ANCHORAGE, Alaska--As far as collegiate debuts go, it would be tough to top the performance tonight by North Dakota freshman goalie Aaron Dell.
Making his first appearance in a Fighting Sioux uniform, the Airdrie, Alberta, native stopped all 16 shots he faced and assisted on the game's final goal for good measure, backstopping the Sioux to a 5-0 WCHA road win over Alaska Anchorage.
Not a bad night of work for the rookie goalie, who watched last year's workhorse, Brad Eidsness (So., Chestermere, Alberta), start the first four games of the season.
"I was real happy with his (Dell's) performance," said UND head coach Dave Hakstol. "Rock solid play, a great start for him."
Although Dell wasn't tested often, he was forced to come up with big stops in each period to preserve the shutout. Perhaps no stop was bigger than the one he made with 17 seconds left in the game when he robbed UAA's Daniel Naslund on the door step.
Dell also denied a Mitch Bruijsten breakaway attempt in the second period.
The rookie netminder also had plenty of help from UND's special teams, which was dominant once again tongiht. The Sioux went 3-for-7 on the power-play while killing all seven UAA opportunities with the man advantage, including a checking-from-behind major to Corban Knight (Fr., High River, Alberta) with 4:10 remaining.
UND has now killed all 22 opponent power-plays to start the season.
"The kill is doing a good job, the goaltenders are doing a good job, but we certainly can't get too far ahead of ourselves and start to get too sloppy." said Hakstol.
"We're playing playing a physical game right now and if we take some phyiscal penalties I think we have the confidence that we can go out and get the job done and kill that."
Strong forechecking led to UND's first goal, as freshman Carter Rowney (Sexsmith, Alberta) dug the puck off the boards and powered his way to the net before dishing to Darcy Zajac (Sr., Winnipeg, Manitoba). Zajac's shot was stopped by UAA goalie Jon Olthuis, but sophomore forward Mario Lamoureux (Grand Forks) was there to put the rebound into the gaping net.
UND would make it 3-0 late in the first period when Jake Marto (Jr., Grand Forks) and Jason Gregoire (SO., Winnipeg, Manitoba) found the net 76 seconds apart. Marto threaded a point-shot through traffic for a power-play tally at 17:26, and Gregoire followed at 18:40 when he tapped home a Derrick LaPoint (Jr., Eau Claire, Wis.) rebound.
The Sioux power-play struck again in the second period, this time off the stick of Anchorage native Evan Trupp. Brad Malone (Jr., Miramichi, New Brunswick) lugged the puck into the Seawolves' zone and circled the net before centering in the slot to Trupp, who one-timed the puck past Olthuis.
UND's power-play rounded out the scoring just 34 seconds into the third period. Senior captain Chay Genoway (Morden, Manitoba), on his ninth shot of the night, rocketed a point shot past Olthuis for his fourth goal in the last three games.
It marked the fourth time in five games this season every UND goal was scored by a different player.
Olthuis finished 24 saves for the Seawolves, who fell to 2-3-0 overall and 0-1-0 in the WCHA.
The victory pushed UND's record to 4-0-1 overall and 2-0-1 in league play.
The two teams will close out the series Saturday night at 10:07 p.m. Central.
Notes: Eidsness had his streak of consecutive starts end at 37, the third-longest in UND history ... Genoway and senior forward Chris VandeVelde (Moorhead, Minn.) have notched at least one point in all five games this season ... The Sioux allowed just four shots on UAA's seven power-plays.
