Monique Lamoureux-Kolls picked up the puck behind her own net, 190 feet away from sending the UND women's hockey team to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Final Faceoff for the first time ever.
She darted past a forechecker, skated to neutral ice, continued up the right wing, faked a shot to drop a defenseman in the right circle, skated around her on the outside, moved the puck to her backhand on the top of the crease and sent Purpur Arena into a frenzy.
Lamoureux-Kolls' game-winning goal ended the longest game in Sioux women's history at the 16-minute mark of overtime with the scoreboard reading: Sioux 3, Beavers 2.
"Once I heard everybody cheering, it was just a sigh of relief," Lamoureux-Kolls said. "Thank God the game was over. I didn't want it to go into a second overtime."
UND advances to the Final Faceoff to play the country's No. 1 team, Wisconsin, on Friday. It will be UND's first trip to Minneapolis and Ridder Arena for the showcase event.
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The Sioux also reached the 20-win mark for the first time in program history, improving to 20-12-3 overall and helping their bid for a spot in the NCAA tournament.
Lamoureux-Kolls wasn't the only key player for the Sioux on Sunday night in the decisive third game of the WCHA playoff series.
Goalie Stephanie Ney made several key stops in overtime en route to her 32-save performance. And forward Jocelyne Lamoureux scored a goal, despite barely being able to walk earlier in the day because of an injury.
Lamoureux was not expected to play Sunday. She wasn't on the pregame line chart and did not skate in warm-ups. But she came out for introductions and logged a lot of minutes for the eighth-ranked Sioux.
"What a performance, good lord," UND coach Brian Idalski said of Jocelyne. "She may be one of the toughest kids, men or women, that I've ever played with or coached, hands down. That's amazing to me. I've played hurt. I don't know if I've ever seen somebody play that banged up and do that well, perform at that high of a level. I know I surely didn't. . . even when I was 100 percent for that matter.
"What a gutsy, gutsy way to lead our club."
Jocelyne didn't want to talk about her injury after the game.
After a scoreless period, Bemidji State took the first lead early in the second period when Emily Erickson hit Crookston's Marlee Wheelhouse on a drop pass for a 1-0 lead at 1:06.
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The Sioux answered with back-to-back goals.
First, Lamoureux-Kolls took the puck on an end-to-end rush and got off a hard shot. Mary Loken crashed the net and scored on the rebound at 5:36 to break a shutout streak of 90:28 for Bemidji State goaltender Zuzana Tomcikova.
Then, Lamoureux found a rebound at the side of the crease for her team-leading 28th goal at 9:54.
The Beavers, who ended their season with a 14-17-4 record, tied the game before the end of the second when Sadie Lundquist banged in a rebound of a Kim Lieder shot.
The game was scoreless in the third period and Lamoureux-Kolls made the play to win it in overtime.
"It's fantastic," Idalski said. "I'm so happy for our older kids. We talked about this ages ago, having this feeling and wanting to have this feeling. Playing in these games and winning these games is a huge step. What a character builder. This is something for our older kids to tell our next group coming in.
"Winning these games. . . that's something they're going to talk about in 10 years. That's a memory they're going to take forever from their college time here. I'm very excited for that. That's what we want this program to be about: big moments, big wins and creating lots of friendships and memories."
