North Dakota Beats Colorado College 3-1 In NCHC

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - Mark MacMillan's deflected goal at 19:58 of the first period pretty much handed third-ranked North Dakota a win over Colorado College in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference opener of Friday.

MacMillan's goal gave UND (2-1-0, 1-0-0 NCHC) a 3-0 lead. The last time North Dakota lost a game when leading by three goals was Feb. 6, 2004, at Wisconsin.

With the win, UND coach Dave Hakstol moved into a tie with Dean Blais for second place on the UND all-time coaching victory list. Both have 262 wins. Gino Gasparini is UND's winningest coach with 392 wins.

North Dakota had lost four of its last five Friday night games to Colorado College. But it improved to 2-0 this year after going 20-1 last year when leading after two periods.

"Any win on a Friday night in this building is a good win," Hakstol said. "It wasn't pretty, but we got the job done and that was the bottom line."

MacMillan had two goals in the first period and Brendan O'Donnell added another for UND, which appears to have recovered from a 5-1 season-opening loss by winning two straight road games.

UND goalie Zane McIntyre made 31saves. He gave up just one goal, that a power-play tally by Hunter Fejes six minutes into the second period.

MacMillan scored his first goal of the season on the power play at 16:33. MacMillan shot in a rebound after Colorado College goalie Tyler Marble made the initial save on Michael Parks' shot. The power play was the result of a slash by Teemu Kivihalme. The goal was upheld following a lengthy review.

O'Donnell's first goal made it 2-0 less than a minute later and MacMillan beat the clock to make it 3-0 by redirecting a Troy Stecher blast from left point with 2 seconds left in the period.

A series of second-period penalties sapped UND's momentum but the Tigers (2-1-0, 0-1-0) failed to take advantage. They were 1-for-7 with a man advantage.

"They had opportunities," Hakstol said. "Zane was really good on those. The third period we had portions of shifts where we had no energy. In this building, you have to do everything you can to keep things simple."

North Dakota outshot the Tigers 39-32. Marble made 36 saves for Colorado College, which plays host to UND for the final game of the series on Saturday.

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