ST. PAUL, Minn.—North Dakota was dominated about as badly as a team can be during the first half of the game, falling behind Minnesota with a fatigued, lifeless effort.
Then the momentum switched sides, and the Fighting Sioux stormed back to stun the Golden Gophers with the rally of all rallies.
Mario Lamoureux scored twice during a five-goal third period for North Dakota in a 6-3 victory over Minnesota on Friday in the WCHA semifinals.
Michael Parks and Brock Nelson scored 30 seconds apart to tie the game, and Corban Knight also got a goal to give North Dakota (24-12-3) all it needed for a spot in Saturday’s championship game against Denver. UND has won the last two Broadmoor Trophies.
Defenseman Derek Forbort put the Fighting Sioux on the board after Minnesota (26-13-1) took a 3-0 lead on goals by Kyle Rau, Jake Hansen and Zach Budish. But after Forbort’s slap shot went in with 5:09 left in the second period, the Gophers were outshot 20-3 the rest of the game.
“I think we kind of got, I don’t know, a little relaxed,” Hansen said. “I think we were just scared to lose.”
Minnesota, the WCHA regular season champion, fell to 18-2 when taking a lead into the final frame. The Gophers hadn’t been in the Final Five the last two seasons, and their NCAA tournament absence—which will end on Sunday when the 16-team field is revealed—is at three years. So most of these guys haven’t been in a game that meant so much, despite being the No. 1 seed for the league playoffs.
North Dakota, however, has all kinds of recent experience in these games.
“They’ve got the championship belt for a reason,” Gophers head coach Don Lucia said.
Perhaps the WCHA’s premier rivalry—and there are many in this 12-team, 60-year-old league—the Gophers and the Sioux won’t be in the same conference in two seasons when Minnesota bolts for the Big Ten and North Dakota joins the National College Hockey Conference. Both leagues begin play in the 2013-14 season.
The energetic crowd, split almost evenly between the two fan bases, traded “Let’s go Gophers!” and “Let’s go Sioux!” chants throughout the night. If this was the last big game between these teams as WCHA members, it was quite the show.
“That was the most fans I’ve played in front of in my life,” Parks said.
As an added bonus, North Dakota guaranteed one more game with the Fighting Sioux nickname and American Indian logo. The NCAA has prohibited UND from wearing either during postseason play, which would include the regional next weekend, but the school has fought the ban and continued to display the nickname and logo as long as possible.
“Guys believe in themselves,” head coach Dave Hakstol said. “They play very hard for one another.”
Lamoureux took a holding penalty in the first period, and Rau knocked in a pass from Haula in front of the net as he tripped and fell forward just 17 seconds into that power play. The Gophers needed only 5 seconds of a power play in the second period after Ben Blood was called for charging, when Hansen scored to make it 2-0. Budish’s redirection at the midpoint of the second period stretched the lead to three.
It looked like a rout. But seconds after Hakstol called timeout, Forbort scored.
“It’s the little things in the game. You find a way to survive,” Hakstol said.
In the third period, Forbort wraparound shot with 14:29 left glanced off the skate of Parks to cut the lead to one. Nelson corralled an airborne puck, controlled it with the shaft of his stick like he was playing hacky sack and set it on the ice for a backhander that zipped past Gophers goalie Kent Patterson to tie the game.
“All of a sudden we started to stand around, for whatever reason, and watch,” Lucia said.
This was a season high for Patterson in goals allowed.
After Lamoureux’s second score, the Gophers fans quickly headed up the stairs for the exits as if a fire alarm was going off.
“Once we got that first one, we got a little confidence in ourselves,” Lamoureux said.
