HOUGHTON, Mich. - It would appear North Dakota's traditional second-half surge has started a month early.

North Dakota received goals from four different players on its way to a 4-1 Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) win over Michigan Tech in the final game of the first half of the season.

The win also gave eighth-ranked UND, unbeaten in its last five games (4-0-1) its first sweep of the year.

Danny Kristo, Corban Knight, Mark MacMillan and Colten St. Clair accounted for the scoring, with the line of Kristo, Knight and MacMillan putting the finishing touches on a collective 15-point series.

Junior goalie Clarke Saunders (Brockville, Ontario), making his sixth straight start, stopped 31 of 32 shots, including a second-period penalty shot by Dennis Rix.

UND needed just 90 seconds to open the scoring, taking advantage of a Michigan Tech turnover inside the Husky zone. Senior defenseman Joe Gleason (Edina, Minn.) held the puck in at the line and spotted St. Clair streaking toward the net. Gleason connected with St. Clair, who beat Husky goalie Kevin Genoe to the short side for his second goal of the season.

MTU's David Johnstone responded just 28 seconds later on the power play, but it was all North Dakota from that point on.

Kristo beat Genoe high from the faceoff circle at 6:47 of the opening frame to give UND a lead it would not relinquish.

Kristo set up Knight for his third goal of the weekend 6:20 into the second period, spotting his centerman at the faceoff dot where Knight was able to snap one past Genoe.

Linemate MacMillan completed the scoring with 3:38 left in the middle frame, converting a picture-perfect 2-on-1 feed from Kristo. It was MacMillan's seventh goal of the season.
UND, 10-5-3 overall and 7-2-3 in the WCHA, went 0-for-6 on the power play and 4-for-5 on the penalty kill.

UND is now off for the Christmas break and will return to action Jan. 4-5 at home against non-conference foe Holy Cross.

Notes: Knight extended his career-long point streak to 13 games and his career-long goal streak to five games. Knight has 21 points during the 13-game point streak ... Kristo had a goal and two assists in both games this weekend ... All but four players (Drake Caggiula, Carter Rowney, Andrew Panzarella, Connor Gaarder) reached the scoresheet in the series for UND ... UND has won 10 games before the Christmas break for just the second time in the last seven years.