In a game between the top two seeds in the WCHA, perhaps it’s fitting that the Final Five championship game went to double overtime.
Perhaps it’s even more fitting that top-seeded North Dakota won the game with a goal scored by Hobey Baker candidate and WCHA player of the year Matt Frattin.
Frattin’s goal 5:11 into the second overtime gave the Fighting Sioux the 3-2 win over the Denver as well as their second straight Broadmoor Trophy.
“To be able to go into double overtime like we did against a league champion; there’s no shame in losing a game like this,” said DU coach George Gwozdecky. “We’d have some great chances, they’d have some great chances and maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to go with two of the top teams in the league.”
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=’G0000eqXD9Ben1_g’ g_name=’20110319-NoDak-Denver’ f_show_caption=’t’ f_show_slidenum=’t’ img_title=’casc’ pho_credit=’iptc’ f_link=’t’ f_bbar=’t’ fsvis=’f’ width=’500′ height=’375′ bgcolor=’#AAAAAA’ bgtrans=’t’ btype=’old’ bcolor=’#CCCCCC’ crop=’f’ trans=’xfade’ tbs=’4000′ f_ap=’t’ linkdest=’c’ f_fullscreen=’f’ f_constrain=’f’ twoup=’f’ f_topbar=’f’ f_bbarbig=” f_htmllinks=’f’ f_enable_embed_btn=’f’ f_show_watermark=’f’ f_send_to_friend_btn=’f’ f_smooth=’f’ f_mtrx=’f’ f_up=’f’ target=’_self’ wmds=’llQ6QNgpeC.p1Ucz7U.Y4gJxptcenONkIVOh4vwoJQIzKuBX_.ODK.sTv5Rdt3z5YJZW8w–‘ ]The Sioux pressured in the second overtime and broke through five minutes in.
Evan Trupp found a burst of speed, breaking into the Pioneers zone. He dropped a pass for Chay Genoway, who took a shot from the right point. The rebound came out to the left of the net, where an uncontested Frattin was waiting in the circle to bury the puck past Pioneers goaltender Sam Brittain (33 saves).
“They were working hard all night and they got that point shot and it went right to Matt Frattin and he’s a goal scorer so he put it on net,” said Brittain. “It’s a difficult thing for us to swallow.”
“Bottom line, we got a bounce and that bounce happened to land on the right guy’s stick,” said UND coach Dave Hakstol.
The Pioneers started off the scoring with the lone first-period tally 5:06 into the frame. Kyle Ostrow passed the puck from behind the net to Dustin Jackson, who one-timed it past UND goaltender Aaron Dell (40 saves).
UND answered 2:32 into the second period with the help of a little puck luck. Danny Kristo backhanded a Taylor Dickin rebound on net, and it was accidentally kicked through Brittain’s five-hole by teammate Nick Shore.
Six minutes later, Brent Davidson sent a centering pass from behind the Pioneers net that hit Brittain’s skate and went in the net to give UND a 2-1 lead.
The Sioux took their lead into the third period and held it for almost 18 minutes. However, the Pioneers are a good third-period team and proved it by tying the game at 2. Matt Donovan sent a pass from the point to Beau Bennett behind the net. Bennett, in turn, tossed the puck in front to Anthony Maiani, who one-timed it past Dell.
The goal ended up sending the teams into overtime. The Pioneers dominated the early part of the frame before UND slowly started to turn the tide. However, as the Sioux started to turn on the pressure, Brittain stayed strong, sending the teams into a second overtime period.
“I think both goalies were the MVPs of the game,” said Frattin. “They both stood on their head and with the way they were playing, I don’t think it was going to end anytime soon.”
The teams now await where they will play next weekend in the NCAA tournament.
Video: North Dakota’s Matt Frattin:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abYnvQYqvWg
