#4/#4 North Dakota (14-4-0) hosts unranked Mercyhurst (0-15-1) at Ralph Engelstad Arena this weekend to open up the second half of the season.
This will be UND’s final non-conference opponent in the regular season. Over the first half, the Fighting Hawks went a combined 6-2 vs. St. Thomas (sweep), Minnesota (split), Clarkson (split), and Bemidji State (sweep). Those results – combined with a record of 8-1-0-1 in conference play – have North Dakota sitting at #2 (behind only Michigan) in the NCAA Percentage Index (NPI) rankings used to seed the NCAA tournament.
After this weekend, North Dakota will play three home conference series (vs. Denver, Miami, and St. Cloud State) and four road conference series (at Colorado College, Arizona State, Minnesota Duluth, and Western Michigan) over the next nine weeks before the NCHC postseason begins on March 6th.
Minnesota Duluth is ranked #5 in the latest USCHO poll, while Denver sits at #6 and Western Michigan is at #7. No other league teams are ranked in the top twenty.
UND (25 points; 8-1-0-1 in NCHC play) leads Denver (24 points; 7-1-1-1) by one point in the league standings with fourteen conference games remaining for each team. The two teams will square off in Grand Forks two weeks from now in the only scheduled series between the perennial powerhouses this season. Minnesota Duluth (21 points; 5-3-2-2) and Western Michigan (17 points; 5-4-1-0) are within striking distance, although it is worth noting that the Bulldogs have played two more league games than anyone else in the NCHC.
Western Michigan did the entire league a favor by defeating both #13 Boston College and #2 Wisconsin at the Holiday Faceoff last weekend. Those results added to the league’s already-impressive results against the other five conferences in college hockey.
So far this season, the NCHC has won nearly seventy percent of its non-conference games (52-24-1, .682) and has four teams (#4 North Dakota, #5 Minnesota Duluth, #6 Denver, and #7 Western Michigan) positioned in the top ten in the latest rankings.
The NCHC has been the premier hockey conference since its inception, and particularly over the past twelve seasons. The nine teams in the league have gone 592-305-80 (.647) 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.
Longtime Mercyhurst head coach Rick Gotkin has announced that this will be his 38th and final season behind the bench. The Lakers were hoping to send him off in fine fashion, but it has not gone their way to this point in the season. After suffering a one-sided road sweep at the hands of top-ranked Michigan (11-1, 7-0) to open the season, Mercyhurst has managed just one tie despite playing the 56th-ranked schedule of opponents (according to KRACH).
To be fair, the Lakers have been besieged by injuries. During their last game of the first half (December 6th at Holy Cross, a 4-1 loss), Gotkin was without the services of twelve players; seven of those players are expected to miss this series as well.
On the North Dakota side, head coach Dane Jackson will be without four key players who are competing at the World Junior Championships in St. Paul, Minnesota today. Freshman forward Cole Reschny and freshman defenseman Keaton Verhoeff are playing for Canada, while freshman forward Will Zellers and sophomore defenseman EJ Emery are suiting up for the United States. Depending on those teams’ quarterfinal results, they may be available for the series finale tomorrow night.
With all of the lineup shuffling, what can we expect when these two teams take the ice for the first time ever? Simply put, Mercyhurst does not appear to have the talent or the depth to compete with the Fighting Hawks this weekend.
The Lakers are allowing 4.63 goals per game this season (63rd in the nation), while North Dakota is allowing just 2.28 (11th). On the offensive side, UND is scoring 3.78 goals per game (7th), while Mercyhurst has managed just 1.38 goals per game (63rd).
Sometimes it is difficult to dissect numbers like those above, so here it is in plain terms: in eighteen games, UND has outscored opponents 68-41. In its sixteen games, Mercyhurst has been outscored 74-22.
The offensive chances have been there for the Lakers, but they are only scoring on 6.1 percent of their shots on goal, 3rd-worst in the country. By comparison, North Dakota is scoring on 12.6 percent (4th-best).
Fighting Hawks’ graduate netminder Gibson Homer (5-4-0, 2.58 goals-against average, .894 save percentage) started each of the first four games of the season and then split the next four weekends with freshman Jan Spunar (9-0-0, 1.67 GAA, .934 SV%, one shutout) before giving way to Spunar entirely over the next two weekends (home-and-home with Bemidji State and at St. Cloud State). Both goaltenders earned a home start three weeks ago against Omaha; I would expect Spunar to get the nod in tonight’s opener.
Mercyhurst Team Profile
Head Coach: Rick Gotkin (38th season at Mercyhurst, 611-566-112, .517)
National Rankings: NR/NR
NPI Ranking: 63rd
KRACH: 1.8 (63rd)
This Season: 0-15-1 overall, 0-9-0-1 Atlantic Hockey (10th of 10 teams)
Last Season: 4-27-4 overall (missed NCAA tournament), 3-19-3-1 Atlantic Hockey (11th)
Team Offense: 1.38 goals scored/game – 63rd of 63 teams
Team Defense: 4.63 goals allowed/game – 63rd of 63 teams
Power Play: 7.8% (4 of 51) – 63rd of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 63.3% (31 of 49)– 63rd of 63 teams
Key Players: Freshman F Will Schumacher (5-0-5 in nine games), Sophomore F Christian Kocsis (2-2-4), Sophomore F Dominik Bartecko (2-3-5), Senior F Ryan Coughlin (0-2-2), Freshman F Andrew LeBlanc (0-4-4 in six games), Junior D Trent Sambrook (0-3-3), Junior D Tyler DesRochers (2-2-4), Freshman D Jacob Lablanc (0-6-6), Senior D John Larkin (1-2-3), Freshman G Charles-Edward Gravel (0-12-1, 3.89 GAA, .884 SV%)
North Dakota Team Profile
Head Coach: Dane Jackson (1st season at North Dakota, 14-4-0, .778)
National Rankings: #4/#4
NPI Ranking: 2nd
KRACH: 549.5 (3rd)
This Season: 14-4-0 overall, 8-1-0-1 NCHC (1st)
Last Season: 21-15-2 overall (missed NCAA tournament), 11-8-4-1 NCHC (5th)
2025-26 Season Statistics:
Team Offense: 3.78 goals scored/game – 7th of 63 teams
Team Defense: 2.28 goals allowed/game – 11th of 63 teams
Power Play: 29.9% (20 of 67) – 4th of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 81.3% (52 of 64) – 29th of 63 teams
Key Players: Senior F Ben Strinden (11-8-19), Senior F Dylan James (8-4-12), Sophomore F Mac Swanson (4-9-13), Freshman F Ollie Josephson (3-7-10), Senior F Ellis Rickwood (2-9-11), Junior D Jake Livanavage (3-12-15), Junior D Abram Wiebe (2-9-11), G Jan Spunar (9-0-0, 1.67 GAA, .934 SV%, 1 SO)
Key World Junior Players: Freshman F Cole Reschny (2-16-18), Freshman F Will Zellers (10-5-15), Freshman D Keaton Verhoeff (4-7-11), Sophomore D EJ Emery (2-2-4)
Game News and Notes
This weekend will mark the first-ever games between these two opponents. Over the past four games, Mercyhurst has scored exactly one goal in each game while allowing a total of thirteen. Aside from freshman forward Will Schumacher (five goals in nine games played), no other Laker player has scored more than twice this season. Over the first half of the season, North Dakota scored first in twelve of its eighteen games, with a record of 10-2-0 (.833); Mercyhurst scored first in just two of its sixteen games, going 0-1-1 (.250) in those two contests. The Lakers play their home games at Mercyhurst Ice Center, which has a capacity of 1500 fans. So far this season, an average of just 525 fans have shown up each night. Mercyhurst head coach Rick Gotkin has not had a winning season since 2017-2018 (21-12-4) and has not reached the NCAA tournament in over twenty years (2005). He also led Mercyhurst to the national tourney in 2001 and 2003.
The Prediction
The underlying metrics all seem to favor North Dakota. If UND was at full strength, these would be fairly easy picks to make. As it is, though, there will be some adjustments on Friday night, with new players in the lineup filling new and expanded roles. This will be problematic for the Fighting Hawks, and goaltending will need to be excellent until some of the other areas come into focus. Mercyhurst doesn’t bring enough offensive firepower to truly test the Green and White on a consistent basis, and although I think one game will be close, this series should go into the books as a sweep. UND 4-2, 5-1.
Broadcast Information
Both games this weekend will be broadcast live on Midco Sports and will also be available online at NCHC.tv. All UND men’s hockey games can be heard on stations across the Fighting Hawks Radio Network as well as through the iHeart Radio app. Puck drop is set for 7:07 p.m. Central Time on Friday night and 6:07 p.m. Central Time on Saturday night.
Social Media
Keep up with the action live during all UND hockey games by following @UNDmhockey and @UNDInsider on 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 thoughts, comments, and suggestions.