OMAHA, Neb. -- The second-largest crowd ever to watch a hockey game in this state filed into Qwest Center on Friday night.
"They got double their money's worth," UND coach Dave Hakstol said of the 11,181 at Qwest Center.
A wildly entertaining, back-and-forth game finished with the scoreboard reading: UND 6, Nebraska-Omaha 5.
The Sioux (8-4-1, 7-2-1 Western Collegiate Hockey Association) rallied from deficits of 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3 to earn their third straight victory -- all on the road -- in a game that had plenty of storylines.
Hakstol's team gave him a victory in his first-ever college hockey encounter against his predecessor at UND, Dean Blais.
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The Sioux also handed Nebraska-Omaha its first-ever WCHA loss, dropping the Mavericks to 8-2-1 overall and 5-1-1 in league play.
And it was a rare home loss for the Mavericks. Entering the weekend, the Mavericks had lost only three of 25 home games under the second-year coach Blais.
Matt Frattin scored a pair of goals to give him a WCHA-leading 12 on the season, while Jake Marto, Mike Cichy, Chay Genoway and Danny Kristo all chipped in one.
Kristo's first goal of the year, a tap-in on a pass from Brad Malone (two assists), stood as the game-winner, while the captain Genoway became the first Sioux defenseman since Curtis Murphy in 1997-98 to reach the 100-point plateau for his career.
"I thought it was a heck of a game for the fans," Blais said. "Eleven goals scored. We just didn't have the six."
UND started Brad Eidsness for the first time in three weeks and it didn't go well for the junior goaltender. The Mavericks peppered him with 15 shots in the opening frame and built a 2-0 lead, allowing the Omaha fans to ring the 2,500 cowbells that were handed out before the game.
"Good thing there was an intermission," Genoway said.
UND regrouped and battled back in the second. Frattin scored a shorthanded goal just 1 minute, 38 seconds into the frame and Marto buried a drop pass from Frattin about five minutes later to even things up.
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"Right from the drop of the puck, it was racehorse," Hakstol said. "We were on the bad end of it for the first 12 to 15 minutes to start the game. They really pushed us back. We recovered at the end of the first period and made a game of it from there."
Frattin added: "We started off slow, the feet weren't going. . . we were giving them turnovers. Usually, we don't get outshot too often. I think they had 16 shots in the first period."
The Sioux and Mavericks traded goals in the second. Omaha's third goal was on a bad-angle shot from Brock Montpetit and it may have sealed Eidsness' night. At the end of the frame, he was replaced by Aaron Dell.
UND erased Omaha's 4-3 lead by scoring three consecutive goals in the third.
Frattin tied it on a snapshot from the top of the right circle. Genoway put the Sioux in front, scoring on a wraparound. And Kristo added an insurance goal that turned out to be necessary because Alex Hudson scored from the slot at 16:56.
"There aren't too many high-scoring games in the WCHA," Frattin said. "These are two good teams with good offense, good defense and good goaltending. The bounces happened to be going in tonight."
The estimated 1,000 to 1,500 Sioux fans in attendance belted out "Let's go Sioux" chants as the team rallied in the third. Frattin said they weren't the only ones having fun.
"I had a great time tonight," Frattin said. "It was a fun game. Emotions were high, there were momentum swings both ways. It was good to come away with two points."
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Notes: Andrew MacWilliam returned to the lineup after missing the last four games with an illness believed to be mononucleosis. He replaced Dillon Simpson in the lineup. . . Grand Forks natives Alex Simonson and Tony Turgeon were scratches for the Mavericks. So was Minot native Jordan Willert. . . Warroad High graduate Eric Olimb had two assists for the Mavericks.
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