ANCHORAGE, Alaska-For the first 20 minutes tonight, it appeared the Fighting Sioux were headed to a second straight win over Alaska Anchorage and a WCHA road sweep.
But the Seawolves had other ideas.
UAA withstood a first-period barrage by North Dakota and handed the Sioux their first loss of the season with a hard-fought 2-1 victory at Sullivan Arena.
The win improved the Seawolves to 3-3-0 overall and 1-1-0 in the WCHA while UND dropped to 4-1-1 overall and 2-1-1 in league play.
Twenty-four hours after a convincing 5-0 win over UAA, second-ranked UND controlled every facet of the opening period but the Seawolves managed to keep the game a scoreless tie heading into the first intermission.
Then UAA senior forward Kevin Clark beat Brad Eidsness (So., Chestmerere, Alberta) on a wrap-around just 29 seconds into the second period, bringing the Seawolves to life after being largely dominated for the first four periods of the weekend.
After Clark's goal, his team-leading fourth of the season, UAA managed to dictate the temp for much of the final 40 minutes.
Junior defenseman Kane Lafranchise made it a 2-0 game with a power-play goal just under six minutes later, giving the Seawolves a lead they would not relinquish.
UAA played a near-perfect second period, holding the high-powered Sioux to just three shots on goal.
At the other end of the ice, UAA junior goalie Bryce Christianson was steady when needed, stopping 22 of the 23 shots he faced and keeping UND off the scoreboard until the game's final minutes.
The Sioux pressed for the equalizer, outshooting the Seawolves 12-6 in the third period, but could not solve Christianson until senior forward Darcy Zajac (Winnipeg, Manitoba) slammed home a rebound with 1:26 remaining with Eidsness pulled for an extra attacker.
Still, UND had several chances for the equalizer, perhaps none better than one a loose puck rolled to Danny Kristo (Fr., Eden Prairie, Minn.), who was stationed all alone at the side of the UAA net with Christianson out of position. However, the puck hopped over Kristo's stick before he could corral it and get a shot off.
UND's power-play, extremely potent through the first five games of the season, was held 0-for-4 despite several quality chances.
The Seawolves went 1-for-5 with the man advantage, ending UND's streak of penalty kills to start the season at 23.
Eidsness finished with 18 saves for the Sioux.
UND is now idle next weekend and will return to action Nov. 6-7 at Michigan Tech.
Notes: Senior defenseman Chay Genoway (Morden, Manitoba) and senior forward Chris VandeVelde (Moorhead, Minn.) each had their five-game point streaks come to an end ... Sophomore forward Mario Lamoureux (Grand Forks) assisted on UND's lone goal, already his career-high fourth helper of the season.
