First period

No scoring.

Second period

Denver 1, UND 0 — Tyler Bozak (Chris Butler) 4:39 (pp). Bozak wins a draw back to Butler and then goes to the front of the net. Butler snaps a shot from the blue line and Bozak deflects it past Lamoureux for a goal just five seconds into a power play.

Third period

Scoreless.

UND’s lines (in green)

16 Ryan Duncan–29 Chris VandeVelde–7 T.J. Oshie
22 Brad Malone–17 Rylan Kaip–20 Matt Watkins
10 Andrew Kozek–19 Evan Trupp–14 Brad Miller
15 Brent Davidson–8 Ryan Martens–21 Matt Frattin

3 Derrick LaPoint–4 Taylor Chorney
2 Joe Finley–28 Robbie Bina
6 Zach Jones–25 Jake Marto

1 Phil Lamoureux
30 Aaron Walski

Denver’s lines

9 Rhett Rakhshani–15 Tyler Ruegsegger–22 Brian Gifford
19 Kyle Ostrow–12 Jesse Martin–16 Anthony Maiani
39 Brock Trotter–21 Tyler Bozak–8 Dustin Jackson
17 Matt Glasser–27 Brandon Vossberg–14 Tom May

4 Chris Butler–25 Cody Brookwell
11 J.P. Testwuide–7 Patrick Mullen
5 Andrew Thomas–6 Chris Nutini

29 Peter Mannino
1 Marc Cheverie
30 Eddie Guinn

For Thursday’s paper, I wrote about the way Andrew Kozek has emerged as a goal scorer this season — something the Sioux have thought he would be since recruiting him. The story is located here. The most interesting part to me was listening to Jean-Philippe Lamoureux give his scouting report on Kozek’s shot, as well as T.J. Oshie’s, Ryan Duncan’s and Joe Finley’s. Always interesting to get a goalie’s perspective.

***

In today’s paper, there’s a story about Denver’s trio of standout sophomores, how the goaltenders in this series parallel each other and thoughts on the series from DU coach George Gwozdecky, who is probably the most colorful and entertaining coach in the league. Read that here.

***

Sioux coach Dave Hakstol made some brief comments about the signing class that became official on Wednesday.

"When we’re out recruiting, we’re trying to look for particular types of players to build into roles within the program. This group of signings represents a lot of different types of players and that’s key to have difference pieces to the puzzle," he said.

That certainly seems to be the case. In forward Mario Lamoureux and defenseman Corey Fienhage, the Sioux have landed physical players. In forwards David Toews, Mike Cichy and defenseman Joe Gleason, they have landed offensive weapons.

Hakstol also talked about the fact that there are a pair of signees who have UND brothers — Lamoureux and Toews.

"It seems like we’ve had a lot of success with family traditions. I think that’s something special to be able to carry on — to either play with your brother or play at a program that your brother or father has played at. I think that’s special."

***

Elsewhere in the WCHA, I think Colorado College will be a team to watch in the coming weeks. The Tigers are in first place with an 8-2 record in the league (8-4 overall), but here are more interesting numbers: Colorado College is 7-0 at home and 1-4 on the road. What makes this extra interesting is that the Tigers will play their next eight games on the road.

Colorado College’s remaining home schedule is not overly difficult either — two against Anchorage, one against Bemidji State, one against Air Force, two against Clarkson, two against St. Cloud State, two against Mankato and one against Denver. So Colorado College is bound to have an extremely good home record heading into the regionals — which the Tigers will host.

***

Wisconsin-St. Cloud State will be a matchup featuring the guy who everyone thought would be WCHA rookie of the year and the guy who has to be the frontrunner right now. Wisconsin’s Kyle Turris had 12 points after four games, but only has three assists in the last eight. He’ll try to get things going against the Huskies. St. Cloud’s Garrett Roe, meanwhile, will try to stay hot. He has 20 points in 12 games.

***

And I agree with the comments that the FSN announcers (mainly Anthony Lapanta) really seemed to be overly focused on the five Edina juniors and completely missed the fact that Joe Gleason controlled the game last night and was probably the best player on the ice. For those that missed the game, Gleason and Edina beat Rochester Century 8-2. Gleason set up three goals.

Sioux coach Dave Hakstol said that there is no structural damage to Chay Genoway’s injured leg and that he is listed as "week to week." Genoway hasn’t practiced yet and will not play this weekend at Denver.

Hakstol also said Ryan Martens was healthy when he played on Saturday and that everyone else should be available for the series in Denver.

UND will obviously have to mix up the line combos a little bit this week with Genoway being out. And don’t be overly surprised if Brent Davidson works his way into the lineup for the first time this season.

UND also released the signings of the five who were expected to ink letters of intent. As I said in the last post, one of the signees – defenseman Joe Gleason – will be on FSN at 7 p.m. Thursday.

And lastly, I’m going to try to remember to only allow moderated comments for now, except for gameday threads, in order to keep the garbage off the blog.

I’ve started a new project creating datebases with Google.

The first one I started tracks recruits. The main page has each player’s stat line and a comment – something that I plan to update multiple times per week.

Also, I’m working on more in-depth profiles for each player, including links to stories. The plan is to continue updating these throughout the players’ careers.

I plan on building databases for current and former players, too. When a recruit turns into a current player, I will move their file to the other database.

Hopefully we’ll be able to track these players’ profiles from the time they commit to the time they are in the NHL.

Suggestions are welcome and encouraged, as this is something I randomly started after getting the idea from Ryan Cardinal and Chris Heisenberg. Check it out here. It is also linked on the side of the page as "Sioux recruit database."

Also, a quick note about a recruit — defenseman Joe Gleason and the Edina Hornets will be on Fox Sports Net (channel 28 in GF) at 7 p.m. Thursday. Gleason wears No. 20.

UND announced today that former Brainerd High goaltender Landon Snider has been added to replace the departed Anthony Grieco.

Snider graduated from Brainerd High last year and is a UND freshman.

Snider was named his team’s MVP during his senior year while being named all-conference and academic all-conference. He was the team’s starting goaltender for the last two seasons, leading Brainerd to the Central Lakes Conference title as a junior and a second-place finish as a senior.

His goaltending coach at Brainerd was former Sioux Toby Kvalevog.

The Sioux dropped to No. 8 in both national polls, which were released today. This weekend’s opponent, Denver, is ranked third in both polls. Once again, every opponent UND has played to this point is ranked in the top 20 of the USCHO.com poll.

Here they are:

USCHO.com

1. Miami (44) 13-1
2. Michigan (6) 13-1
3. Denver 9-3
4. Colorado College 8-4
5. Michigan State 8-3-2
6. New Hampshire 7-2-1
7. Notre Dame 12-4
8. UND 6-4-1
9. Clarkson 10-4
10. St. Cloud State 7-3-2
11. Massachusetts 6-3-4
12. Minnesota-Duluth 6-4-2
13. Wisconsin 5-6-1
14. Minnesota 7-6-1
15. Harvard 5-2
16. Northeastern 6-4-1
17. Niagara 8-3
18. RPI 6-4-3
19. Boston College 3-4-5
20. Michigan Tech 5-6-1

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine

1. Miami (24)
2. Michigan (10)
3. Denver
4. Colorado College
5. Michigan State
6. New Hampshire
7. Notre Dame
8. UND
9. Clarkson
10. St. Cloud State
11. Massachusetts
12. Northeastern
13. Minnesota-Duluth
14. Wisconsin
15. Harvard

Game story is here. Shot charts are below.

First period

UND 1, Duluth 0 — Rylan Kaip (Matt Watkins) 8:36. Watkins take the puck away from a Duluth player and fires a shot from the right circle. Stalock kicks the rebound out to the slot where Kaip has a good look and puts it just inside the right post.

UND 1, Duluth 1 — MacGregor Sharp (Trent Palm) 15:11. Chorney attempted to clear the puck out of the zone from behind the net but it went straight to Palm at the point. He fired a wrist shot and MacGregor Sharp tipped it past Lamoureux.

Second period

Duluth 2, UND 1 — Drew Akins (Cody Danberg, Matt McKnight) 9:21. Danberg dug the puck out of the end boards and fed Akins, who was in the slot. Akins one-timed it between Lamoureux’s pads.

Third period

Duluth 2, UND 2 — Andrew Kozek 4:56. Duluth defenseman Fulton had trouble controlling and finding the puck at his feet in his own zone. Kozek dug it out from in between Fulton’s skates and sniped a shot high to the glove side.

Duluth 3, UND 2 — Drew Akins (Mike Curry) 11:37. One night after being victimized by a strange goal, the Bulldogs get one back. Akins dumps the puck from center ice and it one-hops Lamoureux and bounces over his glove.

Duluth 4, UND 2 — Matt McKnight 19:10 (en). McKnight picks off a pass at center ice and puts it into the empty net.

Lineup change for UND: Injured Chay Genoway (lower body) is out. Matt Watkins moves to the left side on the second line and Ryan Martens is in to play on the right side.

UND’s lines

16 Ryan Duncan–29 Chris VandeVelde–7 T.J. Oshie
20 Matt Watkins–17 Rylan Kaip–8 Ryan Martens
22 Brad Malone–11 Darcy Zajac–21 Matt Frattin
10 Andrew Kozek–19 Evan Trupp–14 Brad Miller

6 Zach Jones–4 Taylor Chorney
2 Joe Finley–28 Robbie Bina
25 Jake Marto–3 Derrick LaPoint

1 Phil Lamoureux
30 Aaron Walski

Duluth’s lines

10 Michael Gergen–23 Jordan Fulton–19 Nick Kemp
16 Matt Greer–18 MacGregor Sharp–37 Justin Fontaine
21 Cody Danberg–8 Drew Akins–13 Matt McKnight
24 Mike Montgomery–11 Kyle Schmidt–27 Mike Curry

17 Josh Meyers–22 Travis Gawryletz
7 Jason Garrison–5 Trent Palm
14 Jay Cascalenda–26 Chad Huttel

32 Alex Stalock
34 Nate Ziegelmann

There was a little bit of discussion between players and media tonight about weird goals. So lets get your opinions. Which is the weirdest goal of the last two seasons (or last decade for that matter)?

a) Robbie Bina’s 170-footer against Minnesota.

b) Brad Miller’s goal from the bench Friday night.

Story is here. Shot charts below. I noticed there were things edited out of my story, so here are a few notes:

First off, coach Dave Hakstol said Chay Genoway is being evaluated tonight and he’s not entirely sure on his status. Hakstol said when Genoway left the game early in the second period he was told that Genoway was done for the night but that’s it.

REA is being a rough place to play for the Bulldogs. They are 0-9-1 in their last 10 games in Grand Forks. The Sioux are averaging five goals per game in the last nine meetings between the teams in Grand Forks.

In 10 games this season, UND has been held to zero or one goal four times. UND also has scored at least six goals four times.

REA general manager Jody Hodgson said that both games this weekend have sold out despite the students being gone. People apparently took advantage of the Black Friday sale, buying up all of the tickets by around 2 p.m. today.

First period

UND 1, Duluth 0 — Matt Watkins (Taylor Chorney) 7:38. Watkins tipped Chorney’s point shot past Stalock’s stick.

UND 2, Duluth 0 — Derrick LaPoint (Ryan Duncan, T.J. Oshie) 8:16. Duncan led a rush up the left wing and fired a wrist shot from the circle. Stalock made the initial save, but LaPoint crashed the net and easily tapped in the rebound from the top of the crease. Looks like this Duncan-to-LaPoint combo has some chemistry.

UND 3, Duluth 0 – Brad Miller 9:01. UND scores a bizarre goal without even touching the puck. Stalock went way out of the net to play the puck, but instead, defenseman Cascalenda played it and skated it to the slot where he collided with his partner, Ryan, and the puck slid behind them and in. Miller gets credited with the goal because he was the last to touch it dumping the puck in the zone. He was on the bench when his goal was scored.

UND 3, Duluth 1 — Nick Kemp (Justin Fontaine, Travis Gawryletz) 19:57 (pp). Duluth grabs a power-play goal with 2.6 seconds left in the first period. Gawryletz fired a shot from the point and Lamoureux made the initial save. Fontaine’s rebound attempt from the slot also was stopped but Kemp buried his chance at it.

Second period

UND 3, Duluth 2 — Kyle Schmidt (Mike Montgomery, Josh Meyers) 2:26. LaPoint tried to pinch in to keep the puck in the zone and got caught. Schmidt took the puck at his own blue line and skated in the zone on a 2-on-1. Schmidt took the shot himself and beat Lamoureux high to the stick side.

UND 3, Duluth 3 — Michael Gergen (Jason Garrison, Nick Kemp) 4:52. Duluth held the puck in the zone for a long time and got a number of shots off. The Bulldogs scored when Gergen knocked Garrison’s point shot out of the air and between Lamoureux’s legs.

UND 4, Duluth 3 — Evan Trupp (Robbie Bina, Matt Frattin) 9:41. Trupp makes a great play along the left boards to fight off a couple of checks and skate in on Stalock. The goaltender stopped Trupp’s effort, but seconds after that, he got the puck back and scored on a backhand wrap around.

Third period

UND 5, Duluth 3 — Chris VandeVelde (Ryan Duncan, Taylor Chorney) 3:46. Duncan and VandeVelde worked the puck out of the corner. VandeVelde skated it to the right circle and the Duluth defensemen collapsed around Oshie, who was cutting down the slot. VandeVelde took the shot himself and buried it.

UND 6, Duluth 3 — Matt Frattin (Joe Finley, Robbie Bina) 11:44. Finley passed the puck along the right side boards to Frattin, who fought off a check and came down the right wing on a breakaway. Frattin faked a shot, moved it to his backhand and scored. Stalock was pulled for Red River’s Nate Ziegelmann after the goal.

UND 7, Duluth 3 — T.J. Oshie (Chris VandeVelde) 13:37. VandeVelde makes a great no-look pass from the corner to Oshie, who was alone on the left side of the crease. Oshie moved the puck to his backhand and beat Ziegelmann high on the short side.

UND 8, Duluth 3 — Rylan Kaip (Matt Watkins, Brad Miller) 16:08. Watkins makes a good feed from the corner to Kaip, who is cutting down the slot. Kaip one-times it past Ziegelmann on the far side.

UND’s lines

16 Ryan Duncan–29 Chris VandeVelde–7 T.J. Oshie
5 Chay Genoway–17 Rylan Kaip–20 Matt Watkins
22 Brad Malone–11 Darcy Zajac–21 Matt Frattin
10 Andrew Kozek–19 Evan Trupp–14 Brad Miller

2 Joe Finley–28 Robbie Bina
6 Zach Jones–4 Taylor Chorney
25 Jake Marto–3 Derrick LaPoint

1 Phil Lamoureux
30 Aaron Walski

Duluth’s lines

10 Michael Gergen–23 Jordan Fulton–19 Nick Kemp
16 Matt Greer–18 MacGregor Sharp–37 Justin Fontaine
21 Cody Danberg–8 Drew Akins–13 Matt McKnight
24 Mike Montgomery–11 Kyle Schmidt–27 Mike Curry

17 Josh Meyers–22 Travis Gawryletz
7 Jason Garrison–5 Trent Palm
14 Jay Cascalenda–3 Chase Ryan

32 Alex Stalock
34 Nate Ziegelmann

I’m guessing that Duluth hopes to get in the same kind of games as last season — the 3-2, 2-1, 1-0 types. The lower the score, the better it is for Duluth, in my opinion.

With the way both teams have played defense early this season, I would expect goals to come at a premium this weekend. Each should be big. Here’s what the Sioux need to do in order to grab some more points and move up in the WCHA standings:

1. Have a lead after two periods. UND hasn’t won a game when trailing after two since Dave Hakstol’s first year as head coach. The Sioux have lost 21 straight when trailing after two. For whatever reason, the late comebacks haven’t been there for the Sioux recently. And when you’re playing against a team that can shut it down, comebacks will be even more difficult than normal.

2. Convert better than 20 percent of power-play chances. Right now, UND is at 18.2 percent. Hakstol has said he would like that to be over 20 for sure. When you might not get many great chances 5-on-5, you need to bury the puck on the power play.

3. Get a goal from a defenseman. Robbie Bina and Taylor Chorney have been big parts of the offense so far this season and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see either score his first goal of the season. Jake Marto and Derrick LaPoint also expressed how their comfort levels continue to grow and they feel they will be adding points soon. If it happens this weekend, it should be big for the Sioux.