Fighting Sioux Down Michigan, Advance to West Regional Final
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March 28, 2006
GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The UND men's hockey team entered Friday's NCAA West Regional with the unique distinction of being tied for most wins (27) AND most losses (15) of the 16 teams in the NCAA field.
Victory number 28 came at a great time for the Fighting Sioux, the 5-1 victory over the Michigan putting UND (28-15-1) into Saturday night's 8 p.m. regional championship game against surprising Holy Cross (27-9-2).
Five different players scored a goal and junior goalie Jordan Parise (Faribault, Minn.) continued his stellar post-season play by stopping 34 of 35 Michigan shots.
Parise, the MVP of last weekend's WCHA Final Five won by the Sioux, made 25 of his 34 saves over the final two periods as the Wolverines tried to battle back from the early deficit.
With the victory, the Sioux eliminated the Wolverines and moved to within one more victory of their second straight trip to the NCAA Frozen Four.
The Sioux meet Holy Cross Saturday night after the Crusaders upset No. 1 seed Minnesota 4-3 in overtime in the first semifinal game at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
Power-play goals by freshman Ryan Duncan (Calgary, Alta.) at 5:01 of the first period and another one by freshman T.J. Oshie (Warroad, Minn.) at 17:28 provided the Sioux all the offense they needed this night.
Duncan cranked in his 15th goal of the season and Oshie followed with his 24th as two early penalties by the Wolverines came back to bite them in a hurry.
For Oshie, it's his ninth game-winning goal of the season, a school record and the most of any player in the nation.
For Parise, it was his 54th win of his career, moving him into second place on the career win list at UND.
With 11,153 on hand at Ralph Engelstad Arena -- an NCAA West-Midwest region attendance record -- the Sioux got a big lift from the return of junior forward Drew Stafford (Faribault, Minn.) in the second period.
Stafford, who has missed the last four Sioux games with a leg injury, scored his nation-leading seventh shorthanded goal of the season at 4:08 of the second period. It gave the Sioux a 3-0 lead and put the Wolverines in a big hole.
"The shorthanded goal was pretty costly, it was a killer,'' Michigan coach Red Berenson said.
The Sioux stretched their season-best winning streak to five games and in all five games, have scored two or more goals in the opening period.
That they did it against Michigan with a packed house supporting them vocally made it a steep hill for the Wolverines to climb.
Michigan answered Stafford's shorthanded goal with Chad Kolarik's power-play goal 22 seconds after Stafford scored, but the Sioux put it away with the last two goals.
Freshman Jonathan Toews (Winnipeg) scored his 20th goal of the season at 14:39 of the second period, extending UND's lead to 4-1 after two periods.
Sophomore Travis Zajac (Winnipeg) followed with his 16th goal of the year. Oshie fought off a couple of checks along the right wall, and dove out to feed a cross-ice pass to Zajac. Zajac one-timed his blast past the stick side of Michigan goalie Noah Ruden (28 saves) to close the scoring.
"That's a good group of forwards, the best group of forwards we've played against this year,'' said Michigan captain Andrew Ebbett. "And we've played against some good groups.''
UND coach Dave Hakstol said the return of Stafford to the lineup was big.
"You need more veteran leadership this time of the year,'' Hakstol said. "That was a big positive.''
The difference was that the Sioux cashed in on their chances against Ruden while Parise turned back the Wolverines time and again.
"From our perspective, we didn't think it was a 5-1 game, but it turned out that way,'' Berenson said. "North Dakota got a good start and the crowd got into it. It was a great crowd and a great environment for a regional and a great facility.''
Parise came into the game with a career 1.51 goals-against average in NCAA tournament play and was even stingier than that Friday.
"I think the team in general is playing a lot better in front of me,'' Parise said. "They're clearing lanes and making my job a lot easier. But yeah, the puck seems really big right now.''
The Sioux acknowledged the importance of Stafford's return to a youthful lineup.
"It's always good to have a guy with his skill and stature back,'' Toews said. "I think we stepped it up when we didn't have him for these last couple of weekends.''
The Sioux met their pre-game goal.
"We wanted to come in tonight and have the opportunity to come back to the rink tomorrow and prepare for another game,'' Hakstol said at the late press conference Friday night.
Just call it mission accomplished.
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