Fighting Sioux hope to buck the trend

After a bumpy 0-3 start, the common theme for the No. 20 UND Fighting Sioux men's hockey team has been series splits. UND dropped their first two games and since then have split with Minnesota State, Wisconsin, Colorado College and last weekend against Alaska Anchorage leaving their record at a sub par 4-6 overall but are still right in the middle of the pack in the WCHA with a 4-4 conference record.

So, needless to say, the Fighting Sioux would love to get two wins out of this weekend's match up with the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs in Duluth this Friday and Saturday. Coming off a big 3-1 Saturday night win against UAA on Saturday that saw freshmen goaltender Brad Eidsness steal the show stopping 23 of 24 shots, UND will look to harness that momentum against the Bulldogs.

UMD is 4-4-3 on the year and coming into this weekend's showdown the Sioux at a lowly 1-4-2 in the division dropping three out of four points to Wisconsin last weekend in Duluth.

Leading the Bulldogs into this weekend will be leading scorer, sophomore forward Justin Fontaine. Fontaine leads UMD with 13 points (6g, 7a) through 11 Bulldog contests. In between the pipes for the Bulldogs is junior goaltender Alex Stalock.

Stalock has been a staple for the UMD defense over the last few years starting in 47 consecutive games in net for the Bulldogs which is the longest active streak in the WCHA.

The UMD netminder has been stellar in-goal up to this point on the season bringing a 2.58 goals against average and a .90 save percentage into this weekend's action.

On the other side of the bench, the Sioux are led in scoring by a familiar face in senior captain Ryan Duncan. The captain has 9 points (4g, 5a) in 10 games this year and those four goals are also matched by up and coming freshman Brett Hextall.

UND has been nicked up on the blue line this year with senior assistant captain Joe Finley missing the last eight games. Coupled with Finley's injury and the inexperience at defense, senior Brad Miller has stepped in and provided the Sioux with some extra defensive support.

Early on in the year, senior Aaron Walski and freshman Brad Eidsness battled for much of the time in the Sioux net. Last week may have sealed the deal for Eidsness to carry the lead for UND from here on out. After replacing Walski in net in the middle of Friday night's UND loss, Eidsness stopped all the shots he faced and paced a 3-1 win on Saturday making 23 saves while being named last week's WCHA co-rookie of the week. Eidsness has continually been improving on his stats as the season carries on and he brings a solid 2.98 goals against average and a .90 save percentage to Duluth this weekend where his stats nearly mirror UMD's Stalock's stats this season. UND will look to score early and often this weekend and if they don't the game might play right into the hands of the Bulldogs as UMD has given up the least amount of third period goals in the WCHA this season and out-scores them 14-8 in that time. UND leads the all-time series with the Bulldogs with the current tally being 128-70-8 in favor of UND including a last year's series that the Sioux took three out of four.

This weekend's action gets underway at 7:37 p.m. on Friday and 7:07 p.m. on Saturday at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center in Duluth, Minnesota. For fans that won't be traveling to the games, 96.1 FM will be carrying the games on the radio both nights and FSSN will carry the game on television.