Photo Credit: Michigan Tech

HOUGHTON, Mich. - No. 3 North Dakota scored three power play goals to claim a 4-2 victory over Michigan Tech in WCHA play Friday (Nov. 6) at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena. The Fighting Sioux (5-1-1, 3-1-1) out shot the Huskies (2-5-0, 1-4-0) 41-23 in the game.

“You can’t play 25 minutes short handed,” said head coach Jamie Russell. “I made it pretty clear to the team after the game that you have to stay out of the penalty box. I benched a number of guys tonight because of dumb penalties.”

UND opened the scoring at 19:37 of the first period when sophomore Jason Gregoire redirected a wrist shot by freshman Danny Kristo. Senior Darcy Zajac also assisted on the power play goal.

After a UND goal at 4:58 of the second period, senior John Kivisto narrowed the Fighting Sioux lead to just one after sending a hard slap shot past sophomore goalie Brad Eidsness at 14:18. Freshman Evan Witt assisted on the power play goal for the first point of his career.

“I thought Kivisto was outstanding tonight. He had a monster hit, a big power play goal, and he had so much poise with the puck. We couldn’t get him out there enough.”

UND added a pair of power play goals at 18:11 of the second period and 13:03 of the third period to pad its lead to 4-1.

Senior Eli Vlaisavljevich scored the second goal of his career at 15:44 of the third period to complete the scoring in the game. Fellow senior Drew Dobson recorded his first assist of the season on the goal, while freshman Aaron Pietila tallied his second.

Freshman Kevin Genoe (1-3-0) made 37 saves and gave up four goals but three were scored on the power play.

“Kevin was fantastic. I am very, very happy with how he’s playing. I think we got a beauty in Kevin. He was strong tonight and made a number of good saves and his rebounds were solid.”

On the other end, Eidsness (4-1-1) made 21 saves and gave up two goals.

The two teams will face off again tomorrow (Nov. 7) for the Hall of Fame game at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena.