Oct. 28, 2005

Box Score

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The No. 6 North Dakota Fighting Sioux used three first-period goals and rode the red-hot goaltending of Jordan Parise to defeat the No. 9 Denver Pioneers, 3-1, in WCHA action tonight before 11,045 fans at Ralph Engelstad Arena. Parise, the reigning Red Baron WCHA Defensive Player of the Week, stopped 27 shots as North Dakota improves to 5-1-1 and 1-0 in league play. DU's six-game unbeaten streak against North Dakota ends with the two-goal loss as the back-to-back NCAA champions fall to 2-3, 0-1.

"North Dakota won the game in the first period," head coach George Gwozdecky said. "We didn't match their emotion or intensity in the first 20 minutes. I thought picked up our play in the final two periods, but it was too late."

The Fighting Sioux jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period on goals from Kyle Radke, Travis Zajac and Jonathan Toews. Radke scooped up a loose puck in the slot and beat Glenn Fisher (22 saves) at 9:35. Zajac buried a feed from Drew Stafford in the high slot at 12:22 and Toews went top shelf on the power play at 16:33. UND outshot DU, 11-9, in the penalty-riddled opening period. The Pioneers lost Brock Trotter (Brandon, Manitoba) for the night when he suffered a leg injury after a big hit from UND captain Matt Smaby.

Chris Butler (St. Louis, Mo.) put DU on the scoreboard with a beautiful wrist shot that beat Parise top shelf at 14:28 of the second period. Geoff Paukovich (Englewood, Colo.) intercepted a pass in the Pioneer zone and carried the puck into the UND zone before leaving it for Butler. The Pioneers settled down and outshot North Dakota, 11-4, in the period but lost Paul Stastny (St. Louis, Mo.) when he was whistled for a five-minute major penalty and 10-minute game misconduct for checking from behind.

DU couldn't solve Parise in the scoreless third period. DU came up empty on three power-play chances and couldn't score after pulling Fisher for the final 52 seconds. Parise remained unbeaten at 4-0-1 by stopping nine shots in the first period, 10 in the second and eight in the third. He also keyed North Dakota's penalty kill to a 10-of-10 effort by stopping 14 DU power-play shots.

The Pioneers outshot the Fighting Sioux, 28-25, in the game and held their opponents to one power-play goal in five attempts.

DU will try for the series split tomorrow night at 6:37 p.m. MT. The game will be broadcast live on KCKK AM 1600 and DenverPioneers.com.