Big Implications

Circle this match up on the calendar, hockey fans. This weekend's headline series come this Friday and Saturday from Magness Arena when the No. 2 UND Fighting Sioux take on the No. 3 ranked Denver Pioneers.

Not only big in national poll implications, four important, early-season WCHA conference points are on the line when these two teams face of.

Both teams have started the season off on the right foot with UND bringing a 7-2-1 overall record and a 5-2-1 WCHA record into this weekend and Denver carrying a 6-3-1 overall record and 4-1-1 WCHA record.

The Fighting Sioux are two points ahead of the Pioneers in the WCHA standings heading into this weekend with the surprising Colorado College Tigers leading the conference by two points over UND.

The last meeting between these two teams on January 23rd and 24th from the Ralph Engelstad Arena erupted into a bit of a sideshow. The Fighting Sioux throttled the Pioneers in Friday night's matchup by an 8-3 score. Four different Sioux players notched at least four points in the game.

Saturday night's matchup ended in a 3-3 overtime tie but the score was the least of the story. With 10:30 to go in the second period, a skirmish broke out leading to Denver head coach George Gwozdecky standing on the dasher in front of the Pioneer bench.

After receiving an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, Gwozdecky continued his tirade and eventually was ejected from the game.

Gwozdecky then proceeded to walk across the ice stating later that he forgot that the locker room was behind the bench. Despite the odd circumstances, the three points paced UND to quick second half start en route to the MacNaughton Cup title.

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This season, both are contenders for the WCHA title and this weekend could give either team a boost early in the season. Leading the way for the Pioneers this season has been senior captain Rhett Rakhshani who has netted seven goals and five assists to lead the team.

In between the pipes has been a simple story. When junior netminder Marc Cheverie is in net, the team is 4-0. When either junior Lars Paulgaard or freshman Adam Murray are in net, the Pioneers are a combined 2-3-1. Cheverie's status for this weekend's series is still up in the air as he missed the last two series for Denver.

Also uncertain for this weekend is last year's WCHA rookie of the year Patrick Wiercioch. The sophomore was injured in Denver's last action in a 7-3 loss against Alaska-Anchorage. On the opposite end of the ice, injuries, one in particular to captain Chay Genoway who is tied for team lead in goals, will be a big obstacle for the Fighting Sioux to vault.

Genoway went out in the second period of Friday night's game against the SCSU Huskies after a vicious check from behind into the end boards by forward Aaron Marvin. Marvin was suspended for Saturday night's game as Genoway watched from the stands. UND definitely felt the loss of their captain in the power play as the team went 0 for 6 with the man advantage in Saturday night's game with their lead point man on the blue line.

Without Genoway, assistant captain Chris VandeVelde leads the way with 11 points and has been a force in between the circles. In the net for UND, sophomore Brad Eidsness has been the most effective posting a 6-1-1 record and a 1.61 goals against average with a .93 pecent save percentage.

Last weekend, Eidsness got a 4-2 win and came in for a shaky Aaron Dell just 14 seconds into the second period and stopped all 21 shots he faced.  Eidsness silenced a stellar Pioneer offense in the series last year stopping 62 of 68 Denver shots and will look to do the same this weekend. 

One particular area that the Fighting Sioux have excelled thus far this season is on the penalty kill. UND is stopping opponents' power play chances at a stellar 92.2 percent clip, which slots them No. 3 nationally and No. 1 in the WCHA. This weekend's series will be the 248th and 249th meetings between the two teams with UND leading the all-time series 129-110-8 coming into this weekend.