The ninth-ranked Wisconsin Men's Hockey team finished its weekend in Grand Forks, N.D. with a dominating sweep of the No. 5 North Dakota Fighting Sioux with a 4-1 win Saturday night and a 4-2 victory Friday night, marking Wisconsin's first sweep in Grand Forks since 2001.
The Badgers continued their trend of early offense on Saturday, accumulating a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes of play. Special teams keyed the fast start as Wisconsin took advantage of numerous Sioux penalties in the first period, including a five-minute major assessed to North Dakota's defenseman Matt Smaby. The Badgers scored two goals during the power play as senior Ryan McMurchy ripped a pass from junior Jake Dowell to open the scoring and then junior Andrew Joudry roofed a nice feed from junior Jeff Likens.
Along with an excellent power play, the Badgers picked up a huge short-handed goal from captain Adam Burish, who picked off an errant Sioux pass and raced down the ice on a breakaway and buried a wrister past Parise for the Badgers' third goal.
North Dakota never recovered from the three-goal deficit, thanks in large part to fantastic play from Wisconsin sophomore goaltender Brian Elliot. Elliot allowed just one goal Saturday, a power-play goal from Sioux forward Chris Porter. He proved to be Wisconsin's most consistent player all weekend allowing just three goals to North Dakota's high-powered offense. Porter and the Sioux said they were impressed with Elliot's play.
'He played great all weekend and we couldn't seem to buy a break to get it past him,' Porter said.
Wisconsin senior defenseman Tom Gilbert commented Friday about Elliot's value to the team.
'[Elliot] makes big saves, he scrambles well, he holds the puck when needed, and he's just playing phenomenal right now,' Gilbert said.
Friday's performance was less dominating, but the results were similar. Despite being outshot 30-24, Wisconsin rolled to 4-2 win behind goals from four different players. Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves said he was impressed with the Badgers steady play.
'This weekend was a measuring stick for us,' Eaves said. 'Any time that you want to play at a championship level, you have to win two big games in a row.'
