WENTZVILLE, Mo. --- The University of North Dakota women's hockey team powered its way back into the win column Friday to open its 2013 back half of the season with a 7-3 win over Lindenwood.
Freshman Meghan Dufault (Winnipeg, Manitoba) had a breakout performance matching the program record with four goals and added a pair of assists for a six-point game. She factored into all but one of UND's goals.
Looking a bit rusty to open the game, UND allowed the game's first two shots on goal before taking the game's first penalty as Jordan Slavin (Erie, Colo.) was sent to the box for Tripping. The Lions quickly took advantage as Allyson Arcibal scored only four seconds into the power play to gain the early advantage at 2:25 of the opening stanza.
After the opening goal, UND started to carry play and was able to even the score as Dufault tallied her first of the game at the 7:07 mark.
North Dakota would use the momentum to open a 3-1 lead, scoring all three goals within a 90-second span in the first period. Leah Jensen (East Grand Forks, Minn.) found the back of the net at 7:31 and Andrea Dalen (Honefoss, Norway) capped off the first periods scoring at 8:37.
UND dominated the second period as it out shot the Lions 27-7 matching a program record for shots in a period (2nd period, 8-2 win vs. Vermont, Jan. 26, 2003), but netminder Nicole Hensley was able to keep the score respectable as she made 24 saves in the frame.
Dufault would score all three of UND's second period goals at the 4:10, 15:12 and 17:41 marks. The first and third came off rebounds sandwiching a highlight reel goal where she took the puck to the net from the near faceoff circle, with a defender tying her up, nearly ran out of space before flipping the puck into the top corner on the short side.
Dufault nearly had the natural hat trick in the period, but Arcibal was able to score her second of the night on a breakaway for her team-leading sixth goal of the season.
Jocelyne Lamoureux (Grand Forks, N.D.) scored UND's lone goal of the third period on the power play and LU's Allison Wickenheiser closed out the game's scoring for the final 7-3 score. Lamoureux would finish the game with one goal and two assists while Monique Lamoureux (Grand Forks, N.D.) had four assists in the game and Jensen added one goal and two assists.
UND finished with a 60-22 advantage in shots, two shy of its all-time record set last season against the Lions. Hensley finished with 53 saves in the losing effort and kept the score respectible.
North Dakota netminder Jorid Dagfinrud (Sarpsborg, Norway) improves to 7-3-0 on the year while finishing with 19 saves and three goals allowed.
The two teams will conclude the series Saturday at 2 p.m.
