GRAND FORKS, N.D.—North Dakota’s fourth overtime win of the season was its biggest.
Darcy Zajac’s overtime goal gave North Dakota a 4-3 victory Sunday over Colorado College and sole possession of first place in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.
“It’s the nature of this team that we’re going to win a lot of close games,” UND coach Dave Hakstol said. “We’re not going to blow out many teams, so we have to win close ones to be successful.”
UND (16-6-4, 21-11-4) moved one point ahead of Denver in the WCHA standings with one weekend left in the regular season. The Sioux need only one tie in their closing two-game series at Wisconsin to win the MacNaughton Cup for the league title and earn the top seed in the WCHA playoffs. UND holds the tiebreaker over Denver, which has only one game left, against Colorado College.
The winning play, coming with 1:35 left in the extra session, started with Brad Malone’s wrist shot while skating down the left wing. Colorado College goalie Ryan Bachman made the save, but the rebound went directly to Zajac rushing down center ice. He one-timed the puck into the net just ahead of the retreating Bachman.
“We got the bounce,” Hakstol said. “Malone made a good decision and Zajac was driving down the lane just like he should be doing.”
It was only Zajac’s fourth goal of the season, but his second of the weekend. “I feel like I’ve been getting the chances and shots all season, but they’re now going in,” he said. “Now, they’re finally going in.”
Colorado College (12-9-6, 16-10-9) would have clinched a top-three finish with a win, but now will head into the last weekend in a five-way scramble for home ice in the playoffs. UND and the Tigers tied Saturday.
“We definitely played well enough this weekend to deserve more than one point,” Tigers’ coach Scott Owens said.
The Tigers tied the score at 3-3 on Chad Rau’s wrist shot with 4:36 left in regulation. They also had a power play for the first 1:50 of the overtime, but UND goalie Brad Eidsness held them at bay.
The Fighting Sioux took a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Andrew Kozek and Ryan Duncan. Kozek scored on a long wrist shot that slipped between the pads of Colorado College goalie Ryan Bachman. Duncan then scored on a rebound with UND on a 5-on-3 power play.
The Tigers needed only 40 seconds worth of power plays early in the second period to earn a tie. Ten seconds into its first advantage, Scott McCullough scored from the top of the crease after taking a pass from Brian Connelly. Thirty seconds into the next power play, Cody Lampl jumped on a loose puck in the slot and whipped a wrist shot into the upper corner.
Forty-two seconds after the Tigers’ tied it, UND regained the lead as Brett Hextall intercepted an attempted clearing pass and put the shot into a vacated net.
Eidsness finished with 22 saves and Bachman 21.
