GRAND FORKS, N.D. --- The No. 9 University of North Dakota recognized it couldn't have a letdown this weekend has struggled in the past in All Seasons Arena, but powered its way to an 8-2 victory over Minnesota State Saturday to secure its first-ever sweep of the Mavericks in Mankato.
North Dakota extends its current winning streak to four games and improves to 18-10-0 and 13-9-0-0 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and leapfrogs past Minnesota Duluth, Ohio State and Wisconsin into second place in the league standings. UND now has 39 points and UMD, OSU and UW each are tied for third with 37 points.
Sophomore Josefine Jakobsen (Aalborg, Denmark) has caught fire offensively as of late and collected her first career hat trick in yesterday's win and followed it up with another hat trick today adding in three assists for a team-high six-point game.
Junior Michelle Karvinen (Rodovre, Denmark) tallied a five-point game (1-4-5) and Jocelyne Lamoureux (Grand Forks, N.D.) added two goals and one assist.
UND opened the game with some really nice cycling in the offensive zone and a failed clear attempt by MSU led to the game's first goal under 90 seconds in. Tanja Eisenschmid (Kaufbeuren, Germany) intercepted a breakout pass and fired a shot on net from just inside the blue line that found its way into the back of the net.
Some sloppy passing by MSU's defensemen on the power play and an aggressive forechecking effort by Jocelyne Lamoureux led to UND's second goal. Lamoureux took the puck away from a defender just beside the net and slammed a second attempt past Danielle Butters who was terrific yesterday with 41 saves.
Lamoureux would add a power-play goal at the 11:51 mark to open a 3-0 lead and for the second-consecutive night give UND a period that saw them score at even strength, on the power play and shorthanded.
MSU would score on a power play, but UND would quickly regain all of the momentum adding goals by Monique Lamoureux (Grand Forks, N.D.) and Jakobsen's first of the game.
UND outshot the Mavericks 20-6 in the first 20 minutes and forced the home team to make a goaltending change after the fifth goal against. Butters made way to Erin Krichiver after allowing five goals on 16 shots.
After Karvinen scored on the power play on 29 seconds into the second period and MSU answered at the 2:11 mark of the middle frame, it settled into a hockey game that went scoreless until late in the third period.
Jakobsen would score two beautiful goals at 13:57 and 18:44 of the final stanza to finish off the scoring.
Freshman Shelby Amsley-Benzie (Warroad, Minn.) picked up her 11th win of the season allowing two goals on 13 shots.
UND finished the game with a 48-13 advantage in shots and went 2-for-3 on the power play while holding MSU 1-for-6.
Already playing shorthanded with Andrea Dalen (Honefoss, Norway) and Jorid Dagfinrud (Sarpsborg, Norway) overseas centralized with their national team, Eisenschmid left the game after the second period to catch a flight to join up with her German team.
UND returns to the Ralph Engelstad Arena next weekend for a Friday and Saturday series against Bemidji State.
