won a game against the Fighting Sioux in his three seasons with the Huskies, going 0-5-1 during that run. With the 4-1 loss tonight, Lee’s record drops to 0-6-1.

While his junior goalie has yet to win a game against the Fighting Sioux, Saint Cloud State coach Bob Motzko described his goalie, “as a big time goaltender.”

The Huskies and the Sioux play a similar style of play as both teams like to limit the other’s time and space and get into the passing lanes making it difficult to generate scoring opportunities. That rang true tonight. At times the Huskies frustrated the Sioux by clogging up the neutral zone and they also did a good job getting the shooting lanes.

The Fighting Sioux also got in the passing lanes, took away the Huskies time and space and frustrated them as well.

Corbin Knight broke the defensive stalemate at the 7:40 mark of the first period, when the junior center curled in front of the net to center the puck. It went off of the SCSU defenseman Sam Zabkowicz and into the net past Lee.

With Knight in the box for charging, junior forward Ben Hanowski made the Fighting Sioux pay with his 23rd marker of the season.

Fighting Sioux sophomore forward Brock Nelson had been a little bit snake bitten as of late, but was able to get off of the snide with his 24th goal of the season as he snapped a shot over Lee’s blocker.
Motzko was impressed with Nelson’s first goal of the game.

“He’s coming down on his off side, a pretty good hockey player to, I think that’s the player in our league that you’re going to watch play in the NHL for a long time,” Motzko said. “He was able to cut back in the middle of the rink and that is where is he is going to go he is on his offside, kind of one on one and you can keep him on his back hand and you keep him down there, and he was perfect. Our guy crossed his feet over and he stepped back into the middle and was able to make a shot.”

The pesky Huskies wouldn’t go away quietly into the night.

With the Huskies goalie out of the net and pressing hard down low, Nelson would get his second goal of the game and his 25th goal of the season to ice it.

Fighting Sioux junior goalie Aaron Dell played well, and was the difference in the game stopping 28 of 29 shots.

When it was all said and done, this was a very even game and either team could have won. Motzko agreed.

“It was an extremely hard fought hockey game,” Motzko said. “It was a tough grinding game; it was a great game down on the bench. I don’t know if there were a ton of plays being made…”

With the win tonight, the Fighting Sioux improve to 23-12-3 and jump up to ninth in the PairWise Rankings.

The Fighting Sioux will play the top-seeded Minnesota Gophers in the semifinal game at 7:07 p.m. tomorrow night.

Coach Dave Hakstol seemed excited about the prospects of playing the Minnesota Gophers again.
“I said it yesterday, we are in the greatest venue possible for post season play in college hockey,” Hakstol said.“Saint Paul… the entire town is electric, this building is an awful lot of fun with the number of fans that are in the building, we have an opportunity to play a rival tomorrow night. If you like competition, you will like the game tomorrow.”

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Tuesday, March 13, 2012

UND vs. SCSU game notes

2010 WCHA Final Five logo
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The University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux travel to St. Paul, Minnesota to play the St. Cloud State Huskies, in the quarterfinals of the WCHA Final Five, at the Xcel Energy Center, March 15th, 2012.

Game Time: 7:07 pm Thursday.

Television: The Red Baron WCHA Final Five games will be shown live on Fox Sports North DirecTV 668.

Radio: The games can be heard at 96.1 the Fox and or on KNSI FM 103.3/AM 1450 

AUDIO: FightingSioux.comWCHA.com


Records and Rankings: The University of North Dakota (22-12-3); the Fighting Sioux are ranked 12th in both National polls. The Fighting Sioux swept the Bemidji State Beavers in the first round of the WCHA playoffs (4-2 W, 4-3 W).  Official Release

Saint Cloud State University (17-16-5); the Huskies are unranked in both National polls. The Huskies  swept the Nebraska Omaha Mavericks (4-0 W, 3-1 W). Official Release

Series History:  The University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux are 58-31-11 (.635) against the Saint Cloud State Huskies in the all-time series. The Fighting Sioux are also 9-2 against the Huskies in the playoffs.  The Fighting Sioux are 7-2-1 in the last 10 games against the Huskies. Huskies Goalie Mike Lee is 0-5-1 against the Fighting Sioux during his career.

Players to Watch: 

For UND: Forwards: Danny Kristo (17-23a—40pts), Corbin Knight (13g-22a—35pts) and Brock Nelson (23g-17a—40pts). Defense: Nick Mattson (6g-12a—18pts), Dillon Simpson, (2g-15a—17pts), Ben Blood (3g-15a—18pts), Joe Gleason (0g-14a—14pts), Andrew MacWilliam (2g-4a—6pts).  Goaltenders: Aaron Dell .896 save percentage and a 2.79 goals against average. Brad Eidsness .920 save percentage and a 2.17 goals against average.

UND Injuries: Taylor Dickin is out (lower body injury), Forward Rocco Grimaldi is out (season knee surgery), Brendan O’Donnell is out (season ending surgery), Derek Rodwell is out (season shoulder surgery).

For the Huskies: Forwards: Ben Hanowski (22g-20—42pts), Jared Festler (15g-19a—34pts), Travis Novak (12g-13a—25pts). Defense: Nick Jensen (6g-26a—32pts), Andrew Prochno (5g-23a—pts), Jared Rabey (6g-8a—14pts). Goalies: Mike Lee .930 save percentage and a 2.24 goals against average. Ryan Faragher .915 save percentage and a 2.77 goals against average.
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Saturday, March 10, 2012

UND vs. BSU Game 2 - TV info


Fighting Sioux Forward Lines

29 Brock Nelson–10 Corban Knight (A) –7 Danny Kristo
16 Mark MacMillan–27 Carter Rowney–15 Michael Parks
Stephane Pattyn 28 –9 Mario Lamoureux (C) – 20 Joe Gleason
8 Dan Senkbeil–13 Connor Gaarder– No forward. 

UND Defensive Pairings

4 Derek Forbort – 24 Ben Blood
2 Andrew MacWilliam (A) – 5 Nick Mattson
18 Dillon Simpson–22 Andrew Panzarella

Fighting Sioux Goalies


31 Brad Eidsness
32 Aaron Dell

UND Official Players Stats 

UND Injuries: Forwards Taylor Dickin Rocco Grimaldi (season knee surgery), Brendan O’Donnell (season ending sur gery), and Derek Rodwell (season shoulder surgery) are out.
 
BSU Forward Lines

9 Ben Kinne (C) – 14 Aaron McLeod – 28 Jordan George
18 Radoslav Illo – 11 Shea Walters – 4 David Boehm
17 Jamie MacQueen – 12 Jeff Jubinville – 16 Danny Mattson
7 Brance Orban – 13 Drew Fisher – 6 Darcy Findlay

BSU Defensive Pairings

29 Brad Hunt (A) – 22 Matt Prapavessis
8 Jake Areshenko (A) – Sam Windle
5 Matt Carlson – 25 Brady Wacker 

Beaver Goalies 

33 Dan Bakala
30 Andrew Walsh 

BSU Player Stats 

Referees - 4 Todd Anderson and 33 Brad Shepherd AR - 70 Andy Dokken 83 Justin Hills   


Radio:  UND 96.1 (KQHT-FM) – The Fox. 

Webcast: FightingSioux.com

TV Saturday: UND Sports Network,FoxCollege Sports Central, DirecTV 617, MidcoSN3
TV Sunday: UND Sports Network,FoxCollege Sports Central, DirecTV 617, MidcoSN3 (if necessary)

Sunday, March 04, 2012

Fighting Sioux Hockey Seniors Tribute 2012

This is a great video. While this season’s Fighting Sioux senior class might only have three members, the trio of Brad Eidsness (Chestermere, Alberta), Ben Blood (Plymouth, Minnesota) and Mario Lamoureux (Grand Forks, North Dakota) have been part of some amazing teams that have won two MacNaughton Cup championships (2010-11, 2008-09) and two Broadmoor Trophies (2010-11, 2009-10).
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Saturday, March 03, 2012

Eidsness and Sioux shutout the Mavericks 3-0

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Grand Forks, ND – The start of the game was delayed by a broken glass pane behind the Fighting Sioux net. One of the Fighting Sioux players had broken the glass with a hard shot during the pregame warm-ups.

After the game, Fighting Sioux goalie Brad Eidsness said that ‘the pucks being made of a harder composite rubber has been the cause of many broken glass panes in arenas all over the WCHA.’

The Fighting Sioux have broken three panes themselves in the last week, however, the delay to the start of the game didn’t seem to faze senior Fighting Sioux goalie Brad Eidsness. He was stellar all night in stopping all 29 shots that he faced, leading the Sioux to a 3-0 shutout of the Minnesota State Mavericks on “Senior Night” in Grand Forks.

Many of Eidsness’ saves were of the grade “A” variety down low. Eidsness stopped six shots from the slot in the third period alone to ice the Mavericks.

Over the years, UND has had some amazing senior classes.

Last year’s senior class was highly heralded and included the likes of all-Americans like Chay Genoway and Matt Frattin. While there might not be any all-Americans, this year’s senior class is the epitome of the lunch pail group. They go to work and do whatever it takes to win the game.
Tonight, it was Eidsness that stood tall in his final regular season game.

While this season’s Fighting Sioux senior class might only have three members, the trio of Brad Eidsness (Chestermere, Alberta), Ben Blood (Plymouth, Minnesota) and Mario Lamoureux (Grand Forks, North Dakota) have been part of some amazing teams that have won two MacNaughton Cup championships (2010-11, 2008-09) and two Broadmoor Trophies (2010-11, 2009-10).

This year’s senior class, has also made the NCAA tourney every season that they have played at UND and last season they were part of a team that went to the Frozen Four.

Last night, junior goalie Aaron Dell was stellar in the win stopping 25 of 27 shots that he faced and you had to wonder, who coach Hakstol would start in net on Saturday’s night.  It was the senior Eidsness that got the nod on Saturday.

It appears that the Fighting Sioux head coach Dave Hakstol made the right game time decision; in picking senior goalie Brad Eidsness as his starter.

After the game, Hakstol explained his decision on picking Eidsness as his starter.

“I wouldn’t say that we exactly split them, but each guy has gotten quite a bit of time in the net and each played well with that rotation,” Hakstol said. ”We have two goaltenders that are playing well. We have to win the best two out of three series next weekend. We need to have players in all positions playing well.”

With the shutout, Eidsness is now ranked fifth all time on UND’s shutout list tying him with former fighting Sioux goalie Aaron Schweitzer (1996-1998).

An emotional Brad Eidsness was pleased with the shutout after the game.

“It was pretty special,” said Eidsness.

“It’s a good way to cap off a pretty good weekend and a pretty good senior weekend. I don’t know. It’s kind of something you look at and I think I will cherish it for a very long time”

A choked up Eidsness continued, “senior night is kind of a celebration of your four years here. I certainly had a lot of great memories here.”

The night was also a milestone game for Fighting Sioux head coach Dave Hakstol whose teams have won 20 or more games in each of his first eight seasons.

Junior forward Danny Kristo (Eden Prairie, Minnesota) paced the Fighting Sioux with two assists on the night.
Incidentally, sophomore forward Brock Nelson (Warroad, Minnesota) won the WCHA goal scoring title with an open net goal to ice the Mavericks. That open net goal, helped Nelson beat Denver Sophomore forward Jason Zucker 20-19 in the goal scoring department.

With the win tonight, the Fighting Sioux improve their record to 20-12-3 and 16-11-1 WCHA. Next weekend the Sioux will either play the Bemidji State Beavers.

With the loss tonight, the Minnesota State Mavericks drop to 12-22-2 and 8-18-2 WCHA. The Mavericks will play the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs in the first round of the WCHA playoffs.

BOX SCORE
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Friday, March 02, 2012

Dell backstops Sioux to a 4-2 victory over Mavericks

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Grand Forks, ND – Minnesota State University came into this series as one of the hotter teams in the WCHA. Coming into the game the Mavericks had gone an impressive 6-3-1 in their last ten games.

While they started the season with a dismal 3-13 record and are currently the 11th-placed team in the WCHA standings. But the Mavericks aren’t as bad as their record shows as the start of their season was decimated by a rash of injuries. Those players have returned and the Mavericks have improved as the season has gone along, going 9-8-1 in their last 18 games.

The North Dakota Fighting Sioux have been hot themselves 6-3-1 in the last 10 games, making tonight’s game a contest of two in-form teams.

The Mavericks are led offensively by a pair of prolific freshman players in Jean-Paul Lafontaine (Oxford, MI) and Matt Leitner (Los Alamities, CA). This dynamic duo lead the team in points, but tonight the duo would be held to just a single point.

The Mavericks came out of the gates fast and were on the scoreboard early, with Leitner scoring the first goal at the 01:37 mark of the first period.

The early marker against didn’t rattle the Fighting Sioux.

As the season has progressed, this year’s Fighting Sioux hockey team have become accustomed to giving up the first goal of the game.  If anything it’s been a recurring theme.

The Fighting Sioux have given up the first goal in 20 out of 33 games that they have played this season. But by the same token, the Fighting Sioux have a record of 8-3-2 at Ralph Englestad Arena when giving up the first goal of the game.

“It’s not the first time that we have given up the first goal in the first five minutes or so of the game,” UND forward Michael Parks said.  “A couple months ago we wouldn’t have responded the way we did tonight, but we have matured quite a bit as a group, and we came out and responded really well to giving that first one early.”

After the Maverick’s first goal, the Fighting Sioux would score three unanswered goals of their own, and would not surrender the lead the rest of the game.

The second period was a little less dramatic than the first period as both teams had some good chances and the Mavericks appeared to have more jump in their step. Both goalies played well and gave neither team anything.

The Mavericks would outshoot the Fighting Sioux 9-7 in the second period and would get many great chances that were repelled by Fighting Sioux junior goalie Aaron Dell.  With the win tonight, Dell was able to record his 44th win of his career tying him for 10th all-time at UND.

“He [Dell] played great,” junior forward Danny Kristo said of his goalie’s performance. “He made three or four saves that could have been goals.

“Awesome for him. He has been sick and battling injuries for the last two weeks, so he came in to night and played good. Everyone is happy for him.”

The third period was more action packed, as both teams were able to light the lamp and give the home team fans something to cheer about and the Fighting Sioux were able to gut out a 4-2 win.
Fighting Sioux head coach Dave Hakstol was pleased with his team’s effort.

“I thought our ability to answer back after giving up the first one early in the game was very important,” Hakstol said.

“We got a couple of grinding goals down low on the crease, after that. Once they [Mavericks] made it a one-goal game in the third period, we had a couple of guys that made a big play to extend it to a two goal lead again.”

With the loss tonight, the Mavericks dropped to 12-21-2, 8-17-2 WCHA record. The Mavericks remain in 11th place of the WCHA standings and they travel to Minnesota Duluth for the first round of the WCHA playoffs.

With the win, the Fighting Sioux secured fourth place in the WCHA standings and will play the ninth-placed team in the first round of the WCHA playoffs, the Fighting Sioux improve to 19-12-3, 15-11-1 WCHA.

The same two teams play tomorrow night.
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