February 25, 2010
Team of the Week: North Dakota
CHN Staff Report
Mario Lamoureux scored twice in Saturday's win over Minnesota-Duluth, after returning from a one-game suspension.
North Dakota started this season unusually — winning a lot.
In the Dave Hakstol era, for whatever reason, the trend has been to muddle through the early part of the season, then get extremely hot down the stretch, right into the NCAAs.
This year's great start, boded well. Tack on the typical hot finish, and it looked like the possibility of a special year.
The injury to Hobey Baker Award candidate Chay Genoway, the team's senior captain defenseman, put a monkey wrench into things. The makeup of the team seemed to completely change. Genoway, who suffered a concussion after getting hit illegally by St. Cloud State's Aaron Marvin, has not returned this season.
North Dakota was 7-1-1 when Genoway went out. The Sioux then went 2-5-2 in the next seven games without him, then 4-4-2 in January and early February.
Now the Sioux have won the last three, including last weekend's sweep at home of Minnesota-Duluth, scoring 18 goals in that span. Consequently, despite the roller coaster, the Sioux are neck-and-neck with Colorado College for the final home ice spot for the WCHA playoffs, and they play CC this weekend in Colorado Springs. And North Dakota is ahead of both Duluth and CC as far as the NCAAs are concerned.
Mario Lamoureux seems emblematic of this. The sophomore sparkplug started out strong offensively, getting three goals in his first nine games — during that same 7-1-1 stretch. He then went 21 games without a goal, culminating in a contest against St. Cloud where he got into a fracas with Aaron Marvin — the guy who knocked Genoway out of the lineup — then later a scrap with Oliver Lauridsen. That all led to a one-game suspension.
When Lamoureux returned Saturday against Duluth, he potted two goals.
"It was good to get the monkey off my back," Lamoureux said. "I tried to do the little things ... get to the net, and play with speed. Fortunately it paid off with a couple of goals."
North Dakota goalie Brad Eidsness sees that as another positive sign for the Sioux.
"That's so big. He's a great leader," Eidsness said of Lamoureux, whose sisters will compete for a gold medal for Team USA at the Olympics today. "Spending his time in the USHL and leading his team there, he obviously knows what it takes to win and he's brought that here. He scores big goals, and does all the little things."
North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol sees it all as hard work that's finally paying off.
"It allows the guys to puff their chests out a little bit, and allow the guys to really believe in what they're doing," Hakstol said.
"It puts us in position now to go and play at CC, a team we're not trrying to close the gap with anymore, but battlnig for home ice. This is a building block we're able to put in place. It's a positive one, but it's just another step in the process."
Hakstol also thought the team drew inspiration from the pre-game ceremony honoring the 10th anniversary of the 2000 National Championship team, which brought a lot of famed alums back to The Ralph.
"You try not to think about that a whole lot as a player, but our guys knew those guys were here," Hakstol said. "We always talk about how you want to build on the tradition of what guys put in place before. It's only one weekned — you don't want to put too big of a deal on it — but it is important.
"Our guys know and understand how hard they work, and they see the humility they go about their business with. ... The guys got the opportunity to see that from guys who have had great success at the NHL level. I think it has a way of motivating and maybe focusing some guys."
The inspiration hit players like Eidsness, who Hakstol believes is playing with more focus than ever before.
"I don't think it's any secret — Brad's had a few ups and downs over the last month and a half," Hakstol said. "But it shows the mental strength he has. He's focused on doing his job ... He's been our best player."
Eidsness sees it too.
"All week there's a real focus to our hockey team," he said. "I think we have an understanding now what it takes to win, and what we need to do to be successful. We're coming to the rink every day with a real professional attitude."
Another group that seems to have congealed nicely, and been indicative of the growing maturity, is the all-freshman fourth line of Brett Bruneteau, Corban Knight and Carter Rowney.
"We've talked so much about maturity over the year, the nine one-goal losses, I think we're seeing some maturity," Hakstol said. "Bruneteau didn't make many mistakes [last weekend], Corban has taken on a larger role for us the last couple of weeks, and Carter is just kind of the silent performer out there. There's not a lot of talk or spotlight that goes with his game, but he's just a solid two-way player.
"If you look at our game (Saturday) we had a lot of jump in the third period, and I think it's because we were able to (roll) with four lines. That gave us a small advantage in the third period."
