As promised, this one was a classic.
North Dakota rebounded from a 3-1 deficit Friday night with three third-period goals, capped by Wes Dorey’s game-winner with 8 minutes, 55 seconds left, for a 4-3 victory in a WCHA game at Engelstad Arena.
Just 19 seconds after David Hale scored to tie the game at 3, Dorey scored on a hard shot across the crease that beat St. Cloud State goaltender Scott Meyer to the stick side.
It was the third UND goal in 3:29, and kept the Fighting Sioux in first place in the WCHA.
“These goals come from desperation,” Hale said. “It was a must-win situation for us.”
Said St. Cloud coach Craig Dahl: “This was just two good teams going head to head. I felt we played a pretty good road game.”
A fast-paced first period was punctuated by a number of rushes by both teams and displayed the both teams’ offensive power, but resulted in goals for neither. SCSU’s Meyer and UND’s Karl Goehring looked strong, making work difficult for both teams’ offense.
The second period saw SCSU start the scoring early. At the 20-second mark, Tyler Arnason one-timed a shot that took a bounce out of the corner, beating Goehring to the glove side.
UND answered at 3:48 with a shot by Adrian Hasbargen, the junior’s second goal on the year. The shot on a bouncing puck found its way through Meyer’s legs for the goal.
“I got a nice pass from Quinn [Fylling], and the first shot hit a guy in the shinpads,” Hasbargen said. “I got it back and just rifled it at the net.”
Fylling played a key role in many Sioux rushes, and was a leader on his line with Tyler Palmiscno and Hasbargen.
“All the lines have to step it up when you’re playing a big team like St. Cloud,” Hasbargen said. “We knew we had a lot of time to score two goals.”
SCSU took the lead again, however, on a shorthanded situation after a penalty to Ryan LeMere for holding at 17:10. Jeff Panzer appeared to be tripped by Hartigan, who recovered the puck and snuck it past Goehring.
SCSU scored again to take a commanding two-goal lead with a Joe Motzko goal at 5:14 of the third period.
At 7:35, Travis Roche started the UND comeback, blasting a shot from the blue line to pull the Sioux within one.
Hale evened the game with a laser from the circle, beating Meyer.
Dahl called a timeout after the goal to calm down the Huskies.
“I just told them to calm down, there was plenty of time left,” Dahl said.
