ST. PAUL, Minn. – A year ago, what North Dakota is attempting to do was impossible. Getting to the WCHA Final Five was a big deal, and a win in the Thursday night play-in game meant you got to play two more. But designs on winning the title, if you played on Thursday night, were akin to non-existent.
But after Minnesota Duluth pulled off the three-wins-in-three-nights trick last year, becoming the first team in nearly two decades of trying to do so, suddenly there’s hope for all.
The Bulldogs were indeed hoping to do it again, but ran into a green-and-white roadblock Thursday, falling 2-0 to the Fighting Sioux behind 22 saves by Brad Eidsness. Just don’t talk to the North Dakota coach about pulling off the “win from Thursday” feat. He’s got more immediate concerns in mind.
“We live to fight another day, which is the name of the game in this tournament,” Dave Hakstol said. “We’re not worried about winning three games, we were just worried about today. We’ve had close, tough games with Duluth all season, and we knew this would probably be the toughest.”
Chris VandeVelde celebrates North Dakota's first goal in the midst of several Minnesota Duluth players.
The Sioux did everything but score for 40 minutes, dominating both ends of the ice and out-shooting the Bulldogs 25-10 in the first two periods. After all of that, it looked as if Minnesota Duluth had taken the lead early in the third.
Eidsness produced a pop-fly rebound on a wide-angle shot by Drew Akins, and linemate Cody Danberg swatted the puck out of the air, off a North Dakota skate, and into the net. After a lengthy review, officials ruled no goal, saying Danberg had used a high stick. Clearly disappointed by the call, Bulldogs coach Scott Sandelin seemed satisfied with the explanation.
“The nice thing is they have so many cameras here, they can look at it from a lot of angles, instead of just the overhead like in our rink,” he said. “Of course, maybe it would’ve worked in our favor if it was just the overhead.”
With the final minutes ticking away, Jason Gregoire got his team-leading 20th goal for the Sioux short-handed, ripping a high shot past Bulldog goalie Kenny Reiter just seconds after Chris VandeVelde had been stopped on a short breakaway. Later, Evan Trupp got an insurance goal with less than two minutes to play. For the relieved Trupp, it was his first goal in 21 games. Reiter finished with 32 saves.
“We take a lot of pride in our penalty kill,” said Gregoire, after his team got its sixth shorty of the season. “It’s been a huge factor in a lot of our wins.”
The Sioux have now won 10 of their last 11, and are solidly in the NCAA Tournament as it currently stands. The Bulldogs will now wait and hope, having gone 6-10-0 since mid-January. Winning on Thursday would have helped, and winning the tournament, again, would have gotten them a guarantee. But they know better than anyone what a daunting, but no longer impossible, task that is.
“To win three games here is tough. We did it last year, but the circumstances are different,” Sandelin said. “On Sunday we had the Broadmoor (Trophy) in the dressing room, hoping that would give them a little spark. But this is a different team, and it’s a different year.”
Black, White and Blood
The game’s most significant stoppage of play came with 7:45 left in the second, when assistant referee Bob Keltie took an inadvertent stick up high from a Sioux player. The North Dakota training staff attended to Keltie, staunching the bleeding from a cut above his left eye during a several-minute delay. Keltie skated a few more shifts, then was replaced by Jared Moen with 4:37 to play in the first.
