For a second-straight game, Dominic James rang Stonehill College up for two goals, and the result for a consecutive night was a University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey win.
The Bulldogs swept their series with the Skyhawks 2-1 behind James and his two power play goal effort to improve to 3-4 on the season -- UMD's last series of nonconference play at AMSOIL Arena for the month of October.
The Bulldogs allowed Stonehill just a single shot in the first period – at the 1:02 mark – before cutting off any further offensive oxygen for the rest of the frame. James then opened up the scoring late in the period, and after taking a feed from Aaron Pionk, snapped a wrist shot from the right circle hash to give UMD a 1-0 lead at 17:28.
The senior center doubled down on his offensive weekend with a second power play goal – his third power play tally of the weekend and fourth of the series – at 7:57 of the second period. James skated a pass from Zam Plante through the high slot and again sniped a shot from the opposite circle to push the Bulldogs ahead 2-0.
"His effort, I like his intensity level, he's up here and we need more guys to follow that on a consistent basis and hopefully that will happen," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin following the game when asked about James. "That's why he's our leader, he plays a ton of minutes and plays at a high level. He shoots the puck, it's one thing he's worked on over his time here and you can see the results, so I'm glad he's getting rewarded with some of those results because that's important to our players.They want to feel like that's their contribution and he's a guy that we are certainly looking at going into the start of the year as one of our top offensive guys."
Despite going without a single shot for 20:22 minutes in the first period and into the second, Stonehill made it interesting in the third period, finally breaking through on the scoreboard at 12:29 to cut UMD's lead to 2-1. But the Bulldogs never broke, and the result was their first series sweep of the season.
UMD went 2-of-6 on its power play while holding the Skyhawks scoreless in four extra skater attempts – which included the Bulldogs fending off a 5-on-3 in the opening few minutes of the first period. Rookie goaltender Adam Gajan earned his second win in a row and third of the season, and made 14 saves in his sixth collegiate start. The Bulldogs outshot Stonehill 37-15 in the game, while its netminder Linards Lipskis had 35 saves. The Skyhawks fall to 2-5 overall with the loss.
UMD will take a weekend off from outside competition next week before jumping into National Collegiate Hockey Conference action against the University of North Dakota on Nov. 8-9 at AMSOIL.
BULLDOG NOTES: Dominic James – who figured in five of UMD's seven goals on the weekend – finished the series with five points, including back-to-back two game nights … Saturday was his third collegiate two-goal outing … Owen Gallatin had assists on both Bulldog goals, and now has five on the season … Aaron Pionk added a primary assist on the first power play goal, his fourth of the weekend and eighth over the past three games … UMD has now scored four consecutive power play goals after goals No. 3 and 4 last night were with an extra skater … the Bulldogs overall were 4-of-12 on in the series … Stonehill was scoreless in five power play attempts in the series ... after the Skyhawks put their first shot on goal at 1:02 of the first period, UMD held them without a single shot – including a 5-on-3 power play – for 20:22 straight minutes.
