A fine Northeastern team spoiled the head coaching debut of Dean Blais tonight
in Grand Forks.  The Huskies led 3-0 just 13:41 into the game on goals by
Jordan Shields, Eric Peterson and Shields again.  North Dakota's Sean Beswick
cut the lead to 3-1 before the end of the first period.  NU's J.F. Aube made it
4-1 just 32 seconds into the second period before Landon Wilson cut the lead to
4-2.  Northeastern then got three unanswered goals from Peterson, Geoff Lucas
and Jason Melong before North Dakota's Kevin Hoogsteen closed out the scoring
late in the game.  Northeastern was 3-for-6 on the power play, while the Sioux
were 1-for-6.  North Dakota's Toby Kvalevog made 26 saves and Northeastern's
Mike Veisor made 27 stops.
 
Consensus in the press box was that Northeastern looked very good.  They look
to have several very skilled players up front and a good group of defensemen.
It will be interesting to see how they stack up in Hockey East.
 
One sidelight...three former WCHA stars -- Greg Johnson, Russ Romaniuk and
Dallas Drake stopped up in the press box to say hello.  Johnson plays for the
Red Wings, while Drake and Romaniuk play for the Jets.
 
Justin