#5 North Dakota (10-4-0) travels to Central Minnesota to face a familiar foe this weekend – the unranked Huskies (7-7-0) of St. Cloud State. SCSU has played well to this point in the season but has been done in by a 1-5 record in one-goal games and an 0-3 record in overtime.
UND will play only four games in December – this series and a pair of home games against Omaha (6-8-0) on December 12th and 13th. Omaha, which lost a pair of home games to North Dakota in early November, is off this weekend.
Before we take a look at what fans can expect from the Huskies and Hawks this weekend, let’s take a trip down memory lane..
Three seasons ago, St. Cloud State got the better of the Fighting Hawks, winning four of five games and ending UND’s season in the semifinals of the 2023 NCHC Frozen Faceoff in St. Paul.
During the 2022-23 regular season, SCSU embarrassed North Dakota in St. Cloud, winning both games on the wide sheet by comfortable margins (7-2, 6-3). On Friday night, a disastrous second period saw the Huskies score every which way: at even strength, shorthanded, with the extra attacker on a delayed penalty, and on the ensuing power play. Saturday’s game at the Herb Brooks Center was a different kind of disturbing for fans of the Green and White, as the visitors led 3-0 early in the second period. The Huskies would get on the board just 23 seconds after UND’s third tally, and then it was the Zach Okabe show, as the senior forward scored a natural hat trick in under nine minutes of game action (from the 18:12 mark of the middle frame through the 7:05 mark of the third period). SCSU would add two late goals – including an empty-netter – to make the score look lopsided.
In the rematch in Grand Forks, both games went to overtime, with UND scoring during 3-on-3 play on Friday night before losing in a shootout in Saturday’s finale.
In the 2023-24 campaign, the two teams tangled only twice, and North Dakota took four of six points on the road, winning Friday’s opener 5-3 before tying the homestanding Huskies 3-3 and losing in a shootout.
Last season was even better for the Green and White, with North Dakota taking ten of twelve points from the Huskies, beginning with a 2-0 regulation win and a 4-3 overtime win on home ice in mid-December.
In St. Cloud, UND managed a shootout win and a 6-2 regulation win. In the series finale, SCSU probably deserved a better fate but were undone by goaltending, as the Fighting Hawks scored five goals on netminder James Gray, who made just eighteen saves. The Huskies scored an extra attacker goal with over six minutes remaining in the hockey game but gave up an empty netter just 29 seconds later.
Twelve full seasons have come and gone since the college hockey landscape changed forever. With Minnesota and Wisconsin departing the Western Collegiate Hockey Association for the Big Ten after the 2012-13 season, several other conference schools and two members of the former Central Collegiate Hockey Association created the National Collegiate Hockey Conference and left Alaska Anchorage, Bemidji State, Michigan Tech, and Minnesota State behind in a watered-down WCHA.
And now, the WCHA is no more, and Bemidji State, Michigan Tech, and Minnesota State find themselves as three of nine programs in the latest version of the CCHA along with Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Northern Michigan, St. Thomas (fifth season at the Division I level), and Augustana (third season at the Division I level).
Next season, St. Thomas will leave the CCHA to become the tenth member of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC).
The NCHC has been the premier hockey conference since its inception, and particularly over the past ten seasons. The nine teams in the league have gone 571-293-86 (.644) in non-conference action since the start of the 2014-15 season and sent fifteen teams to the Frozen Four (UND and Omaha in 2015, UND and Denver in 2016, Denver and Duluth in 2017, Duluth in 2018, Denver and Duluth in 2019, Duluth and St. Cloud State in 2021, Denver in 2022 and 2024, and Denver and Western Michigan in 2025 over that nine-year stretch (there was no national tournament in 2020). Conference members North Dakota (2016), Denver (2017, 2022, 2024), Minnesota Duluth (2018, 2019), and Western Michigan (2025) have won seven of the last nine national titles.
So far this season, the NCHC has won nearly seventy percent of its non-conference games (47-21-1) and has four teams (#4 Minnesota Duluth, #5 North Dakota, #6 Denver, and #7 Western Michigan) positioned in the top ten in the latest rankings, with #19 Miami and #20 Colorado College also appearing in the poll.
Arizona State and St. Cloud State are receiving votes; Omaha is not.
With similar success in the second half of the season, the league could easily send four or even five teams to this year’s NCAA tournament in March.
So far this season, UND and SCSU have faced two common opponents, St. Thomas and Minnesota Duluth:
St. Cloud lost two games vs. St. Thomas (3-4 at home, 1-3 on the road) and lost two games at Duluth (0-4, 2-3 OT).
North Dakota took both games of a home-and-home series with St. Thomas back in October and performed well (3-4 OT, 5-1) against #4 Minnesota Duluth at home over Halloween weekend; those results are buoying its current NCAA Percentage Index ranking (7th). Fans may remember that the NPI has replaced the PairWise as the system used to determine the 16-team field for the national tournament.
Turning our attention to this weekend’s matchup…
A half-point per game or better is my benchmark for solid offensive production, and Brett Larson’s squad has seven lineup regulars who have achieved that level of success, including three – junior forward Tyler Gross (6-12-18), sophomore forward Austin Burnevik (11-6-17), and junior forward Barrett Hall (6-10-16) averaging over a point per game. Other solid offensive contributors include senior forward Adam Ingram (0-8-8), freshman forward Nolan Roed (2-6-8), freshman forward Noah Urness (3-4-7), and senior defenseman Cooper Wylie (1-7-8).
North Dakota is certain to have nine players in the lineup this weekend who have met same offensive threshold: senior forward Ben Strinden (9-8-17), freshman forward Will Zellers (9-4-13), sophomore forward Mac Swanson (4-7-11), freshman forward Cole Reschny (2-13-15), senior forward Dylan James (7-3-10), freshman forward Ollie Josephson (3-6-9), junior defenseman Abram Wiebe (2-8-10), freshman defenseman Keaton Verhoeff (4-6-10), and junior defenseman Jake Livanavage (1-9-10).
North Dakota senior forward Ben Strinden has been white hot over the past eight games, with eight goals and five assists.
Two other UND forwards – senior Ellis Rickwood (1-7-8 in 11 games) and Josh Zakreski (1-2-3 in six games played) have been dealing with injury; Rickwood skated during pregame warmups last Saturday but is unlikely to return to the lineup this weekend; Zakreski was having a promising start to his rookie campaign but suffered a lower body injury early last month in practice, had surgery, and is expected to be out long-term.
Offensively, UND outpaces SCSU by a slim margin. To this point of the season, North Dakota has scored 53 goals in fourteen games (3.79 goals per game, 8th in the country), while St. Cloud State has managed 47 in the same number of games (3.36, 17th).
The Fighting Hawks are fifth in the nation in shooting percentage at 12.3%. SCSU clocks in at 10.5%, good for 22nd in the country. Both teams do an adequate job of getting the puck to the net, with UND averaging 30.8 shots on goal per game (23rd) and the Huskiese even better at 32.0 shots on goal per contest (15th).
The difference is on the defensive side.
Through fourteen games, the Green and White have blocked 179 shots (12.8 per game), led by Bennett Zmolek with 23 and Jake Livanavage with 19. Zmolek was out of the lineup last weekend against Bemidji State. Zmolek’s 23 blocks have come in just twelve games; the graduate defenseman missed last weekend’s action against Bemidji State and is not expected back for this series.
St. Cloud State has blocked 154 shots in its fourteen games (11.0/game), with seniors Mason Reiners (25) and Hudson Smolinski (18) leading the way.
North Dakota’s defensive corps has provided plenty of production from the back end, already notching nine goals and adding 31 assists in 98 combined games (0.41 points per game).
The nine St. Cloud State State blueliners to play this season have scored nine goals and added 25 assists in 98 conbined games (0.35 points/game). Aside from senior Cooper Wylie (1-7-8) and graduate Josh Zinger (1-5-6), no SCSU defenseman has collected more than five points.
Zinger spent his first two seasons at Northern Michigan, posting a combined line of 6-30-36 in 72 NCAA games. Since joining Brett Larson’s squad in the fall of 2024, he has five goals and nine assists in 47 games played.
For the Fighting Hawks, it’s been two juniors – Jake Livanavage (1-9-10) and Abram Wiebe (2-8-10) – and a freshman (Keaton Verhoeff, with four goals and six assists).
Verhoeff is widely expected to go in the top three of the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, while Livanavage (4-24-28) and Wiebe (4-20-24) were two of UND’s top four point-getters a season ago.
Sophomore defenseman EJ Emery – a first round pick of the New York Rangers in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft – notched the first two goals of his collegiate career in a 5-2 win against Minnesota back in October.
Not only have North Dakota’s defensemen been producing offensively, first-year head coach Dane Jackson has also put together an impressive mix of defenders he can trust in any situation. As a unit, UND’s defensemen have allowed a total of just 326 shots on goal this season in fourteen games (23.3/game, 3rd-best in the country), while St. Cloud State has allowed 420 (30.0, 32nd).
St. Cloud State is allowing 2.71 goals per game this season (24th in the nation), while North Dakota is allowing just 2.43 (12th).
The Fighting Hawks would be ill-advised to get into a specialty teams battle with the Huskies, as SCSU is already a +9 to this point in the season, with TWENTY power play goals scored (20 of 64, 31.3%, 2nd in the country), thirteen power play goals allowed (37 of 50, 74.0%, 54th), two shorthanded goals scored, and zero shorthanded goals allowed.
North Dakota is a respectable +6, with sixteen power play goals scored (16 of 56, 28.6%, 5th), ten power play goals allowed (38 of 48, 79.2%, 35th), and a net zero in shorthanded goals (three scored, three alllowed).
On the goaltending side of things, St. Cloud State has seen two goaltenders split time roughly evenly, with sophomore Patriks Berzins playing much better than freshman Yan Shostak over the first half of the season:
Berzins: 4-2-0, 2.04 goals-against average, .939 save percentage
Shostak: 3-5-0, 3.12 goals-against average, .888 save percentage
Shostak does have the only shutout for the Huskies this season, a 21-save performance against Vermont back on October 18th.
Berzins played for the Maine Black Bears last season, appearing in two games and earning one victory before transferring to St. Cloud.
For North Dakota, it’s been the younger netminder with the better of the results. Freshman Jan Spunar was splitting time with graduate transfer Gibson Homer to start this season, but Spunar earned both starts – and both two victories – last weekend in a home-and-home series with Bemidji State. Here’s how the two stack up over the first two months of the season:
Spunar: 6-0-0, 1.50 goals-against average, .934 save percentage, one shutout
Homer: 4-4-0, 2.78 goals-against average, .882 save percentage
On the team side of things, I’m looking at a few other important areas in this matchup…
UND far outpaces St. Cloud State in two key puck possession statistics:
North Dakota: 11th in Corsi (55.5%) and 11th in Fenwick (55.4%)
St. Cloud State: 27th in Corsi (50.5%) and 29th in Fenwick (50.2%)
Corsi measures the share of shot attempts for each team at even strength, while Fenwick measure the share of unblocked shot attempts for each team at even strength.
After this weekend, UND will host Omaha to close out the first half of the season, and St. Cloud State will host Denver. Both teams will open 2026 with non-conference games; North Dakota will play a non-conference series against winless Mercyhurst (0-14-1) at Ralph Engelstad Arena, while SCSU will participate in the Cactus Cup in Palm Springs, California. The Huskies will battle the Yale Bulldogs on January 2nd before facing either the Minnesota State Mavericks or the UMass Lowell RiverHawks the following day.
St. Cloud State Team Profile
Head Coach: Brett Larson (7th season at SCSU, 144-104-22, .574)
National Rankings: NR/NR
NPI Ranking: 14th
KRACH Rating: 188.4 (14th)
This Season: 11-13-0 overall, 2-2-0-2 NCHC (5th of 9 teams)
Last Season: 14-21-1 overall (missed NCAA tournament), 5-13-2-4 overall NCHC (8th)
2025-26 Season Statistics:
Team Offense: 3.36 goals scored/game – 17th of 63 teams
Team Defense: 2.71 goals allowed/game – 24th of 63 teams
Power Play: 31.3% (20 of 64) – 2nd of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 74.0% (37 of 50) – 54th of 63 teams
Key players: Junior F Tyler Gross (6-12-18), Sophomore F Austin Burnevik (11-6-17), Junior F Barrett Hall (6-10-16), Senior F Adam Ingram (0-8-8), Freshman F Nolan Roed (2-6-8), Freshman F Noah Urness (3-4-7), Senior D Cooper Wylie (1-7-8), Senior D Max Smolinski (2-3-5), Graduate D Mason Reiners (2-3-5), Sophomore G Patrik Berzins (4-2-0, 2.04 GAA, .939 SV%)
North Dakota Team Profile
Head Coach: Dane Jackson (1st season at North Dakota, 10-4-0, .714)
National Rankings: #5/#6
NPI Ranking: 7th
KRACH: 344.3 (6th)
This Season: 10-4-0 overall, 4-1-0-1 NCHC (2nd)
Last Season: 21-15-2 overall (missed NCAA tournament), 11-8-4-1 NCHC (5th)
2025-26 Season Statistics:
Team Offense: 3.79 goals scored/game – 8th of 63 teams
Team Defense: 2.43 goals allowed/game – 12th of 63 teams
Power Play: 28.6% (16 of 56) – 5th of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 79.2% (38 of 48) – 35th of 63 teams
Key Players: Senior F Ben Strinden (9-8-17), Freshman F Cole Reschny (2-13-15), Freshman F Will Zellers (9-4-13), Senior F Dylan James (7-3-10), Sophomore F Mac Swanson (4-7-11), Freshman F Ollie Josephson (3-6-9), Junior D Jake Livanavage (1-9-10), Junior D Abram Wiebe (2-8-10), Freshman D Keaton Verhoeff (4-6-10), Freshman G Jan Spunar (6-0-0, 1.50 GAA, .934 SV%, 1 SO)
By The Numbers
Last Meeting: February 1, 2025 (St. Cloud, MN). North Dakota took the series finale by a final score of 6-2. SCSU probably deserved a better fate but were undone by goaltending, as the Fighting Hawks scored five goals on netminder James Gray, who made just eighteen saves. The Huskies scored an extra attacker goal with over six minutes remaining in the hockey game but gave up an empty netter just 29 seconds later. In Friday’s opener, UND won in a shootout after the two teams skated to a 3-3 tie.
A Recent Memory: March 16, 2021 (Grand Forks, ND). One night before St. Patrick’s Day, North Dakota enjoyed playing for the NCHC playoff title in front of a whole bunch of green. St. Cloud State led 2-1 after two periods, but the Fighting Hawks stormed back with four third-period goals – including three in the span of 122 seconds early in the final frame and an empty-netter to seal the 5-3 victory and the program’s first Frozen Faceoff championship. UND senior Jordan Kawaguchi and freshman Riese Gaber each had two goals and an assist.
Most Important Meeting: NCAA West Regional Final in Fargo, ND (March 28, 2015). North Dakota scored three unassisted goals over the final two periods of the hockey game to defeat St. Cloud State 4-1 in the West Regional Final and advance to the NCAA Frozen Four. Jimmy Murray got the Huskies on the board less than 90 seconds in to the hockey game, but that did nothing to quiet the partisan crowd of 5,307 at SCHEELS Arena. Four different players scored for UND, while Zane McIntyre made 19 stops to earn his 29th and final victory of the season.
All-Time Series: North Dakota leads the all-time series, 83-49-19 (.613), including a slim edge (32-26-10,.544) in games played in St. Cloud. The teams have been squaring off regularly since the 1989-90 season but have only met once in the NCAA tournament (2015).
Last Ten: UND holds a 5-2-3 (.650) edge in the last ten games between the schools, with a scoring advantage of 34-28 in those contests. North Dakota has only lost once in the last nine games in this series, a 3-2 overtime defeat in the 2023 NCHC Frozen Faceoff (St. Paul, Minnesota). The Fighting Hawks have gone 2-0-2 in the last four games in St. Cloud, with two regulation victories (5-3 and 6-2), a shootout win, and a shootout loss.
Game News and Notes
St. Cloud State is a perfect 7-0 this season when leading after twenty minutes and 0-7 when trailing or tied. Following this season, the National Hockey Center will undergo extensive renovations, with the width of the ice surface reduced from 100 feet (Olympic ice) to just 94 feet (hybrid ice). Nearly all NCAA Division I teams – including North Dakota – now compete on NHL ice surfaces (85 feet wide). Since SCSU began competing in the WCHA in 1990, the Huskies have made the national tournament sixteen times, with Frozen Four appearances in 2013 and 2021 (zero titles). Over that same stretch, North Dakota has appeared in the NCAA tourney 24 times, with eleven Frozen Fours and three national championships (1997, 2000, 2016). North Dakota (2015, 2016, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2024) and St. Cloud State (2014, 2018, and 2019) have combined to win the regular season title in nine of the twelve seasons of the NCHC. The Huskies also won the last WCHA conference title in 2013.
The Prediction
There are four keys for North Dakota in this series: adjust to the wide sheet of ice, take an early lead, avoid needless penalties, and take advantage of roster depth. The first ten minutes of Friday’s opener will be critical for both sides, and the more this series can be played at even strength, the better for the Fighting Hawks. As has been the case recently, I expect at least one of these games to go to overtime, with the Green getting the better of the Red just three weeks before Christmas. 3-3 tie, UND 4-3.
Broadcast Information
Both games this weekend will be available via webcast at NCHC.tv. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Central Time on Friday, with a 6:00 p.m. start time on Saturday night. All UND men’s hockey games can be heard on stations across the UND Fighting Hawks Radio Network as well as through the iHeart Radio app.
Social Media
Keep up with the action live during all UND hockey games by following @UNDmhockey and @UNDInsider on X-Twitter. Fans can also read the action via Brad Schlossman’s live chat on the Grand Forks Herald website.
As always, thank you for reading. I welcome your questions, comments, and suggestions. Follow me on X-Twitter (@DBergerHockey) for more information and insight. Here’s to hockey!