Sister kissing in Grand Forks: Sioux 3 Badgers 3

When the game first started I thought that the Wisconsin Badgers were going to run the Fighting Sioux out of the REA as the Badgers scored two goals in the first period with relative ease. The Sioux looked more like the slumbering Sioux than the Fighting Sioux as many for their passes were not connecting and they were having trouble getting the puck out of their own zone. Frankly; being run out of the building wouldn't have shocked me because the Badgers had some pretty good luck in Grand Forks since the REA opened in 2001 (6-5-2, 13 games). Let’s mark it down as a substandard effort in the first period.

Fast forward to the second period, finally the Sioux got things clicking offensively and scored their first goal by Brad Malone at 1:58 of the second period. The celebration was short lived as the Wisconsin Badgers scored their third goal by Andy Bohmbach less than two minutes later. I think it would be an understatement to say that the third Badger goal was of the weak variety and it could have been a momentum killer. Let’s just say that it wasn’t Brad Eidness’ best effort.

At this point Coach Hakstol had seen enough and made a goalie change; out of the game goes Brad Eidsness and in skates Aaron Dell. Cue the Dude we got a Dell commercial. Dell had been banished to the bench since his shelling at the hands of the SCSU Huskies back in November 14th, so it was kind of a surprise because coach Hakstol doesn’t pull goalies very often. I honestly can’t remember any games during the past three seasons were the Sioux have pulled their goalie. In retrospect I am also sure that Eidsness would like to have the third goal back because it was not a good goal at all and the Sioux had just started to get the momentum going their way. Bad goals kill a team’s momentum and this goal could have killed any momentum the Sioux had picked up, but it didn’t. UND outshoot the Badgers 12-2 in the second period.

In the third period Danny Kristo got the game equalizer and it was another night goal by Kristo. Kristo finished the game with a goal and an assist and has been on a pretty good clip as of late. For the most part the play was pretty equal as the Sioux outshot the Badgers 9-8.

[Box Score]
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1st Period (20:00)
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WIS-1 Ryan McDonagh (2-Roughing) 0:51
NDK-1 Brad Malone (2-High-Sticking) 0:51
WIS-2 Aaron Bendickson (2-Holding the Stick) NDK 0x1 5:18
WIS 1 - 0 6x6 Craig Smith (3) (Blake Geoffrion, John Ramage) 9:00
WIS (+): 15,5,55,24,7,G1 NDK (-): 24,3,9,29,11,G31
WIS-3 Derek Lee (2-Tripping) NDK 0x2 16:42
WIS 2 - 0 6x6 Blake Geoffrion (13) (Craig Smith, Cody Goloubef) 19:43
WIS (+): 5,15,27,24,6,G1 NDK (-): 3,9,22,11,25,G31

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2nd Period (20:00)
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NDK 1 - 2 6x6 Brad Malone (5) (Danny Kristo, Evan Trupp) 1:58
NDK (+): 22,7,19,20,3,G31 WIS (-): 9,55,22,7,21,G1
WIS 3 - 1 6x6 Andy Bohmbach (4) (Ryan McDonagh, Matt Thurber) 3:40
WIS (+): 11,12,10,17,19,G1 NDK (-): 4,10,8,25,17,G31
WIS-4 John Ramage (2-Roughing) 5:03
NDK-2 Brad Malone (2-Cross-Checking) 5:03
WIS-5 John Mitchell (2-Tripping) NDK 1x3 7:49
NDK 2 - 3 6x5 PP Ben Blood (3) (Chris VandeVelde, Jason Gregoire) 9:35
NDK: 24,29,20,26,17,G32 WIS: 14,22,27,7,G1
NDK-3 Ben Blood (2-Unsportsmanlike Conduct) WIS 0x1 9:35
WIS-6 Blake Geoffrion (2-CONTACT TO THE HEAD) NDK 1x4 14:32
WIS-7 Cody Goloubef (2-Cross-Checking) NDK 1x5 16:14
WIS-8 Brendan Smith (2-Unsportsmanlike Conduct) 17:46
NDK-4 Brett Hextall (10-Game Misconduct) 17:46
NDK-5 Brett Hextall (5-Checking from Behind) WIS 0x2 17:46
WIS-9 Craig Smith (2-Tripping) NDK 1x6 19:19

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3rd Period (20:00)
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WIS-10 Ben Grotting (2-CONTACT TO THE HEAD) 8:50
NDK-6 Corey Fienhage (2-CONTACT TO THE HEAD) 8:50
WIS-11 Ryan McDonagh (2-Cross-Checking) NDK 2x7 9:46
NDK 3 - 3 5x4 PP GT Danny Kristo (6) (Jake Marto) 10:14
NDK: 7,25,19,22,G32 WIS: 13,27,6,G1
NDK-7 Brad Malone (2-Tripping) WIS 0x3 12:16
WIS-12 Craig Smith (2-Roughing) 16:22
NDK-8 Ben Blood (2-Roughing) 16:22

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Overtime (5:00)
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WIS-13 Craig Smith (2-Slashing) NDK 2x8 2:21

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End of Game
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