ST. PAUL, Minn.—Evan Trupp says there have been no changes in his diet or anything else that has sparked his scoring outburst. It’s a change in the calendar that’s made the difference.
On Friday, Trupp scored twice—his second and third goals in two nights after going his previous 20 games without scoring, as North Dakota beat top-ranked Denver 4-3 to advance to the title game in the WCHA Final Five.
“It’s playoff time,” Trupp said. “I’m starting to bear down on my chances, and I got a lot of help from my teammates tonight. The goals I got were really tic-tac-toe plays.”
Chris VandeVelde and Brad Malone also scored for North Dakota (24-12-5) which advanced to face St. Cloud State in the Saturday night title game.
Matt Donovan, John Lee and Chris Knowlton scored for the Pioneers (27-8-4), who beat North Dakota four times in the regular season en route to winning the WCHA title.
“I think you saw a team that wore green tonight that really wanted it—perhaps more than we did,” said Pioneers coach George Gwozdecky. “They continued to compete and win battles and put us in tough positions.”
Brad Eidsness had 23 saves for North Dakota, which has won 11 of its last 12 games. Denver goaltender Marc Cheverie, who was named the league’s most valuable player on Thursday, took the loss with 20 saves.
For Denver, the biggest loss of the night might have come when left wing Anthony Maiani blocked a shot and injured his hand in the process. Gwozdecky said that Maiani will miss the Pioneers next game, and is unsure if he will return in a week when the Pioneers open NCAA tournament play.
By contrast, things went well for North Dakota all night, as the Sioux took an early lead and never trailed.
“We knew we had to play well and have some things go our way tonight, and we got both of those things,” said North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol. “We’ve seen (Trupp) do this before. His play all the way through the 60 minutes was tremendous tonight.”
The Pioneers will face Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon in the tournament’s third-place game. They are all but assured of a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, but say that the last conference tournament game is about saving face.
“I’ll be honest, that was an embarrassing effort tonight,” Pioneers center Tyler Ruegsegger said. “We got to have more pride in the crest on the front of this jersey.”
North Dakota’s last WCHA playoff title came in 2006 when the Sioux beat St. Cloud State.
