The stage was set and the story was all but written.

North Dakota had risen from the ashes. Rebounding from a 15-13-3 record late in the season, UND rallied to make the NCAA tournament and pulled off three straight blowouts to make it to the national championship game against defending champ Denver.

Add in the fact that head coach Dave Hakstol was in his first year behind the North Dakota bench, a move questioned by some as to whether he was the right fit to replace Dean Blais. This was the chance to quiet every single critic.

It seemed like the ultimate story to write of this modern-day Lazarus, the rookie coaching hero. Hollywood was waiting.

Then there was a bad bounce. And another one.

UND senior Brian Canady after the Sioux’s loss in the national title game (photo: Melissa Wade).

You could read it on the face of the North Dakota faithful who made the trek to Ohio: reason to worry? Yup. The thought that maybe, just maybe, this Hollywood script wouldn’t have the desired ending? No doubt.

The end for the Sioux was near. And by the time the final buzzer sounded, the score was 4-1 on the other side.

Tear up the scripts. The producers can move to a better story. This just wasn’t meant to be.

“We did everything that we wanted to do in tonight’s hockey game,” said Hakstol, who took nothing away from Denver while realizing himself this simply wasn’t the night for the Sioux. “At the end of the night, the difference is some bounces of the puck.”

The game was only six minutes old when Sioux fans began feeling uneasy. As Denver’s Kevin Ulanski was left free near the side of the net, it seemed like goaltender Jordan Parise had the angle cut down perfectly. Instead of shooting, Ulanski tried to pass the puck back, and it hit defenseman Matt Smaby’s skate. The change of direction put the puck in a perfect line towards the net with nothing in its way except Pioneer Jeff Drummond’s stick.

1-0 Denver.

After tying the game on a redirect at 9:52 of the first by Travis Zajac, it looked as if the Sioux had taken the lead at 15:26. After getting two incredible shots in close on Denver goaltender Peter Mannino, Erik Fabian, a hero from Thursday’s semifinal, fired a shot destined for the twine. Mannino robbed Fabian with a quick glove save and even then it appeared that the puck might have crossed the goal line first. A long review by video replay ensued. The verdict: no goal.

With plenty of time left to change their fate, things only got worse for the Sioux. A blast from Ulanski on the power play in the second hit Paul Stastny and bounced past Parise.

2-1 Denver.

From there, the Pioneers were in position, looking to follow the footsteps of 40 out of 47 other teams that had led after two periods of the title game and went on to win. This was when Denver, so many times in the past, had clamped down defensively and moved on for a victory.

Saturday was no exception.

Sure, there were glimmers of hope for the Sioux in the third. They tied a 50-year-old record with 23 shots in the period, but exactly none went in. Most of that can be credited to Mannino, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.

“We’d take a shot and see it go five-hole,” said North Dakota captain Matt Greene. “There’s a whistle and the goalie stands up and you see [the puck is] an inch away. From the bench sometimes we’d have our arms raised and we’d think the puck was in.

“They take a one-timer from no-man’s land that goes off a [player] and in. That’s pretty tough to swallow.”

Hockey isn’t a perfect science, and Saturday that was proven. But when all is said and done North Dakota did, indeed, make this season as much of a science as it could. It executed throughout the tournament to perfection. Saturday night the Sioux pasted Denver with 45 shots on goal, but the stars never aligned.

Still, North Dakota has the depth and talent in its underclass to carry future teams, even with the loss of this year’s nine seniors.

“Denver knocked us out of last season as well, so hopefully this will drive us this summer to work much harder so we can make another run next season,” said sophomore forward Chris Porter.

This season, though, is over, leaving the Sioux to think of what might have been.

“Bounces happen. They happen for a reason,” said Greene. “And it just wasn’t our night.”

On the night of April 11, 1975, J.P. Parise scored the first of many memorable OT goals in New York Islanders’ history. Almost 30 years later to the day, his son Jordan Parise wrote another chapter in the illustrious goaltending heroics of North Dakota hockey. In both cases their brilliance allowed their teams to avoid being bounced in pressure-filled one-and-done situations.

Parise made 28 saves, many spectacular, to give the Fighting Sioux a 4-2 win over hated rival Minnesota and a spot in the NCAA championship game. For Parise, heroics have been nothing new as of late. Since a win over Wisconsin on February 26, Parise has backstopped the Sioux to a two-game sweep of Minnesota Duluth in the WCHA playoffs, and then Final Five wins against Wisconsin in the play-in game, and against Minnesota in the consolation. He is riding a 12-game unbeaten streak (10-0-2) and is 7-0 in the playoffs.

Jordan Parise is forging his own reputation at UND (photo: Melissa Wade).

“Are you really old enough to remember 30 years ago?” Parise quipped when I asked him about his father’s playoff legacy, and the one he is building right now. (It’s obvious he didn’t see the top of my head when he asked.) However, when he thought about it, he said, “You have to take advantage of these situations, and make the most of it. It’s not often you have that opportunity.”

Bred in the great hockey program at Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Minnesota, Jordan Parise has had success in nets at every level, as well as other sports. A three-year letter-winner there, he also lettered in golf and baseball. He spent the 2002-2003 season with the Waterloo Blackhawks of the USHL, the first of three great Division I scholarship goalies to come from there (Kevin Regan of UNH and incoming freshman Drew O’Connell of Colorado College are the others). There he finished the year fourth in save percentage, fifth in goals against, and sixth in wins (2.55, .918, and 21, respectively).

What makes Parise’s success is that he cannot be classified as a particular style of goaltender. He’s not a Francois Allaire/QMJHL style butterfly goalie. He’s not all reflexes like former Providence goalie Chris Terreri, and he definitely is not an angle tactician like former Wisconsin Badger Mike Richter. He’s what goalie coaches strive for when developing a young goalie; he’s situational.

The array of saves on display Thursday bore that out. On low shots, especially close in, Parise dropped to the butterfly and directed most shots to the corners or kept the rebounds close and covered them. If chaos ensued from a great chance setup or a loose rebound, his athleticism allowed him the poise to make a desperation save. When Minnesota’s defensemen bombed away from the points, Parise stood his ground and handled the shots flawlessly.

The biggest element for elite goalies is their ability to use their feet and balance to explode on shots, and to react to second shots. Richter might have been the best at that. That is something that all four goalies in the FF have displayed as an area needing improvement. However, Parise has shown an ability to keep himself positioned so that second shots come from in front of him instead of from exposed areas to his sides. His crease awareness and ability not to get turned away from the puck have been factors in his success.

His most recent success, starting with the win at Wisconsin, came after a discussion with rookie coach Dave Hakstol as the Fighting Sioux’s 2004-05 campaign hit the point of no return. Either they needed to become more consistent, or the season could go south.

“Right before that Wisconsin weekend, coach had a meeting with Phil [Philippe Lamoreaux, the freshman goalie] and myself and said that unless we started playing better, and more consistent, our season could be gone,” said Parise. I got the Wisconsin game at home, we won, and we just rolled from there. I’m sure if Phil had got that game, he’d have gone on the same roll.”

Parise was the incumbent with Jake Brandt when Lamoreaux arrived as the next great UND goalie. As with most goaltending tandems, competition was imminent as the vets looked to hold their spots and the kid looked to carve his own niche.

Parise knew he needed to do something to establish that he was the guy, and to show both Lamoreaux and the staff that he wanted to be the No. 1.

“Every day in practice, I would make sure I was dressed first and on the ice before him,” said Parise. “Even if it was by a minute. Then he caught on, and he started to get there early, and I had to do the same.”

The way this was developing, I could see Parise sleeping on the pavement outside the Ralph awaiting the morning crews at 6 a.m. to open the door.

“It got to the point where we’d both be on the ice 45 minutes early. We’d be out there by ourselves at times, so we did a lot of agility drills to improvement our movement, balance, and skating. I think it worked, all that extra practice time.”

Parise, like many NCAA players, is the offspring of an NHL dad. Players like Eric Nystrom, Jeff Tambellini, Preston Callander, Justin Bourne, Kurtis Kisio, and Patrick Eaves have all talked about the benefits of that unique hockey upbringing, and all have said that the best hockey dads are the ones who have played the game at a high level.

“My dad, after the games were over and he was driving us home, he never wanted to talk hockey, or about the game,” said Parise. “He was always ready to listen to Zach [his brother, now with the AHL’s Albany River Rats] and me if we had questions, but never forced us to play or spend hours analyzing our play. Our mom is was the same way.

Being a goalie, Jordan lucked out because it was a position that his dad did not play. However, his comments are consistent with those of the aforementioned players, who have discussed at length how their fathers created an atmosphere where there was no pressure on the kid — other than the pressure the kid wanted to put on himself to be the best he could.

Well, now Parise is seeing the fruits of his labor, and has the Fighting Sioux poised to unseat the Pioneers as NCAA champions. Denver ended UND’s season last season in the WCHA playoffs.

“We have been focused on the feeling that it doesn’t matter who we play, as long as we are still playing,” said Parise. “We are focused on winning, and this team will do whatever it takes to win. Whatever it takes to take control of that game Saturday night we’re prepared to do.”

Starting with another big effort from their starting goalie.

Dave Starman serves as an analyst on CSTV Friday Night Hockey and contributes weekly to CSTV.com. Starman has coached professionally and in the amateur ranks.

Dean Blais still refers to North Dakota as “we.” And why not? He only won two national championships, went to another title game, and built the team that plays in this Saturday’s final before handing the reins to long-time assistant Dave Hakstol.

And this is all he has right now, ever since the NHL season was officially cancelled. Blais left last spring to take the job as assistant coach for the Columbus Blue Jackets. But he has yet to coach a game in the NHL.

“Oh yeah. It’s tough not coaching. But getting back here and seeing North Dakota get to the final game, it’s like being a proud parent,” said Blais.

“It means a whole lot when you see the guys pull together like they did … I take a lot of pride in what they’ve accomplished.”

This season was tougher for Blais than just missing a chance to coach. He also lost his wife after a lengthy battle with Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

“It’s therapeutic [being at the Frozen Four],” Blais said. “After not coaching all year long — I coached the United States team in the Deutschland Cup. But you always want to be in this position where your team is in the national championship game, but it was a tough year.”

One thing he did do was resist the temptation to interfere with Hakstol.

“I tried to stay out of it,” Blais said. “A couple months ago when they were having tough times, we talked quite a bit. With no season, there was an opp. to talk a lot with him. But the last couple months, they’ve been playing so well, I try to not go down and let the kids see me, and stay away.”

And he never doubted Hakstol, even while the Sioux struggled this season, hanging on the NCAA tournament bubble as late as the start of the WCHA playoffs.

“He was doing all the right things,” Blais said of Hakstol. “I watched practice and his drills were the same, and he had Brady Murray, one of the best players in college hockey, hurt and they still got here. His systems are in place and they’ve done a good job in the speciality teams, and that’s what it’s all about.”

This is a different kind of team than the ones Blais won championships with. Those were small teams without a lot of future NHL players. This team is loaded with size, skill, and a few first-round draft picks.

“The one thing we thought we should have, and I don’t know if we still [don’t] have is a puck-handling defenseman, a good guy on the power play,” Blais said. “We’ve always had that problem, they’re a hard guy to find, those Travis Roche types.

“We wanted a bigger, more mobile defense, and here we are with a pretty solid corps of ‘D.’ You’ve got Matt Jones and Matt Greene, Schneider and Nick Fuhrer, they can all move laterally, and Matt Smaby has gotten better — he’s 6-foot-5. So we wanted a little more size on defense. But we’ve always believed in speed and moving the puck, and that’s why we’ve got guys like Spirko and Zajac, a tremendous freshman, a first rounder. They’re just talented.

“There’s more coming too. [Our] arena certainly helped a lot in recruiting. But North Dakota has certainly won a lot of championships with smaller guys, speed, you know, Dougie Smail-type guys. This is a different group, but we always like the talent more than the size — character … kids who want to win, and pay the price to win.”

Blais is fired up talking about “his” team, and is excited just to be around hockey. But he takes a prideful approach, not an envious one.

“No, no. I still don’t regret [leaving],” Blais said. “I’m not looking back. I’m looking forward to playing next season.”