GRAND FORKS, N.D. No. 15 North Dakota scored four goals in the first period en route to a convincing 8-3 win over No. 4 Denver tonight before a sellout crowd of 11,748 fans at Engelstad Arena. Eight different players scored as North Dakota (15-10-2, 10-5-2 WCHA) moves within one point of WCHA-leading Denver (15-7-2, 11-5-1) with the five-goal win.

 

DU received goals from Tyler Ruegsegger (Lakewood, Colo.), Rhett Rakhshani (Huntington Beach, Calif.) and Luke Salazar (Thornton, Colo.). Sophomore Marc Cheverie (Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia) allowed a career-high seven goals in the game and was pulled twice in the game in favor of Lars Paulgaard (Vettre, Norway), who stopped eight of nine shots.

 

North Dakota jumped to a 4-0 lead on goals by Chris VandeVelde, Ryan Martens, Jake Marto and Ryan Duncan. Rakhshani cut the margin to three goals with a backhanded shot from the low slot with three seconds left in the opening stanza.

 

Matt Watkins made it 5-1 at 10:41 of the second period, but Ruegsegger scored on the power play at 12:28 and Salazar put DU back in the game with a goal with 40 seconds remaining.

 

However, North Dakota sealed DU’s fate with a three-goal third period. David Toews, Matt Frattin and Joe Finley all scored for the victorious Fighting Sioux, who are 11-2-1 in their last 14 games.

 

UND outshot DU, 30-28, in the penalty-filled game. The Pioneers were whistled 22 times for 68 PIMs, while UND was penalized 19 times for 46 PIMs. Freshman Brad Eidsness got the win with 25 saves.

 

DU and UND play the series finale tomorrow night at 6:07 p.m. MT.

 

Notes: DU leads the WCHA with 23 points, while North Dakota and Wisconsin are second with 22 points each. The four goals allowed in the first period were a season high for DU this season. The eight goals allowed were the most for Denver since Feb. 25, 2005 at Minnesota State. Rakhshani extended his goal streak to four games and point streak to six games.