Author: Dave Berger

#3 North Dakota (25-8-1) hosts unranked Omaha (12-22-0) at Ralph Engelstad Arena this weekend in the first round of the NCHC playoffs. The two teams will play a best-of-three series beginning on Friday night and concluding on Sunday (if necessary), with the winner advancing to the league semifinals next Saturday night.

In the current NCHC playoff format, top-seeded North Dakota is hosting 8th-seed Omaha (9th-place Arizona State did not advance). If UND wins the series against the Mavs, it will host the lowest-remaining seed from the following quarterfinal matchups:

7th-seed Miami at 2nd-seed Denver

6th-seed Colorado College at 3rd-seed Western Michigan

5th-seed St. Cloud State at 4th-seed Minnesota-Duluth

If Omaha wins the series, it will travel to the highest-remaining seed and see its season continue, while a series loss this weekend would mark the end of the 2025-26 campaign for the Mavericks (currently 41st in the NPI used to seed the 16-team tournament field).

North Dakota (NPI 3), Denver (NPI 7) and Western Michigan (NPI 4) are all safely in the national tournament regardless of league playoff results, while Minnesota-Duluth (NPI 10) is nearly a lock.

Along with Omaha, St. Cloud State (NPI 25), Colorado College (NPI 27), and Miami (NPI 26) would also need to win the league playoff championship to appear in the NCAA tournament, which will begin with a regional round taking place from March 26th through March 29th at four sites (Loveland, CO; Sioux Falls, SD; Worcester, MA; Albany, NY); the winners of those four regionals will advance to the Frozen Four (April 7th and 9th in Las Vegas, Nevada).

While North Dakota is not guaranteed to be placed in the Sioux Falls regional, it is likely that the committee will place them there to boost attendance. UND can also help its own cause with good results in the NCHC tournament, as a higher NPI rank could keep the Fighting Hawks closer to home.

What can fans expect from UND and Omaha on the ice this weekend? While it might be easy to look at North Dakota’s four-game season sweep of the Mavericks (7-2, 4-1 at Omaha; 4-1, 3-1 in Grand Forks) as evidence that Dane Jackson’s crew will breeze through to the league semifinals, history has taught us that sweeping the first-round series is often more difficult than fans expect.

North Dakota does bring an impressive resume and results into this matchup, including the program’s seventh Penrose Cup and 22nd overall regular-season conference title, the most in NCAA history.

Last weekend, UND traveled to Lawson Arena in Kalamazoo, Michigan with the NCHC regular season championship on the line. North Dakota won Friday’s game in regulation to secure the Penrose Cup and followed that up by taking the defending national champions to overtime in the rematch; the Fighting Hawks finished the regular season with 55 points in 24 league games, three points clear of second-place Denver. Remarkably, UND only lost two NCHC games in regulation all season (16-2-1-5).

In 2025, Western Michigan won the Penrose Cup at home against North Dakota.

In 2024, UND won the Penrose Cup at home against Western Michigan.

UND is nine years removed from its eighth national championship but has made the national tournament in just four of the past eight seasons. That track record – and some early playoff exits – led to a coaching change, and Dane Jackson is now leading the charge. His first year as bench boss is eerily reminiscent of Brad Berry’s exactly ten years ago, with great goaltending, an impressive defensive corps, and remarkable scoring depth. While Brad Berry had a bit more top-end offensive talent (Drake Caggiula, Brock Boeser, and Nick Schmaltz) during the 2015-2016 season, this year’s version of the Fighting Hawks is wearing teams down and owning the third period, outscoring opponents 56-18 and either pulling away on the scoreboard or mounting one impressive comeback after another.

In the NCHC preseason poll, UND was picked to finish in third place (behind Western Michigan and Denver), while the Mavericks were tabbed to end up in seventh (ahead of only St. Cloud State and Miami). With the addition of St. Thomas to the NCHC (and a new schedule format) beginning in 2026-2027, the Fighting Hawks and Mavericks will no longer be guaranteed four regular-season games each year.

Omaha head coach Mike Gabinet is now in his ninth season behind the bench, and he has only led the Mavericks to two NCAA tournament appearances – once in the COVID-shortened 2020-2021 season and once two years ago. Both of those playoff bids came to an abrupt end at the hands of the Minnesota Golden Gophers, who dispatched Omaha 7-2 in the 2021 West Regional semifinal (Loveland, Colorado) and edged the Mavericks 3-2 in the 2024 Midwest Regional semifinal (Sioux Falls, South Dakota).

Last season, Omaha finished in the top half of the NCHC but was done in by a less-than-stellar non-conference record of 4-6-0, including home losses to Augustana (twice), Lindenwood, and UMass-Lowell and a road sweep at the hands of Minnesota State.

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).

So far this season, the NCHC has won nearly seventy percent of its non-conference games (62-29-2, .677) and has four teams (#3 North Dakota, #4 Western Michigan, #8 Denver, and #9 Minnesota Duluth) 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 ten seasons. The nine teams in the league have gone 602-310-81 (.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.

Last season, the Fighting Hawks and Mavericks ended the regular season by splitting a pair of games at Ralph Engelstad Arena. The following weekend – with the season on the line for both teams – UND swept a pair of games at Omaha by identical 3-2 scores. North Dakota’s season would end six days later at the hands of eventual national champion Western Michigan at the last-ever NCHC Frozen Faceoff in St. Paul, Minnesota, a 4-2 defeat that would cost former head coach Brad Berry his job.

On the final weekend of the 2022-2023 regular season, North Dakota swept Omaha (5-4 OT, 2-1). The Fighting Hawks dropped Game One of the playoff series in Omaha by a final score of 2-1 before winning two straight (3-1, 5-2) and advancing to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff in St. Paul, Minnesota.

On January 12th and 13th, 2024, UND took four of six league points in a home series against Omaha, falling 5-4 in overtime on Friday night before rebounding for a 3-1 regulation win in Saturday’s rematch. The disappointing thing about the series opener is that North Dakota led 3-1 after the first period. The Mavericks won the middle frame decisively, however, outscoring the homestanding Hawks 3-1. Both teams scored twice with the man advantage. Omaha scored just 34 seconds into the 3-on-3 overtime session to grab the extra league point.

Saturday’s finale was a bit more of a defensive struggle, with Omaha tying the game at one goal apiece just 49 seconds into the third period. UND’s Dylan James scored the game-winner three minutes later, and former Maverick Cameron Berg iced the game with an empty-net goal in the final thirty seconds. North Dakota outshot Omaha 30-23 on Saturday night and 69-47 on the weekend.

Turning our attention to this weekend…

A half-point per game or better is my benchmark for solid offensive production, and Mike Gabinet’s squad has just seven lineup regulars who meet that threshold: sophomore forward Maxime Pellerin (8-12-20), freshman forward Luke Woodworth (4-15-19), freshman forward Jeremy Loranger (7-11-18 in 26 games), sophomore forward Trevor Wong (5-14-19), sophomore forward Brett Hyland (8-8-16), freshman forward Samuel Huo (6-9-15 in 28 games), and senior defenseman Griffin Ludtke (0-17-17).

North Dakota is hoping to have ten players in the lineup this weekend who have met that same offensive threshold: senior forward Ellis Rickwood (8-24-32), senior forward Ben Strinden (15-18-33), freshman forward Will Zellers (17-10-27), sophomore forward Mac Swanson (8-16-24), freshman forward Cole Reschny (5-26-31), senior forward Dylan James (17-10-27), freshman forward Josh Zakreski (3-2-5 in nine games), junior defenseman Jake Livanavage (5-20-25), junior defenseman Abram Wiebe (5-21-26), and freshman defenseman Keaton Verhoeff (6-14-20).

Ben Strinden and Will Zellers are both dealing with illness and will miss Friday’s opener.

Josh Zakreski returned to the lineup two weekends ago after a lengthy absence and promptly scored a goal on his first shift; he also added a goal late in the second period of last Friday’s Penrose Cup-clinching victory over the WMU Broncos that gave North Dakota a lead they would not relinquish.

One key area to watch this weekend is the face-off circle. To this point in the season, the Fighting Hawks have won 53.8% of faceoffs, good for 5th in the country. By comparison, the Mavericks are 55th in the nation (47.0%).

In the faceoff circle, Dane Jackson has been relying on freshman phenom Cole Reschny (253 of 461, 54.9%), portal transfer Ellis Rickwood (316 of 524, 60.3%), and freshman Ollie Josephson (238 of 432, 55.1%).

For the Mavericks, no one has been all that effective, with freshman Luke Woodworth (183 of 383, 47.8%), sophomore Sean Tschigerl (168 of 392, 42.9%), and senior Tyler Rollwagen (155 of 336, 46.1%) sharing the load.

Not only will North Dakota start with the puck more often than not in this series, they will also hold on to it. Throughout the season, the Fighting Hawks have far outpaced the Mavericks in two key puck possession statistics:

North Dakota: 2nd in Corsi (57.3%) and 3rd in Fenwick (57.1%)

Omaha: 42nd in Corsi (48.5%) and 44th in Fenwick (47.8%)

Corsi measures the share of shot attempts for each team at even strength, while Fenwick measures the share of unblocked shot attempts for each team at even strength.

To this point in the season, the Green and White have had far the better of the specialty teams play. North Dakota is a combined +16, with 32 power play goals scored (32 of 119, 26.9%, 9th in the country) and eighteen power play goals allowed (88 of 106, 83.0%, 13th). UND has scored six and allowed four shorthanded goals this season.

Mike Gabinet’s squad is at a minus-6, with 27 power play goals scored (27 of 124, 21.8%, 21st in the country) and thirty power play goals allowed (98 of 128, 76.6%, 50th). Omaha has scored just one shorthanded goal this season while allowing four to opponents.

On Friday, November 7th in Omaha, the Fighting Hawks went 4-for-8 with the man advantage and held the Mavericks to just one power play goal on four chances.

One night later, the Mavs held the advantage by going 1-for-3 on the power play and holding North Dakota scoreless on two opportunities.

In the mid-December series in Grand Forks, North Dakota scored twice in seven man-advantage situations and allowed one power play goal to the Mavericks in eight chances.

In the four-game season series, North Dakota went 6-for-17 with the man advantage (35.3%) and killed 12 of 15 Omaha power plays (80.0%).

Through 34 games, the Green and White have blocked an incredible 385 shots (11.3 per game), led by Bennett Zmolek with 48, Jake Livanavage with 42, and Keaton Verhoeff with 38. Zmolek has been in and out of the lineup over the past few weeks; Zmolek’s 48 blocks have come in just 27 games.

Omaha has blocked 183 shots in its 34 games (5.4/game), with Marc Lajoie (35), Jacob Guevin (30), and Marcus Broberg (28) leading the charge.

North Dakota’s defensive corps has provided plenty of production from the back end, already notching 100 points (22 goals and 78 assists) in 235 combined games (0.43 points per game). Among defensemen, UND is led by two juniors – Abram Wiebe (5-21-26) and Jake Livanavage (5-20-25) – and freshman Keaton Verhoeff (6-14-20).

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.

By comparison, Omaha’s blueliners have scored sixteen goals and 52 assists for 68 points in 220 combined games (0.31 points/game), led by senior Griffin Ludtke (0-17-17), sophomore Marc Lajoie (6-7-13), and junior Aidan de la Gorgendiere (3-9-12),

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 807 shots on goal this season in 34 games (23.7/game, 3rd-best in the country), while Omaha has allowed 1091 (32.1, 47th).

The Mavericks are allowing 3.47 goals per game this season (52nd in the nation), while North Dakota is allowing just 2.32 (9th). On the offensive side, UND is scoring 3.85 goals per game (3rd), while Omaha has managed just 2.68 goals per game (44th).

Sometimes it is difficult to dissect numbers like those above, so here it is in plain terms: in 34 games, UND has outscored opponents 131-79. In the same number of games, Omaha has been outscored 91-118.

Fighting Hawks’ graduate netminder Gibson Homer (9-5-0, 2.71 goals-against average, .889 save percentage) started each of the first four games of the season and then split the next four weekends with freshman Jan Spunar (16-3-1, 1.93 GAA, .917 SV%, four shutout) before giving way to Spunar entirely for the majority of the season. Homer did earn a start on Senior Night two Saturdays ago and again last Saturday night (after UND clinched the Penrose), but I would expect Spunar to start from here on out.

Omaha senior goaltender Simon Latkoczy (8-14-0, 3.20 GAA, .899 SV%) has played roughly two-thirds of the minutes for the Mavericks this season. While his numbers this season do not measure up to his previous three collegiate campaigns, he has recorded thirty or more saves nine different times this year and retains the ability to steal a game for his team.

Omaha Team Profile

Head Coach: Mike Gabinet (9th season at UNO, 147-153-19, .491)

National Rankings: #NR/NR
NPI Ranking: 41st
KRACH: 102.1 (33rd)

This Season: 12-22-0 overall, 8-16-0-0 NCHC (8th)
Last Season: 18-17-1 overall (missed NCAA tournament), 13-8-2-1 NCHC (4th)

Team Offense: 2.68 scored/game – 44th of 63 teams
Team Defense: 3.47 goals allowed/game – 52nd of 63 teams

Power Play: 21.8% (27 of 124)– 21st of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 76.6% (98 of 128)– 50th of 63 teams

Key Players: Sophomore F Maxime Pellerin (8-12-20), Freshman F Luke Woodworth (4-15-19), Freshman F Marcus Nguyen (11-5-16), Sophomore F Trevor Wong (5-14-19), Freshman F Jeremy Loranger (7-1-18), Senior D Griffin Ludtke (0-17-17), Junior D Aidan de la Gorgendiere (3-9-12), Sophomore D Marc Lajoie (6-7-13), Senior D Jacob Guevin (3-6-9), Senior G Simon Latkoczy (8-14-0, 3.20 GAA, .899 SV%)

North Dakota Team Profile

Head Coach: Dane Jackson (1st season at North Dakota, 25-8-1, .750)

National Rankings: #3/#2
NPI Ranking: 3rd
KRACH Rating: 507.8 (2nd)

This Season: 25-8-1 overall, 16-2-1-5 NCHC (1st)
Last Season: 21-15-2 overall (missed NCAA tournament), 11-8-4-1 NCHC (5th)

2025-26 Season Statistics:

Team Offense: 3.85 goals scored/game – 3rd of 63 teams
Team Defense: 2.32 goals allowed/game – 9th of 63 teams

Power Play: 26.9% (32 of 119) – 9th of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 83.0% (88 of 106) – 13th of 63 teams

Key Players: Freshman F Cole Reschny (5-26-31), Senior F Ben Strinden (15-18-33), Freshman F Will Zellers (17-10-27), Senior F Dylan James (17-10-27), Sophomore F Mac Swanson (8-16-24), Senior F Ellis Rickwood (8-24-32), Junior D Jake Livanavage (5-20-25), Junior D Abram Wiebe (5-21-26), Freshman D Keaton Verhoeff (6-14-20), Freshman G Jan Spunar (16-3-1, 1.93 GAA, .917 SV%, 4 SO)

By The Numbers

Last Meeting: December 13, 2025 (Grand Forks, ND). One night after dispatching the visitors by a final score of 4-1, North Dakota completed the four-game season sweep over the Mavericks with a 3-1 victory. UND’s Anthony Menghini responded less than a minute after Omaha’s first goal, and Ellis Rickwood gave the home team the lead for good by dancing between defenders and lighting the lamp with only two seconds remaining in the second period.

Last Playoff Meeting: March 15th, 2025 (Omaha, Nebraska). For the second night in a row, the visiting Hawks narrowly edged their hosts by a final score of 3-2. On this night, it was a furious third-period comeback after Omaha had built a 2-0 lead. North Dakota defenseman Jayden Jubenvill netted the game-winner with just 96 seconds remaining in the hockey game to propel the Green and White to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff. UND scored its three goals on just five shots in the final frame.

Most Memorable Meeting: The game that UND fans will long remember is the outdoor game played at TD Ameritrade Park (Omaha, Nebraska) on February 9th, 2013. One day after winning a tight 2-1 contest indoors, North Dakota throttled UNO 5-2 on a sunny, melty afternoon. Mavericks netminder John Faulkner was pulled after allowing three goals on five shots in just ten minutes of game action. In my opinion, this hockey weekend solidified the notion that for UND hockey, it’s always a home game.

Last Ten: North Dakota has won seven of the past ten tilts between the teams, including three of the four games played last season and all four regular-season matchups this year. UND has outscored the Mavericks 34-27 over the past ten games; Omaha has scored two goals or fewer in each of the past six meetings.

All-Time: UND leads the all-time series 43-23-2 (.636), including a record of 22-11-1 (.662) in Grand Forks. The teams first met on November 19, 2010.

Game News and Notes

Eleven seasons ago, both North Dakota and Omaha advanced to the NCAA Frozen Four but neither team made the championship game. UND fell to Boston University 5-3, while the Mavericks were upended 4-1 by eventual national champion Providence. In team history, the Mavericks have made the national tournament five times (2006, 2011, 2015, 2021, 2024), with a Frozen Four appearance under head coach Dean Blais in 2015. In 33 of the past 41 contests in this series, the winning team is the one which scores the first goal. This season, North Dakota is 17-3-1 (.795) when scoring first; Omaha, 8-8-0 (.500). North Dakota has outscored opponents 56-18 in third periods this season, including a scoring margin of 44-11 against conference foes. On nine occasions this season, UND has scored at least three goals in the final twenty minutes of regulation. UND’s Dylan James has nine goals and thirteen points in his twenty career games against the Mavericks.

All Green. All In.

The University of North Dakota has announced that each home game throughout the playoffs will be a “Green Out”. All fans are encouraged to wear green to support the team!

The Prediction

The underlying metrics all seem to favor North Dakota, although as I mentioned above, it is a tall task to end another team’s season. The home team will not have a problem in Friday’s opener, but the rematch on Saturday night will be a battle. Ultimately, this will be a sweep for the Green and White, but it won’t be easy. UND 4-1, 4-2.

Broadcast Information

All 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. If Sunday’s Game Three is also necessary, that game will begin at 6:07 p.m.

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.

#3 North Dakota (24-7-1 overall, 15-2-1-4 NCHC) squares off against #4 Western Michigan (23-8-1 overall, 13-5-3-1 NCHC) at Lawson Arena in Kalamazoo, Michigan this weekend with the NCHC regular season championship on the line. With six league points up for grabs in the two-game series, the Fighting Hawks need just one point to secure at least a share of the Penrose Cup. In other words, WMU would need to win both games in regulation to repeat as outright league champions; last year, Western Michigan won the program’s first-ever Penrose Cup. For the first time since 2015, two NCHC teams playing head-to-head on the final weekend of the regular season could both hoist the trophy.

In 2024, UND won the Penrose Cup at home against Western Michigan.

In 2025, Western Michigan won the Penrose Cup at home against North Dakota.

This weekend, there is more on the line than the trophy. The NCHC regular-season champion will also have home ice throughout the league playoffs.

UND and Western Michigan have not met this season, so we’ll need to take a look further back to make sense of what fans should expect in this pivotal matchup.

Nearly a year ago, the Broncos ended UND’s season with a 4-2 victory in the semifinals of the last-ever NCHC Frozen Faceff (Xcel Energy Center; St. Paul, Minnesota). The Fighting Hawks drew within one goal on freshman Sacha Boisvert’s eighteenth goal of the season, an extra-attacker tally with just fifty seconds remaining. 26 seconds later, a Broncos’ empty-netter sent the boys in green home early and led to a coaching change in Grand Forks.

After dispatching North Dakota, WMU won a double-overtime thriller over Denver to win the NCHC playoff championship and rode that momentum all the way to the program’s first national title. Incredibly, Western Michigan also won a pair of 2OT games in the NCAA tournament. First it was a 2-1 win over Minnesota State in the regional semifinal. Two games later – after a 2-1 victory against UMass – Western Michigan faced DU in the Frozen Four semifinals; that game went 26 seconds into double overtime before Owen Michaels sent his team to the championship game (a 6-2 Broncos victory over Boston University).

Western Michigan played a total of twelve overtime games in 2024-25 and came out of those contests with an overall record of 8-3-1. One of those overtime losses was WMU’s last loss of last season: a 4-3 home defeat at the hands of North Dakota which saw Sasha Boisvert tie the game with under forty seconds to play and Jake Livanavage score a power play goal in the extra session. Livanavage made sure to celebrate near the Lawson Lunatics (WMU’s student section), since they direct most of their collective attention at whichever opponent wears #4.

It is worth noting that the Broncos won the other three games in the season series a year ago and were the best team North Dakota faced in the entire campaign. WMU won Friday’s opener in Kalamazoo and earned a sweep in Grand Forks two months earlier. The home squad had a chance in Friday’s opener, but it was all Broncos in the rematch. UND drew a penalty late in regulation in game one, but an interference call just 24 seconds later negated the advantage. Early in the extra frame, Western Michigan scored a power play tally to earn the 3-2 victory. On Saturday night, the game was probably closer than the 5-1 final score, but WMU continually frustrated North Dakota in all three zones.

Two seasons ago, in the only series between the teams, North Dakota swept Western Michigan at home (5-3, 3-0) to capture the program’s sixth Penrose Cup. In the in the twelve completed seasons of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, only UND, Denver, St. Cloud State , and Western Michiganhave hoisted the Penrose.

Three years ago, UND managed to take five of six league points on the road at Kalamazoo (2-2 tie/shootout win; 3-0 win), but the Broncos swept the Fighting Hawks at Ralph Engelstad Arena (4-0, 7-6) to take the season series.

Fifth-year head coach Pat Ferschweiler (WMU ’93) recently earned a contract extension that will keep him behind the Broncos’ bench through April 2030. Ferschweiler, who had previously been the WMU associate head coach under Andy Murray, also spent four seasons as an assistant coach for the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings.

In his rookie campaign four seasons ago, Ferschweiler went 26-12-1 and brought his team within one game of the Frozen Four, falling to Minnesota in the regional final. In September of 2022, the Western Michigan bench boss was extended through the 2025-26 season. Three years ago, he led the Broncos to a 2nd-place finish in the NCHC, an overall record of 23-15-1, and another NCAA tournament appearance. Two seasons ago, Ferschweiler once again led his team to the NCAA tourney with an overall mark of 21-16-1.

Last year was certainly Ferschweiler’s best behind the bench.

After losing seven of his top nine point producers – forwards Luke Grainger (14-34-48 in 2023-24), Dylan Wendt (23-21-44), Sam Colangelo (24-19-43), Chad Hillebrand (7-19-26), and Ethan Phillips (9-14-23) and defensemen Zak Galambos (9-12-21) and Carter Berger (4-16-20) – Ferschweiler saw his team scoring at a HIGHER rate last season (3.98 goals scored per game in 2024-25; 3.58 in 2023-24).

And the scary part for opponents was that last year’s championship team was much better defensively than any we’ve seen in the Ferschweiler era:

2024-25: 2.05 goals allowed/game
2023-24: 2.55 goals allowed/game
2022-23: 2.62 goals allowed/game
2021-22: 2.59 goals allowed/game

Things aren’t quite as impressive this year, but Western is still scoring 3.75 goals per game (6th in the nation) and allowing just 2.34 (11th).

This year’s version of the Fighting Hawks clears both of those:

Goals scored/game: 3.84 (4th in the nation)
Goals allowed/game: 2.25 (7th)

After having the luxury of starting either graduate netminder Cameron Rowe (15-2-0, 2.00 goals-against average, .924 save percentage, one shutout) or freshman Hampton Slukynsky (19-5-1, 1.90 GAA, .922 SV%, 1 SO) between the pipes last season, Slukynsky has played every minute in net for WMU, with a record of 23-8-1, a goals-against average of 2.25, a save percentage of .916 save perctentage, and four shutouts).

After alternating with Rowe for much of the 2024-25 season, Slukynsky, started – and won – the last twelve consecutive games for the Broncos. Slukynsky was slated to attend Northern Michigan University before head coach Ryan Potulny departed the program to become the head coach of the Hartford Wolf Pack (AHL). Slukynsky got out of his NLI and chose to attend WMU along with his brother Grant Slukysnky, who entered the portal after playing one season (6-3-9 in 34 games) under Potulny.

In the Division I era (since 1975), the Broncos have had seventeen twenty-win seasons, with nine of those coming between 1984 and 1996 under head coach Bill Wilkinson. At 23-8-1, Pat Ferschweiler has already led his team to twenty victories for the fifth consecutive year.

As mentioned above, UND is in the driver’s seat for another league title and could clinch the Penrose Cup with a victory tonight.

UND can finish no lower than third place in the league standings and will be at home for the first round of the NCHC playoffs, which will be played from March 6th through March 8th.

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).

So far this season, the NCHC has won nearly seventy percent of its non-conference games (62-29-2, .677) and has four teams (#3 North Dakota, #4 Western Michigan, #8 Denver, and #9 Minnesota Duluth) 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 ten seasons. The nine teams in the league have gone 602-310-81 (.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.

Turning our attention to this weekend’s matchup, a half-point per game or better is my benchmark for solid offensive production, and the Broncos boast TEN lineup regulars who meet that threshold: junior forward Grant Slukysnky (8-27-35), senior forward Liam Valente (17-13-30), junior forward William Whitelaw (17-12-29), junior forward Zaccharya Wisdom (15-11-26), junior forward Owen Michaels (10-12-22), sophomore forward Ty Henricks (9-13-22), freshman forward Bobby Cowan (5-16-21), sophomore forward Zach Nehring 5-12-17), senior defenseman Samuel Sjolund (6-16-21), sophomore defenseman Zach Sharp (5-14-19).

Liam Valente spent his first two seasons at Providence, scoring seven goals and adding thirteen assists in 59 games played. Last year, he put up a line of 14-19-33 in 42 games.

William Whitelaw is on his third team in three seasons (Wisconsin in 2023-24, Michigan in 2024-25). Zaccharya Wisdom played the past two seasons at Colorado College.

It is worth noting that WMU’s top two defensemen – sophomore Joona Vaisanen and junior Cole Crusberg-Roseen remain out of the lineup this weekend. Neither has played since the calendar turned to 2026; both are out for the season with lower-body injuries. When they were on the ice, Vaisanen was averaging nearly 22 minutes per game; Crusberg-Roseen, nearly 21 minutes.

North Dakota will also have ten players in the lineup this weekend who have met that same offensive threshold: senior forward Ellis Rickwood (8-23-31), senior forward Ben Strinden (14-16-30), freshman forward Will Zellers (16-10-26), sophomore forward Mac Swanson (7-15-22), freshman forward Cole Reschny (4-24-2), senior forward Dylan James (17-10-27), freshman forward Josh Zakreski (2-2-4 in eight games), junior defenseman Jake Livanavage (5-19-24), junior defenseman Abram Wiebe (5-20-25), and freshman defenseman Keaton Verhoeff (6-12-18).

Josh Zakreski returned to the lineup last weekend after a lengthy absence and promptly scored a goal on his first shift.

As mentioned above, sophomore Hampton Slukynsky (23-8-1, 2.25 GAA, .916 SV%, 4 SO) has played every minute in net for the Broncos.

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 began to earn more starts as the season went along.

Here’s how the two stack up:

Spunar: 15-3-1, 1.87 goals-against average, .919 save percentage, four shutouts

Homer: 9-4-0, 2.62 goals-against average, .890 save percentage

Gibson Homer did earn a start last Saturday night for Senior Night, but I would expect that it will be Jan Spunar’s net for the remainder of the season.

After this weekend, both teams will be hosting the first round of the NCHC playoffs (best-of-three quarterfinals from March 6th-8th); their opponents remain to be determined.

Western Michigan Team Profile

Head Coach: Pat Ferschweiler (5th season at WMU, 127-58-5, .682)

National Rankings: #4/#4
NPI Ranking: 4th
KRACH Ranking: 437.3 (4th)

This Season: 23-8-1 overall, 13-5-3-1 NCHC (t-2nd of 9 teams)
Last Season: 34-7-1 overall (NCAA Champions), 15-1-4-4 NCHC (1st)

2025-2026 Season Statistics:

Team Offense: 3.75 goals scored/game – 6th of 63 teams
Team Defense: 2.34 goals allowed/game – 11th of 63 teams

Power Play: 20.5% (25 of 122) – 32nd of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 86.3% (107 of 124) – 7th of 63 teams

Key Players: Junior F Grant Slukysnky (8-27-35), Senior F Liam Valente (17-13-30), Junior F William Whitelaw (17-12-29), Junior F Zaccharya Wisdom (15-11-26), Junior F Owen Michaels (10-12-22), Sophomore F Ty Henricks (9-13-22), Freshman F Bobby Cowan (5-16-21), Sophomore F Zach Nehring 5-12-17), Senior D Samuel Sjolund (6-16-21), Sophomore D Zach Sharp (5-14-19), Sophomore G Hampton Slukynsky (23-8-1, 2.25 GAA, .916 SV%, 4 SO)

North Dakota Team Profile

Head Coach: Dane Jackson (1st season at North Dakota, 24-7-1, .766)

National Rankings: #3/#3
NPI Ranking: 3rd
KRACH Rating: 488.5 (3rd)

This Season: 24-7-1 overall, 15-2-1-4 NCHC (1st)
Last Season: 21-15-2 overall (missed NCAA tournament), 11-8-4-1 NCHC (5th)

2025-26 Season Statistics:

Team Offense: 3.84 goals scored/game – 4th of 63 teams
Team Defense: 2.25 goals allowed/game – 7th of 63 teams

Power Play: 27.6% (32 of 116) – 7th of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 82.0% (82 of 100) – 20th of 63 teams

Key Players: Freshman F Cole Reschny (4-24-28), Senior F Ben Strinden (14-16-30), Freshman F Will Zellers (16-10-26), Senior F Dylan James (17-10-27), Sophomore F Mac Swanson (7-15-22), Senior F Ellis Rickwood (8-23-31), Junior D Jake Livanavage (5-19-24), Junior D Abram Wiebe (5-20-25), Freshman D Keaton Verhoeff (6-12-18), Freshman G Jan Spunar (15-3-1, 1.87 GAA, .919 SV%, 4 SO)

By The Numbers

Last Meeting in Kalamazoo: March 1, 2025. Western Michigan took a 3-2 lead in the third period thanks to two Ty Hendricks goals just two minutes apart. UND battled back and forced overtime on an extra-attacker tally by Sacha Boisvert with just 36 seconds remaining in the game, and the Fighting Hawks’ Jake Livanavage completed the comeback with a power play marker late in the five-minute overtime session. The Broncos outshot North Dakota 36-18 but were continually stymied by UND netminder T.J. Semptimphelter, who finished with 33 saves.

Most Important Meeting: March 24, 2012 (St. Paul, MN). North Dakota upended Western Michigan 3-1 in the NCAA West Regional semifinal. Brock Nelson had two points, including an empty net goal with 25 seconds remaining that sent UND to the regional finals against Minnesota. Aaron Dell made 24 saves for the Green and White. The Broncos, who have played at the Division I level since 1975-76, have ten NCAA tournament appearances.

A Trip Down Memory Lane: Saturday, March 22, 2014 (Minneapolis, MN). North Dakota faced a must-win situation in the 3rd place game at the inaugural NCHC Frozen Faceoff, and did not disappoint the partisan crowd. The Green and White rolled to a 5-0 victory behind two first-period goals from Conner Gaarder. UND netminder Zane Gothberg made 25 saves for the shutout, and Dave Hakstol’s crew played the waiting game for several more hours before discovering that they had indeed made the NCAA tournament for the twelfth consecutive season.

All-Time Series: In the short history between the schools, UND has won 31 of the 48 games (31-16-1, .656), including a 13-6-1 (.675) record at Lawson Arena. Before the 2016-17 season in which Western Michigan won three of the four meetings, WMU’s lone victory over North Dakota was a 2-1 road win on March 8th, 2014. The teams first met in 1997.

Last Ten: Western Michigan has won six of the past ten between meetings the teams, even though only three of those ten games were played in Kalamazoo. The combined score of the last ten contests? Broncos 35, Fighting Hawks 30.

Game News and Notes

Western Michigan moved up to the Division I ranks beginning with the 1975-76 season and has advanced to the NCAA tournament ten times. Over that same stretch, North Dakota has appeared in the NCAA tourney thirty times, with sixteen Frozen Fours and six national championships (1980, 1982, 1987, 1997, 2000, 2016). The Broncos have made the NCAA tourney five times (2017, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025) in their first twelve seasons in the NCHC after advancing to the national tournament twice (2011, 2012) in the last three seasons in the now-defunct CCHA. North Dakota has outscored opponents 53-16 in third periods this season, including a scoring margin of 41-9 against conference foes. On nine occasions this season, UND has scored at least three goals in the final twenty minutes of regulation. With no trip to Lawson Arena (capacity 3667) scheduled next season and a new Western Michigan rink anticipated for the fall of 2027, this weekend’s games are likely to be UND’s final two appearances in front of the Lawson Lunatics. Since December 5th, WMU has lost just twice (14-2-1), but those two losses were vs. Omaha and at Miami. Since November 15th, UND has lost just three times (17-3-1), with all three losses by the same score (3-2) and two of the three reaching overtime.

The Prediction

Both teams have plenty to play for this weekend, and fans are in for a treat. After these two league games, I fully expect the Fighting Hawks and Broncos to meet at some point in the conference playoffs and in the national tournament. Unlike last year, these squads are very evenly matched, with each side boasting a few small edges. In a series like this, with equal motivation on both benches, a split is the most likely result. Of course, things change if Western wins the opener in regulation and can clinch the Penrose by duplicating that result on Saturday. If North Dakota wins on Friday night, the teams may just go through the motions in the rematch. UND 4-2, WMU 4-2.

Broadcast Information

Both games this weekend will be available via webcast at NCHC.tv. Puck drop is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. Central Time on Friday, with a 5:00 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!

#3 North Dakota (23-7-0) hosts a familiar foe this weekend – the unranked Huskies (16-16-0) of St. Cloud State. SCSU has played well at various points this season but has given up far too many goals in conference play (3.45 goals allowed/game; 7th of nine teams in the NCHC) and has shown an inability to come back after trailing (4-14-0 when the opponent scores first).

UND is in the driver’s seat for another league title and could clinch the Penrose Cup with perfect results tonight and tomorrow night.

It has come down to a three-team race for the Penrose Cup ; the Fighting Hawks could secure the program’s seventh NCHC title with a regulation sweep over the Huskies.

NCHC standings:

North Dakota: 14-2-1-3 (47 league points) in 20 games played
Denver: 13-5-3-1 (46 league points) in 22 games played
Western Michigan: 12-5-2-1 (41 league points) in 20 games played

Here are the schedules for the top three NCHC teams over the final two weeks of the regular season:

UND: vs. St. Cloud State, at Western Michigan
Denver: OFF, vs. Arizona State
WMU: at Colorado College, vs. UND

UND can finish no lower than third place in the league standings and will be at home for the first round of the NCHC playoffs, which will be played from March 6th through March 8th.

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.

In early December 2025, North Dakota pulled off the rare road sweep at the Herb Brooks Center. In Friday’s opener, the teams traded blows, with Will Zellers’ third-period tally standing as the game-winner in a 4-3 Fighting Hawks victory. In Saturday’s rematch, St. Cloud tied the game 2-2 with less than nine minutes remaining and earned a power play shortly thereafter. Less than thirty seconds into the man advantage, UND’s Jake Livanavage potted a brilliant shorthanded goal to put the visitors on top. Exactly seven minutes later – with four seconds remaining – Livanavage scored into the empty net for good measure. SCSU outshot the visitors 37-25; North Dakota freshman netminder Jan Spunar made 35 saves in the victory.

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).

So far this season, the NCHC has won nearly seventy percent of its non-conference games (62-29-2, .677) and has four teams (#3 North Dakota, #4 Western Michigan, #8 Denver, and #9 Minnesota Duluth) 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 ten seasons. The nine teams in the league have gone 602-310-81 (.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.

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 six lineup regulars who have achieved that level of success, including two – junior forward Tyler Gross (18-21-39) and sophomore forward Austin Burnevik (17-18-35) – averaging over a point per game. Other solid offensive contributors include junior forward Barrett Hall (10-18-28), senior defenseman Max Smolinski (6-12-18), sophomore defenseman Finn Loftus (4-12-16), and freshman defenseman Tanner Hendricks (2-3-5 in ten games).

North Dakota is certain to have nine players in the lineup this weekend who have met that same offensive threshold: senior forward Ellis Rickwood (7-19-26), senior forward Ben Strinden (14-14-28), freshman forward Will Zellers (14-9-23), sophomore forward Mac Swanson (6-15-21), freshman forward Cole Reschny (4-22-26), senior forward Dylan James (17-9-26), junior defenseman Jake Livanavage (5-19-24), junior defenseman Abram Wiebe (4-17-21), and freshman defenseman Keaton Verhoeff (6-12-18).

UND freshman forward Josh Zakreski (1-2-3 in six games played) is close to returning to the lineup.

St. Cloud State’s Tyson Gross and North Dakota’s Jake Livanavage are both strong contenders for the 2026 Hobey Baker Memorial Award.

Offensively, UND outpaces SCSU by a substantial margin. To this point of the season, North Dakota has scored 113 goals in 30 games (3.77 goals per game, 4th in the country), while St. Cloud State has managed 100 in 32 games (3.13, 24th).

The Fighting Hawks are fifth in the nation in shooting percentage at 11.5%. SCSU clocks in at 10.0%, good for 29th in the country. Both teams do an adequate job of getting the puck to the net, with UND averaging 32.8 shots on goal per game (12th) and the Huskies just behind at 31.2 shots on goal per contest (23rd).

There is an even greater difference on the defensive side.

Through thirty games, the Green and White have blocked 333 shots (11.1 per game), led by Bennett Zmolek with 42 and Jake Livanavage with 38. Zmolek has been in and out of the lineup over the past two weekends; his 42 blocks have come in just 24 games.

St. Cloud State has blocked 323 shots in its 32 games (10.1/game), with seniors Mason Reiners (39) and Max Smolinski (38) leading the way.

North Dakota’s defensive corps has provided plenty of production from the back end, already notching twenty goals and adding 66 assists in 208 combined games (0.41 points per game).

The nine St. Cloud State State blueliners to play this season have scored twenty goals and added 55 assists in 220 combined games (0.34 points/game). Aside from seniors Max Smolinski (6-12-18) and Cooper Wylie (3-10-13) and sophomore Finn Loftus (4-12-16), no SCSU defenseman has collected more than eight points.

For the Fighting Hawks, it’s been two juniors – Jake Livanavage (5-19-24) and Abram Wiebe (4-17-21) – and a freshman (Keaton Verhoeff (6-12-18).

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 and scored UND’s first goal last Saturday night against Miami.

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 693 shots on goal this season (23.1/game, 3rd-best in the country), while St. Cloud State has allowed 954 (29.8, 32nd).

St. Cloud State is allowing 3.00 goals per game this season (34th in the nation), while North Dakota is allowing just 2.13 (4th).

Normally I would say that the Fighting Hawks would be ill-advised to get into a specialty teams battle with the Huskies; this year, however, UND has slightly better overall numbers than St. Cloud State.

SCSU is a +14, with thirty power play goals scored (30 of 118, 25.4%, 9th in the country), 21 power play goals allowed (67 of 88, 76.1%, 49th), six shorthanded goals scored, and one shorthanded goal allowed.

UND is a +15, with 31 power play goals scored (31 of 111, 27.9%, 6th), eighteen power play goals allowed (79 of 97, 81.4%, 26th), six shorthanded goals scored, and four shorthanded goals allowed.

In the December series in St. Cloud, it was a mixed bag of results for North Dakota. On Friday night, UND went 1-for-3 with the man advantage and held the Huskies scoreless on their two power play opportunities but did surrender a shorthanded goal. In the rematch, North Dakota went 1-for-1 on the power play, held St. Cloud State to one power play goal on six attempts (including a major penalty), and scored a key shorthanded goal late in the third period.

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 to this point in the season:

Berzins: 10-6-0, 2.83 goals-against average, .910 save percentage

Shostak: 6-10-0, 2.90 goals-against average, .899 save percentage

Shostak does have the only two shutouts for the Huskies this season, a 21-save performance against Vermont back on October 18th and a 42-save performance against Minnesota-Duluth on January 16th. In a rare back-to-back for the first-year netminder, Shostak gave up four goals on 28 shots the following night.

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 began to earn more starts as the season went along.

Here’s how the two stack up:

Spunar: 15-3-0, 1.76 goals-against average, .922 save percentage, four shutouts

Homer: 8-4-0, 2.49 goals-against average, .894 save percentage

On the team side of things, I’m looking at two other important areas in this matchup…

UND far outpaces St. Cloud State in two key puck possession statistics:

North Dakota: 2nd in Corsi (58.3%) and 3rd in Fenwick (58.1%)
St. Cloud State: 33rd in Corsi (50.7%) and 35th in Fenwick (50.0%)

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.

The other key area to watch this weekend is the face-off circle. The Fighting Hawks are the nation’s sixth-best team on draws (54.2%), while the Huskies clock in at 53.3% (9th).

For UND, senior transfer Ellis Rickwood has been the go-to guy in all key situations, winning 275 of 450 (61.1%). Aside from Rickwood, it’s been two freshmen – Cole Reschny (225 of 405, 55.6%) and Ollie Josephson (209 of 378, 55.3%) – handling the majority of draws.

For SCSU, junior Tyson Gross (439 of 741, 59.2%) has been an absolute workhorse, while freshman Nolan Roed (231 of 427, 54.1%) has done an admirable job and junior Verner Miettinen (180 of 353) has been a steady third option.

After this weekend, North Dakota (3rd in the NPI used to seed the NCAA tournament) will travel to Kalamazoo to face the Western Michigan Broncos (4th) for the final two games of the regular season. SCSU will be idle.

St. Cloud State Team Profile

Head Coach: Brett Larson (7th season at SCSU, 153-113-22, .569)

National Rankings: NR/NR
NPI Ranking: 22nd
KRACH Rating: 164.8 (16th)

This Season: 16-16-0 overall, 8-11-1-2 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: 3.13 goals scored/game – 24th of 63 teams
Team Defense: 3.00 goals allowed/game – 34th of 63 teams

Power Play: 25.4% (30 of 118) – 29th of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 76.1% (67 of 88) – 49th of 63 teams

Key players: Junior F Tyler Gross (18-21-39), Sophomore F Austin Burnevik (17-18-35), Junior F Barrett Hall (10-18-28), Freshman F Nolan Roed (3-12-15), Freshman F Noah Urness (7-8-15), Sophomore F Gavin Thoreson (8-7-15), Senior D Max Smolinski (6-12-18), Senior D Cooper Wylie (3-10-13), Sophomore D Finn Loftus (4-12-16), Sophomore G Patrik Berzins (10-6-0, 2.83 GAA, .910 SV%)

North Dakota Team Profile

Head Coach: Dane Jackson (1st season at North Dakota, 23-7-0, .767)

National Rankings: #3/#3
NPI Ranking: 3rd
KRACH Rating: 474.0 (3rd)

This Season: 23-7-0 overall, 14-2-1-3 NCHC (1st)
Last Season: 21-15-2 overall (missed NCAA tournament), 11-8-4-1 NCHC (5th)

2025-26 Season Statistics:

Team Offense: 3.77 goals scored/game – 4th of 63 teams
Team Defense: 2.13 goals allowed/game – 4th of 63 teams

Power Play: 27.9% (31 of 111) – 6th of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 81.4% (79 of 97) – 26th of 63 teams

Key Players: Freshman F Cole Reschny (4-22-26), Senior F Ben Strinden (14-14-28), Freshman F Will Zellers (14-9-23), Senior F Dylan James (17-9-26), Sophomore F Mac Swanson (6-15-21), Senior F Ellis Rickwood (7-19-26), Junior D Jake Livanavage (5-19-24), Junior D Abram Wiebe (4-17-21), Freshman D Keaton Verhoeff (6-12-18), Freshman G Jan Spunar (15-3-0, 1.76 GAA, .922 SV%, 4 SO)

By The Numbers

Last Meeting: December 6, 2025 (St. Cloud, Minnesota). St. Cloud tied the game 2-2 with less than nine minutes remaining and earned a power play shortly thereafter. Less than thirty seconds into the man advantage, UND’s Jake Livanavage potted a brilliant shorthanded goal to put the visitors on top. Exactly seven minutes later – with four seconds remaining – Livanavage scored into the empty net for good measure. SCSU outshot the visitors 37-25; North Dakota freshman netminder Jan Spunar made 35 saves. One night earlier, the teams traded blows, with Will Zellers’ third-period tally standing as the game-winner in a 4-3 Fighting Hawks victory.

Last Meeting in Grand Forks: December 14, 2024. North Dakota’s Jake Schmaltz was the overtime hero for the Green and White, potting the game-winner just over two minutes into the 3-on-3 portion of the contest. UND never led in regulation and needed a third-period tally by Sacha Boisvert knot the game at three and send the game to an extra session. One night earlier, UND won 2-0 behind a 24-save shutout from T.J. Semptimphelter.

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, 85-49-19 (.618), including a stellar record of 43-18-9 (.679) in games played in Grand Forks. 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 6-1-3 (.750) edge in the last ten games between the schools, with a scoring advantage of 35-24 in those contests. North Dakota has only lost once in the last eleven games in this series, a 3-2 overtime defeat in the 2023 NCHC Frozen Faceoff (St. Paul, Minnesota). St. Cloud State’s last victory over UND in Grand Forks was on January 25th, 2019.

Game News and Notes

St. Cloud State is a perfect 10-0 this season when leading after twenty minutes and 11-2 when leading after the middle frame. North Dakota has outscored opponents 49-16 in third periods this season, including a scoring margin of 37-9 against conference foes. On nine occasions this season, UND has scored at least three goals in the final twenty minutes of regulation. SCSU’s early-February sweep at Arizona State (4-1, 4-3) was its first over a league foe this season. North Dakota has already swept Omaha (twice), SCSU, ASU, and Miami. Following the conclusion of the 2025-26 campaign, 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

Both teams have plenty to play for this weekend. North Dakota could clinch the Penrose Cup, while St. Cloud State could move up in the NPI rankings with good results. In recent history between these two teams, the first ten minutes of each game have been critically important, but this year’s version of the Fighting Hawks has shown tremendous will, incredible depth, and an ability to mount a comeback, no matter the opponent or situation. The Huskies are older and heavier than the home team; it will be interesting to see how physical these games become as the series progresses. I expect at least one of these games to go to overtime, with Dane Jackson’s crew possessing too many advantages to let either game slip away. UND 3-2 (OT), 4-2.

Broadcast Information

Both games this weekend will be broadcast live on Midco Sports/TSN2 and also available via webcast at NCHC.tv. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:07 p.m. Central Time on Friday, with a 6:07 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!

#3 North Dakota (21-7-0 overall, 13-2-0-3 NCHC) hosts the #20 Miami RedHawks (17-9-2 overall, 5-8-4-1 NCHC) for a pair of NCHC games at Ralph Engelstad Arena this weekend. UND is in the driver’s seat for another league title and could clinch the Penrose Cup with perfect results tonight and tomorrow night.

It has come down to a three-team race for the Penrose Cup; the Fighting Hawks could secure the program’s seventh NCHC title with a sweep over Miami and two regulation losses each by Denver and Western Michigan.

North Dakota: 13-2-0-3 (42 league points) in 18 games played
Denver: 11-5-3-1 (40 league points) in 20 games played
Western Michigan: 10-5-2-1 (35 league points) in 18 games played

Here are the schedules for the top three NCHC teams over the final weeks of the regular season:

UND: vs. Miami, vs. St. Cloud State, at Western Michigan
Denver: at Omaha, OFF, vs. Arizona State
WMU: vs. Arizona State, at Colorado College, vs. UND

After last Saturday night’s victory over Minnesota Duluth, UND can finish no lower than third place in the NCHC standings.

Astoundingly, it has been more than ten years since the Miami RedHawks men’s hockey team put together a winning season. From the start of the 2015-16 season through last year, MU posted an abysmal combined record of 85-225-38 for a winning percentage of just .299. Miami had suffered twenty or more losses in each of its last eight full seasons (the RedHawks went 5-18-2 in the COVID-shortened 2020-2021 campaign).

Somehow, second-year head coach Anthony Noreen has turned things around in Oxford. The RedHawks find themselves ranked #20 nationally, and, at 17th in the NPI, with a realistic chance of making the NCAA tournament. After zero conference victories a year ago, MU already has five in regulation and four others in overtime this season.

What is the biggest difference with this year’s Miami squad? In a word, everything.

The RedHawks coaching staff completely rebuilt the roster, with only two defensemen (graduate student Nick Donato and sophomore Michael Quinn) and five forwards (sophomores John Emmons, David Grosek, and Casper Nassen and seniors Blake Messenburg and Brayden Morrison) returning. The other 21 players (twelve freshmen and nine transfers – from Alaska Anchorage, Boston University, Canisius, Harvard, Michigan State, Quinnipiac, and St. Thomas) are new to the program this year.

To be fair, there is a clear divide in Miami’s results this season:

Non-conference: 9-1-0 vs. Ferris State (NPI 57; three games), RPI (NPI 56; two), Lindenwood (NPI 36; two), RIT (NPI 34; one), Union (NPI 30; one), and Michigan Tech (NPI 18; one)

vs. Denver (NPI 11) and Western Michigan (NPI 4): 0-5-1-0

vs. ASU (NPI 35), CC (NPI 31), Omaha (NPI 39), and SCSU (NPI 19): 5-3-3-1

To this point in the season, Miami has not squared off against North Dakota (NPI 3) or Minnesota Duluth (NPI 10).

UND is nine years removed from its eighth national championship but has made the national tournament in just four of the past eight seasons. That track record – and some early playoff exits – led to a coaching change, and Dane Jackson is now leading the charge. Jackson and his staff have North Dakota positioned well for the Penrose Cup chase, the league playoffs, and a deep run in the NCAA tournament.

In the NCHC preseason poll, UND was picked to finish in third place (behind Western Michigan and Denver), while Miami was tabbed to finish last, where they finished each of the past five seasons.

When the National Collegiate Hockey Conference was formed, Miami appeared positioned to be a dominant program. Prior to the 2013-14 season (their inaugural campaign in the NCHC), the RedHawks had made eight consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, with consecutive Frozen Four bids in 2009 (2nd) and 2010 (3rd). Since joining the NCHC, Miami has just one NCAA tournament appearance (2015), and that ended quickly with a first-round loss to eventual national champion Providence.

Long-tenured head coach Enrico Blasi was fired after posting a fourth consecutive losing season in 2018-2019. Over that stretch of time, the RedHawks were 47-81-19 (.384). There was reason for optimism in Oxford when Chris Bergeron was hired; Bergeron took over the program after leading Bowling Green to six consecutive winning seasons, five consecutive years with twenty or more victories, and an NCAA tournament appearance in 2018-2019.

Bergeron was fired two seasons ago; he compiled a record of 35-116-16 (.257) in his five years at Miami and never won more than eight games in a season.

Even though UND has played a tougher schedule to this point in the season, the Fighting Hawks still far outpace the RedHawks in two key puck possession statistics:

Miami: 44th in Corsi (47.9%) and 41st in Fenwick (48.0%)
North Dakota: 3rd in Corsi (57.3%) and 4th in Fenwick (56.9%)

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.

To this point in the season, Miami has allowed 30.3 shots on goal per game (36th); North Dakota (23.6) is fourth in the nation in that category. The RedHawks put 28.3 shots on goal per game (43rd), while UND clocks in at 32.1 (17th). Not only that, but the Fighting Hawks are scoring 3.86 goals per game (3rd) and allowing just 2.18 (6th) ; MU has scored 3.18 per game (22nd) and allowed 2.79 (27th)

Another way to look at those numbers is that in the same number of games (28), UND has outscored opponents 108-61, while Miami’s scoring margin sits at 89-78.

As always, a key area to watch this weekend is the face-off circle. The Fighting Hawks are the nation’s 8th-best team on draws (53.7%), while the RedHawks clock in at just 46.0% (57th). It remains to be seen whether UND freshman center Cole Reschny (204 of 371 , 55.0%) will return to the lineup after suffering an injury last Saturday night at Duluth.

Last year, UND and MU only played two games, with North Dakota earning a December road sweep of the RedHawks (5-4 and 4-2). Friday’s opener was a wild affair which featured a three-goal third period comeback by the visitors. UND outshot Miami 14-3 in the final frame and 38-17 overall. In Saturday’s rematch, the teams were knotted 2-2 after two before Jackson Kunz and Jayden Perron scored just over five minutes apart to break the tie.

Two seasons ago, these two teams met six times, including a March NCHC playoff series in Grand Forks. North Dakota won all six games, with only one close contest among them (a 5-4 overtime victory at Miami in February). The other five scores: 6-4, 5-1, 4-1, 5-1, and 7-1.

Remarkably, when North Dakota traveled to face to RedHawks back in January of 2023 (three seasons ago), the two teams were both at the bottom of the league standings. Two years ago, UND and Miami were at opposite ends of the spectrum: the Fighting Hawks were Penrose Cup champions, while the RedHawks won just ONE conference game all year (a 4-3 home victory over Western Michigan on January 13th, their last win of the season). Let me say that again: over the past seven weekends of hockey (one series each against every league foe), MU did not win a game (0-13-1, with a shootout loss at Denver the only bright spot). Over those fourteen games, Miami was outscored 58-26, an average margin of defeat of 4.14 – 1.86.

At the risk of repeating myself, Miami has already earned 24 league points this season (5-8-4-1) in eighteen NCHC contests; over the past three seasons, the RedHawks earned just 25 points in 72 games (4-55-0-13).

Over the first twelve completed regular seasons of the NCHC, Miami has averaged a seventh-place finish among the nine (formerly eight) conference teams (8th, 2nd, 5th, 7th, 8th, 8th, 7th, 8th, 8th, 8th, 8th, and 9th), with a combined league record of 63-192-33 (.276).

By comparison, North Dakota has finished 2nd, 1st, 1st, 4th, 4th, 5th, 1st, 1st, 1st, 5th, 1st, and 5th, for an average finish just under second place, with a combined league record of 169-90-29 (.637). No other league has collected as many conference wins as UND.

So far this season, the NCHC has won nearly seventy percent of its non-conference games (62-29-2, .677) and has four teams (#3 North Dakota, #4 Western Michigan, #8 Denver, and #10 Minnesota Duluth) 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 602-310-81 (.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.

After this weekend, North Dakota (3rd in the NPI used to seed the NCAA tournament) will host St. Cloud State (19th) before traveling to Kalamazoo to face the Western Michigan Broncos (4th) on the last weekend of the regular season. Miami will host Minnesota Duluth (10th) before traveling to Omaha (39th).

Miami Team Profile

Head Coach: Anthony Noreen (2nd season at Miami, 20-37-5, .363)

National Rankings: #20/#20
NPI Ranking: 20th
KRACH Rating: 143.5 (17th)

This Season: 17-9-2 overall; 5-8-4-1 NCHC (5th)
Last Season: 3-28-3 overall (missed NCAA tournament), 0-20-0-4 NCHC (9th)

2025-26 Season Statistics:

Team Offense: 3.18 goals scored/game – 22nd of 63 teams
Team Defense: 2.79 goals allowed/game – 27th of 63 teams

Power Play: 13.5% (15 of 111) – 56th of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 81.1% (86 of 106) – 28th of 63 teams

Key players: Freshman F Kocha Delic (9-11-20), Freshman F David Deputy (14-5-19), Freshman F Ilia Morozov (7-9-16), Graduate F Maximillion Helgeson (10-9-19), Junior F Matteo Giampa (9-11-20), Junior F Doug Grimes (7-8-15), Sophomore F Ryan Smith (8-8-16), Sophomore D Vladislav Lukashevich (questionable for this weekend’s series; 2-16-18), Sophomore D Michael Quinn (4-13-17), Sophomore G Matteo Drobac (16-9-2, 2.58 GAA, .913 SV%, 3 SO)

North Dakota Team Profile

Head Coach: Dane Jackson (1st season at North Dakota, 21-7-0, .750)

National Rankings: #3/#3
NPI Ranking: 3rd
KRACH Rating: 477.2 (3rd)

This Season: 21-7-0 overall, 13-2-0-3 NCHC (1st)
Last Season: 21-15-2 overall (missed NCAA tournament), 11-8-4-1 NCHC (5th)

2025-26 Season Statistics:

Team Offense: 3.86 goals scored/game – 3rd of 63 teams
Team Defense: 2.18 goals allowed/game – 6th of 63 teams

Power Play: 28.3% (30 of 106) – 6th of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 81.1% (77 of 95) – 28th of 63 teams

Key Players: Freshman F Cole Reschny (questionable for this weekend’s series; 4-21-25), Senior F Ben Strinden (14-14-28), Freshman F Will Zellers (14-9-23), Senior F Dylan James (17-7-24), Sophomore F Mac Swanson (5-15-20), Senior F Ellis Rickwood (7-18-25), Junior D Jake Livanavage (4-19-23), Junior D Abram Wiebe (3-16-19), Freshman D Keaton Verhoeff (6-11-17), Freshman G Jan Spunar (14-3-0, 1.76 GAA, .924 SV%, 3 SO)

By The Numbers

Last Meeting: December 7, 2024 (Oxford, Ohio). North Dakota scored two goals in the third period to turn a 2-2 tie into a 4-2 road victory and a sweep of the homestanding RedHawks. Friday’s opener was a wild affair which featured a three-goal third period comeback by the visitors. UND outshot Miami 14-3 in the final frame and 38-17 overall.

Last Meeting in Grand Forks: March 16, 2024. Normally it is difficult to end a team’s season in the first round of the NCHC playoffs, but UND made quick work of Miami, besting the RedHawks 5-1 and 7-1. MU put plenty of pucks on net (56 in the two-game series), but North Dakota netminder Hobie Hedquist was up to the challenge, allowing only a single goal each night. UND’s Jackson Blake and Riese Gaber both scored on back-to-back nights.

Most Important Meeting: March 6, 2015 (Oxford, OH). North Dakota claimed the Penrose Cup with a 2-1 road victory over Miami. UND fell flat the following night, losing 6-3 in the final game of the regular season.

Last Ten: UND has won each of the past ten contests between the teams, outscoring Miami 53-19 over that stretch of games.

All-time Series: North Dakota leads the all-time series 33-8-4 (.778), including a sparkling 15-3-2 (.800) record in games played in Grand Forks. The teams first played in 1999 (Badger Showdown, Milwaukee, WI).

Game News and Notes

MU has not made the national tournament since 2015, their second season in the NCHC. Miami head coach Anthony Noreen played his collegiate hockey at UW-Stevens Point. North Dakota has outscored opponents 47-16 in third periods this season, including a scoring margin of 35-9 against conference foes. On nine occasions this season, UND has scored at least three goals in the final frame. Miami is 7-5-0 on the road this season; North Dakota is 10-4-0 at home. UND has done well on Friday the 13th in recent memory, with a record of 7-2 in its past ten games scheduled on Jason Voorhees Day (the tenth scheduled game was to be the league playoff opener against Colorado College on Friday, March 13th, 2020; that game – and the remainder of the season – was cancelled due to COVID-19). One of those two spooky scary losses was a 6-3 home defeat at the hands of Miami on Friday, January 13th, 2017. Green Hawks are preferable to RedHawks.

Highlights

Friday night is “Kids Takeover Night” at the Ralph; it is my honor and privilege to help some of Phoenix Elementary School’s finest students lead our fans in the singing of the Star Spangled Banner.

On Saturday night, UND legend Zach Parise (49-67-116 in 76 collegiate games from 2002-04) will skate “One More Shift”. The first 2500 fans will receive a special commemorative player card; those in attendance should also note a special Zach Parise collection on display in the main lobby.

The Prediction

The Fighting Hawks are deeper, more talented, and more experiened than the visitors. Specialty teams can sometimes be the great equalizer, but Miami’s power play has not been clicking (fifteen power play goals all season). MU is 7-1-0 in one-goal games this season, and they have exhibited a different level of compete and a frustrating, tight-checking brand of hockey. I expect the opener to be close, with the home team running away with the rematch. UND 3-2, 5-2.

Broadcast Information

Both games this weekend will be broadcast on Midco Sports and also 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 and 6:07 p.m. Central on Saturday.

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!

Where were you last Halloween?

Many of us were in our seats at Ralph Engelstad Arena back on October 31st, witnessing North Dakota trailing Minnesota Duluth 3-1 late in the third period. Not only was the situation dire, but the first month of the season had been a mixed bag…

Yes, UND had put together a home-and-home sweep of St. Thomas (6-2, 5-2), but there were two splits to follow: a home series against Minnesota (5-2, 1-5) and a road series at Clarkson (2-5, 1-0).

First-year head coach Dane Jackson was about to see his team drop its conference opener at home and fall to 4-3 on the young season.

Enter Mac Swanson. The sophomore forward brought the home team within one with just under four minutes to go in the hockey game. And with just over 70 seconds remaining, senior captain Ben Strinden scored an extra attacker goal to send the game to overtime.

Yes, it is true that the Bulldogs picked up the extra league point with a fluky goal less than a minute into the extra session, but it is also true that UND’s comeback was a sign of things to come.

The following night, North Dakota put together a complete effort and dismantled Minnesota Duluth by a final score of 5-1.

Beginning with that game back on November 1st, the Fighting Hawks have gone 16-3-0 and find themselves in first place in the NCHC, three points clear of second-place Denver (with two games in hand) and seven points ahead of Western Michigan.

Minnesota Duluth was in the mix for the Penrose Cup as recently as a month ago but has lost four straight games (vs. Western Michigan and at Denver) and is now in a battle for the final home ice spot for the first round of the league playoffs.

This weekend, #3 North Dakota (20-6-0 overall, 12-2-0-2 NCHC) travels to take on #10 Minnesota Duluth (17-11-0 overall, 6-6-2-4 NCHC) at Amsoil Arena.

UND is nine years removed from its eighth national championship but has made the national tournament in just four of the past eight seasons. That track record – and some early playoff exits – led to a coaching change, and Dane Jackson is now leading the charge.

In the NCHC preseason poll, UND was picked to finish in third place (behind Western Michigan and Denver), while the Bulldogs were tabbed to end up in sixth (ahead of Omaha, St. Cloud State, and Miami). With the addition of St. Thomas to the NCHC (and a new schedule format) beginning in 2026-2027, the Fighting Hawks and Bulldogs will meet for four regular-season games each year.

After an impressive run of eight straight NCAA tournament appearances from 2015 to 2022 (including two national titles), UMD missed the NCAAs in each of the last three seasons and sputtered to a combined record of just 41-60-9 (.414). After 25 seasons behind the Bulldog bench, some were asking whether head coach Scott Sandelin was on the hot seat.

Back in October, those questions were largely answered, as Duluth got off to an 8-1 start (including a road sweep of the Golden Gophers). With nine losses in their last fifteen games, however, many are checking the temperature again.

Thankfully for fans of the Bulldogs, Scott Sandelin does still have his squad in line for an NCAA tournament appearance (currently NPI 8).

UMD also boasts one of the top two forward lines in the country, a trio of second-year players:

Sophomore Max Plante: 20-20-40 in 28 games played

Sophomore Zam Plante: 11-24-35 in 28 games played

Sophomore Jayson Shaugabay: 9-26-35 in 28 games played

These three forwards (jersey numbers 10, 17, and 27) have scored 40 of UMD’s 94 goals and collected well over half of the team’s points (110 of 161).

Of the three forwards, Max is the largest at 5-11 and 180 pounds. A key for North Dakota will be to win faceoffs in their own end, play a hard, physical game, and pay attention to line matchups – not just the defensive pair but all five skaters on the ice.

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 570-291-86 (.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.

So far this season, the NCHC has won nearly seventy percent of its non-conference games (62-29-2, .677) and has four teams (#3 North Dakota, #4 Western Michigan, #8 Denver, and #10 Minnesota Duluth) positioned in the top ten in the latest rankings.

Western Michigan did the entire league a favor by defeating both #11 Boston College and #13 Wisconsin at the Holiday Faceoff in late December Those results added to the league’s already-impressive results against the other five conferences in college hockey.

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 602-310-81 (.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.

After this weekend, North Dakota (3rd in the NPI used to seed the NCAA tournament) will host Miami (19th) and St. Cloud State (25th) before traveling to Kalamazoo to face the Western Michigan Broncos (4th) on the last weekend of the regular season. Duluth (8th) will be off next weekend before a road series at Miami and a home series against Colorado College (30th).

The Bulldogs played ten games at the Division I level in the early 1930s but didn’t really get started until after World War II. Its first nineteen seasons after the war were played as an independent before joining the WCHA in 1965. It would take eighteen seasons – and a head coach named Mike Sertich – before UMD would make the NCAA tournament, and Sertich would take them there in three consecutive seasons:

1982-1983: National Quarterfinalist

1983-1984: 2nd Place (National Runner-Up)

1984-1985: 3rd Place (Consolation Champion)

In 1984, Duluth was tantalizingly close to winning its first title. The Bulldogs defeated North Dakota 2-1 in overtime (behind a goal by Bill Watson) to advance to the championship game, where they would face Bowling Green in the longest NCAA final in Division I men’s hockey history. Gino Cavallini scored for the Falcons in the fourth overtime session, ending a game that took over 97 minutes of game action to complete.

And, perhaps, fittingly, UMD would find themselves locked in overtime contests in 1985 as well. The Bulldogs took RPI to three overtimes in the national semis before falling 6-5. Back in those days, there was still a third-place game, and so Duluth faced Boston College (which had also played three overtimes in its semifinal) for no reason at all. Of course, that game also went to overtime, with UMD defeating the Eagles 7-6.

After that three-year splash on the national scene, Mike Sertich would manage just one more tournament appearance (1993) over the final fifteen years of his head coaching career before giving way to Scott Sandelin, who has guided the Bulldogs to the NCAAs eleven times in his 24 completed seasons behind the Bulldog bench. It is worth noting, however, that Duluth has had two consecutive losing seasons (28-40-6) overall and has missed the last two NCAA tourneys.

Even though UMD has been a more frequent participant over the past two decades than at any other point in team history, Duluth and North Dakota have only met twice in the national tournament (1984 and 2021). UND had a chance to meet the Bulldogs in the 2011 title game but fell to the Wolverines in the semifinals 2-0 (with an empty-net goal) despite outshooting Michigan 40-20.

Before the Wolverines were forced to withdraw from the 2021 tournament, UMD and Michigan were set to square off in the national tournament for the first time since that overtime thriller in St. Paul.

North Dakota was down 2-0 to Minnesota Duluth with just 101 seconds remaining in the third period of the 2021 NCAA Midwest Regional final at Scheels Arena in Fargo, North Dakota. The Bulldogs had built their lead with two goals just 80 seconds apart early in the final frame on a pair of fluky plays. A partially blocked shot off the stick of Jackson Cates fluttered past Fighting Hawks’ netminder Adam Scheel, and a broken stick at the blue line sent Cole Koepke in alone on a breakaway. UND scored two extra-attacker goals in the final two minutes of regulation to send the game long into the night. Minnesota Duluth outlasted North Dakota 3-2 in five overtimes to advance to the NCAA Frozen Four. The three goaltenders involved in the contest combined to make 114 saves.

With three national titles in a nine-year stretch, the Bulldogs could certainly be considered the best team of the 2010s; North Dakota’s eight national titles have been spread out across the decades: 1959, 1963, 1980, 1982, 1987, 1997, 2000, and 2016.

The Wolverines have won nine NCAA titles but only two since 1964, those coming in 1996 and 1998. For that reason, I consider North Dakota (eight titles) and Denver (ten titles) the two best programs in NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey history.

Last season, North Dakota and Minnesota Duluth squared off four times…

On November 8th and 9th, 2024, UND traveled to Duluth and swept the homestanding Bulldogs 7-3 and 4-1. North Dakota chased highly-touted netminder Adam Gajan on two consecutive nights after scoring five goals on twenty shots in 34:18 of game action in the opener and besting that with two goals on eight shots in 5:38 on night two.

The Bulldogs made the return trip to Grand Forks on February 21st and 22nd, 2025. In Friday’s opener, North Dakota scored an empty-netter to escape with a 4-2 victory after UMD drew within one with two goals in the middle frame. Adam Gajan and UND’s T.J. Semptimphelter each made thirty saves.

In Saturday’s rematch, UND went 4-for-6 with the man advantage, including three second-period goals during the same five-minute power play after UMD’s Jack Smith was penalized and given a game misconduct for checking from behind. Gajan (nine saves, one goal allowed) and Klayton Knapp (thirteen saves, five goals allowed) each played in the rematch.

Gajan, a sophomore who competed in the 2023 and 2024 World Junior U-20 Championships for his native Slovakia, was a second-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2023 NHL Draft. He played in 21 games last season, with a 7-12-1 record, a goals-against average of 3.33, a save percentage of .885, and one shutout.

Fellow first-year goalie Klayton Knapp – from Sylvania, Ohio – split time with Gajan a season ago, appearing in sixteen contests, with a record of 6-6-2, a 2.67 GAA, a .907 SV%, and one shutout.

After last season, Knapp transferred to Lindenwood, and Gajan has played nearly every minute in net for Scott Sandelin’s squad, with a goals-against average of 2.29, a save percentage of .905, and two shutouts.

Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, Adam Gajan is competing in the Winter Olympics with his native Slovakia, and it’ll be sophomore Ethan Dahlmeir (2-0-0, 3.10 GAA, .894 SV% in 135 minutes of action) or untested freshman Cole Sheffield (no stats) this weekend.

One key area to watch this weekend is the face-off circle. To this point in the season, the Fighting Hawks have won 53.0% of faceoffs, good for 12th in the country. The Bulldogs are currently sitting at 49.7% (33rd).

For UND, senior transfer Ellis Rickwood (who spent his first three collegiate seasons with Clarkson) has been a huge addition up the middle, winning 225 of 370 (60.8%). Three freshmen – Cole Reschny (193 of 348, 55.5%), Ollie Josephson (164 of 314, 52.2%), and Jack Kernan (77 of 140, 55.0%) have performed admirably as well.

For the Bulldogs, graduate student Kyle Gaffney (229 of 400, 57.3%) has been the most effective, although sophomore center Zam Plante (306 of 639, 47.9%) has seen more action in the dot.

The Bulldogs (32.3% efficiency) and Fighting Hawks (28.6%) boast two of the nation’s top four power play units. Minnesota Duluth balances that with an equally-effective penalty kill (87.6%, 3rd), while North Dakota has struggled a bit (80.2%, 32nd).

Despite those numbers, UND leads in goals scored per game (3.92 – 3.36) and goals allowed per game (2.19 – 2.50). I attribute those numbers to North Dakota’s roster depth, puck possession metrics, and goaltending.

Nearly a third of Duluth’s goals this season (32 of 94) have been scored with the man advantage. For North Dakota, the numbers are more in balance (28 of 102).

With five points this weekend (or three points and some help), UND can clinch home ice for the first round of the NCHC playoffs. As a reminder, each NCHC regulation victory is worth three points, while an overtime win (3-on-3 or shootout) is worth two and any overtime loss worth one.

Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs

Head Coach: Scott Sandelin (26th season at UMD, 486-419-103, .533)

National Rankings: #10/#10
NPI Ranking: 8th
KRACH Rating: 304.4 (6th)

This Season: 17-11-0 overall, 6-6-2-4 NCHC (4th)

Last Season: 13-20-3 overall (missed NCAA tournament), 7-11-3-3 NCHC (7th of 9 teams)

2025-2026 Season Statistics:

Team Offense: 3.36 goals scored/game – 17th of 63 teams
Team Defense: 2.50 goals allowed/game – 18th of 63 teams

Power Play: 32.3% (32 of 99) – 1st of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 87.6% (78 of 89) – 3rd of 63 teams

Key players: Sophomore F Max Plante (20-20-40), Sophomore F Jayson Shaugabay (9-26-35), Sophomore F Zam Plante (11-24-35), Sophomore F Callum Arnott (10-14-24), Senior F Scout Truman (10-3-13), Sophomore D Ty Hanson (8-19-27), Sophomore D Adam Kleber (2-7-9), Freshman D Grayden Siepmann (5-6-11), Sophomore G Ethan Dahlmeir (2-0-0, 3.10 GAA, .894 SV%)

North Dakota Team Profile

Head Coach: Dane Jackson (1st season at North Dakota, 20-6-0, .769)

National Rankings: #3/#3
NPI Ranking: 3rd
KRACH Rating: 492.3 (3rd)

This Season: 20-6-0 overall, 12-2-0-2 NCHC (1st)
Last Season: 21-15-2 overall (missed NCAA tournament), 11-8-4-1 NCHC (5th)

2025-26 Season Statistics:

Team Offense: 3.92 goals scored/game – 3rd of 63 teams
Team Defense: 2.19 goals allowed/game – 6th of 63 teams

Power Play: 28.6% (28 of 98) – 4th of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 80.2% (69 of 86) – 32nd of 63 teams

Key Players: Freshman F Cole Reschny (4-21-25), Senior F Ben Strinden (14-12-26), Freshman F Will Zellers (13-8-21), Senior F Dylan James (15-7-22), Sophomore F Mac Swanson (4-13-17), Senior F Ellis Rickwood (6-18-24), Junior D Jake Livanavage (4-18-22), Junior D Abram Wiebe (3-12-15), Freshman D Keaton Verhoeff (6-11-17), Freshman G Jan Spunar (13-2-0, 1.73 GAA, .923 SV%, 3 SO)

By The Numbers

Last Meeting: November 1st, 2025 (Grand Forks, ND). One night after UND mounted a furious two-goal comeback in the final four minutes of regulation, it was all Green and White in the rematch. North Dakota senior captain Ben Strinden – who score an extra attacker goal to even the score in Friday’s opener – notched four assists in the 5-1 victory. UND outshot Minnesota Duluth 38-20, including 16-7 in the final frame.

Last Meeting in Duluth: November 9, 2024. The final score read UND 4, UMD 1, but it was much closer than that. North Dakota had a brilliant start to the game, scoring two goals on eight shots in the opening six minutes and chasing Adam Gajan from the contest. After that, the two teams played relatively even and traded power play tallies before an empty-netter from Jackson Kunz put the game away. In Friday’s opener, it took 35 minutes for the Fighting Hawks to chase Gajan from the net; he allowed five goals on twenty shots in a 7-3 North Dakota victory. Former UMD forward Anthony Menghini – now on the other side of the rivalry – scored three power play goals in the third period for the Bulldogs; all three were assisted by Jayson Shaughabay.

Most Important Meeting: March 27, 2021 (Fargo, ND). North Dakota was down 2-0 to Minnesota Duluth with just 101 seconds remaining in the third period of the 2021 NCAA Midwest Regional final at Scheels Arena in Fargo, North Dakota. The Bulldogs had built their lead with two goals just 80 seconds apart early in the final frame on a pair of fluky plays. A partially blocked shot off the stick of Jackson Cates fluttered past Fighting Hawks’ netminder Adam Scheel, and a broken stick at the blue line sent Cole Koepke in alone on a breakaway. UND scored two extra-attacker goals in the final two minutes of regulation to send the game long into the night. Minnesota Duluth outlasted North Dakota 3-2 in five overtimes to advance to the NCAA Frozen Four. The three goaltenders involved in the contest combined to make 114 saves.

The Meeting That Never Was: Both teams advanced to the 2011 NCAA Frozen Four at Xcel Energy Center (St. Paul, Minnesota). UND could not get past Michigan, falling 2-0 despite outshooting the Wolverines 40-20. In the other national semifinal, Minnesota-Duluth defeated Notre Dame 4-3 and rode that momentum to the title game. The Bulldogs took the Wolverines to overtime before senior forward Kyle Schmidt scored the game winner and earned UMD their first national championship. North Dakota won two of the three games against Duluth that season, outscoring Scott Sandelin’s team 11-5.

All-time Series: UND leads the all-time series, 162-90-11 (.637), including a 69-46-6 (.595) advantage in games played in Duluth. The teams first met in 1954, with North Dakota winning the first ten games between the schools by a combined score of 72-16. UMD’s first win over the Fighting Sioux (a 3-2 road victory on December 18th, 1959) did not sit well with the defending national champions. UND defeated Duluth 13-2 the following night.

Last Ten: North Dakota is 9-1-0 (.900) in the last ten games between the teams, with last October’s overtime defeat the only blemish on the record. The combined score of the last ten contests is 45-16 in favor of the Fighting Hawks. North Dakota has won seven straight games in Duluth; Minnesota Duluth’s last home victory over UND was more than six years ago (January 24th, 2020). Six of the last ten games in this series were played in Grand Forks.

Game News and Notes

Both head coaches this weekend are alumni of the University of North Dakota; Dane Jackson (1988-1992) and Scott Sandelin (1982-86) both played for UND under John “Gino” Gasparini. North Dakota junior forward Anthony Menghini played his first two seasons at Duluth, scoring twenty goals and adding nine assists in 72 games. UND’s 162 victories over the Bulldogs are the second-most against any opponent in program history.

The Prediction

I expect a fast, physical weekend of hockey out of this matchup, with plenty of talent on display. An early lead would be beneficial for UND, as they seem to play with much more purpose and poise when they aren’t chasing the game. Of course, specialty teams are always a factor, and the Fighting Hawks do not want to get into a power play contest with this Bulldogs squad. On the road and without last line change, Dane Jackson will need to leverage his three advantages in this series: forward depth, a more talented defensive corps, and proven goaltending. I can’t imagine North Dakota escaping with all six points, but UND has lost only twice on the road this season (10-2-0) and seem to be catching Duluth at the right time, so anything is possible.

I expect something similar to the series in Grand Forks, with a tight Friday contest and a runaway victory in the rematch. UMD 4-3 (OT), UND 5-1.

Broadcast Information

Both games this weekend will be broadcast on Midco Sports and also 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 and 6:07 p.m. Central on Saturday.

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.

#4/#4 North Dakota (18-6-0 overall, 10-2-0-2 NCHC) travels to Tempe, Arizona to face unranked Arizona State (12-11-1 overall, 4-5-2-1 NCHC) at Mullett Arena this weekend. This key league series will mark just the sixth and seventh times that the two teams have ever met on the ice.

Despite the difference in records to this point in the season, it is worth noting that back on November 15th, the Sun Devils handed UND one of its two regulation losses in league play. ASU won that game 4-2 in Grand Forks despite being outshot 41-15. Arizona State was able to come out on top by scoring two goals in the last three minutes of the second period, including a back-breaking goal with just six seconds remaining.

One night earlier, the Fighting Hawks outshot ASU 43-21 and throttled the visitors by a final score of 5-2.

Here is a look back at the other three games in series history…

The Fighting Hawks traveled to Tempe in January 2025 for a weekend series and dropped the opener by a final score of 4-1. Saturday’s rematch was a back-and-forth affair highlighted by specialty teams goals, including a shorthanded goal and three power play markers. North Dakota got the better of it by scoring an extra attacker goal with just 28 seconds remaining in regulation and a 3-on-3 tally midway through overtime. UND outshot the Sun Devils 64-55 in the two games.

On October 29th, 2022, UND and ASU battled at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, with the Sun Devils coming back from a 2-0 deficit and prevailing by a final score of 3-2. Former UND netminder T.J. Semptimphelter was the winning goaltender for Arizona State in that contest; he only had to make thirteen saves to secure the victory.

That loss was the second straight destination-game defeat for the Green and White, as they also lost 6-4 to Penn State at Bridgestone Arena (Nashville, Tennessee) on October 30th, 2021.

Prior to those two losses, North Dakota had won four straight showcase events:

2012: Bell MTS Place (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
North Dakota 3, Clarkson 1

2013: T.D. Ameritrade Park (Omaha, Nebraska)
North Dakota 5, Omaha 2

2016: Madison Square Garden (New York City)
North Dakota 4, Boston College 3

2018: Orleans Arena (Las Vegas, Nevada)
North Dakota 3, Minnesota 1

UND’s next destination game has been scheduled for Saturday, October 31st, 2026 in Austin, Texas; the opponent for the 2026 Hall Of Fame Game will be Michigan State.

Prior to last season, the Sun Devils competed at the Division I level in men’s ice hockey as an independent for nine seasons, with mixed results:

2015-2018 (three seasons): 21-62-8 (.275)

2018-2020 (two seasons): 43-24-4 (.634) and two NCAA tournament bids

2020-2023 (three seasons): 42-54-4 (.440)

2023-2024 (one season): 24-8-6 (.711)

In the fall of 2022, ASU moved from Oceanside Ice Arena to Mullett Arena, a beautiful 5,000 seat rink on the Arizona State University Campus. Mullett, also known as “The Party Barn”, served as a temporary home for the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes before that team’s hockey assets (players, staff, and draft picks) were transferred to the Utah Hockey Club, an expansion franchise based in Salt Lake City.

Last season – Arizona State’s first in the NCHC – the Sun Devils went 21-14 2 overall with a league mark of 12-4-3-5, good for second place. After dispatching the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs in the first round of the conference playoffs, ASU met up with Denver in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff semifinals (St. Paul, Minnesota). The Pioneers would defeat the Sun Devils 4-2 to put an end to an otherwise successful season.

UND is nine years removed from its eighth national championship but has made the national tournament in just four of the past eight seasons. That track record – and some early playoff exits – led to a coaching change, and Dane Jackson is now leading the charge.

In the NCHC preseason poll, UND was picked to finish in third place (behind Western Michigan and Denver), while the Sun Devils were tabbed to end up in fourth.

So far this season, the NCHC has won nearly seventy percent of its non-conference games (62-29-2, .677) and has four teams (#3 Western Michigan, #4 North Dakota, #7 Minnesota Duluth, and #9 Denver) positioned in the top ten in the latest rankings.

North Dakota finished up its non-conference schedule with two home victories over Mercyhurst three weeks ago (2-0, 6-1). The Fighting Hawks went a combined 8-2 vs. St. Thomas (sweep), Minnesota (split), Clarkson (split), Bemidji State (sweep), and Mercyhurst (sweep). Those results – combined with a record of 10-2-0-2 in conference play – have North Dakota sitting at #3 (behind only Michigan and Michigan State) in the NCAA Percentage Index (NPI) rankings used to seed the NCAA tournament.

Western Michigan did the entire league a favor by defeating both #15 Boston College and #5 Wisconsin at the Holiday Faceoff in late December Those results added to the league’s already-impressive results against the other five conferences in college hockey.

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 602-310-81 (.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.

Turning our attention to this weekend’s action…

A half point per game or better is my benchmark for solid offensive production, and ASU head coach Greg Powers will have just THREE players who have contributed at that level: junior forward Bennett Schimek (10-21-31), senior forward Cruz Lucius (12-20-32), and junior forward Kyle Smolen (3-9-12).

Sophomore forward Cullen Potter (12-14-26) sustained a season-ending upper body injury against Miami last weekend.

Freshman forward Jack Beck had a fine start to his season (five goals and three assists in his first ten collegiate games), but he suffered a season-ending injury and has not played since November 29th.

Bennett Schimek (Mendota Heights, Minnesota) was wearing a non-contact jersey at practice this week and is questionable for this weekend; Schimek played his first two seasons at Providence before transferring to Tempe prior to the 2024-2025 campaign. He put up a line of 15-22-37 in 35 games with the Sun Devils last year.

Cruz Lucius (Grant, Minnesota) scored 68 points in 70 games over two seasons with the Wisconsin Badgers (2022-2024) before making the jump to the NCHC. Lucius missed the first half of last year with a torn labrum but has scored 14 goals and 42 points in his 43 games with the Sun Devils.

North Dakota boasts much more impressive scoring depth, with ten players expected in the lineup this weekend scoring a half-point per game or better: freshman forward Cole Reschny (4-20-24), senior forward Ellis Rickwood (5-13-18), senior forward Ben Strinden (13-10-23), freshman forward Will Zellers (10-7-17), senior forward Dylan James (13-5-18), sophomore forward Mac Swanson (4-11-15), sophomore forward Cade Littler (4-7-11), junior defenseman Jake Livanavage (4-17-21), freshman defenseman Keaton Verhoeff (4-8-12), and junior defenseman Abram Wiebe (3-11-14).

Freshman forward Josh Zakreski had a fine start to his season, with one goal and two assists in his first six collegiate games, but he was injured in practice in October and has not returned to the lineup.

One key area to watch this weekend is the face-off circle. To this point in the season, the Fighting Hawks have won 52.7% of faceoffs, good for 16th in the country. By comparison, the Sun Devils are 14th in the nation (52.8%).

For UND, senior transfer Ellis Rickwood (who spent his first three collegiate seasons with Clarkson) has been a huge addition up the middle, winning 208 of 342 (60.8%). Three freshmen – Cole Reschny (172 of 315, 54.6%), Ollie Josephson (159 of 299, 53.2%), and Jack Kernan (74 of 135, 54.8%) have performed admirably as well.

Arizona State will counter with juniors Sean McGurn (146 of 258, 56.6%), Logan Morrell (227 of 393, 57.8%), and Kyle Smolen (148 of 292, 58.8%).

UND fans should expect the Green and White to have the puck an awful lot this weekend; to this point in the season, the Fighting Hawks have far outpaced the Sun Devils in two key puck possession statistics:

North Dakota: 3rd in Corsi (57.2%) and 4th in Fenwick (57.3%)
Arizona State: 39th in Corsi (48.5%) and 42nd in Fenwick (48.1%)

Corsi measures the share of shot attempts for each team at even strength, while Fenwick measures the share of unblocked shot attempts for each team at even strength.

Even though UND only outscored the Sun Devils 7-6 in the two-game series split in Grand Forks in mid-November, the underlying metrics strongly favored the home team:

Shots on goal: UND 84, ASU 36
Shot attempts: UND 142, ASU 85
Expected goals: UND 8.5, ASU 4.3

To make matters worse for Arizona State, the Fighting Hawks also boast the nation’s third-best power play, clipping along at 28.7 percent (although UND just went 0-for-7 against Denver last weekend). ASU is scoring on 22.2 percent of man advantage opportunities (17th in the country).

UND’s penalty kill has been steadily improving, and that unit is now negating opponent power plays at a clip of 83.1% (23rd). The Fighting Hawks have scored and allowed four shorthanded goals this season.

On the penalty kill, Arizona State has been slightly better, with a success rate of 83.5% (22nd). This season, the Sun Devils have scored one shorthanded goal while allowing four.

Overall, UND is plus-12 on specialty teams, while ASU is plus-4.

Through 24 games, the Green and White have blocked 280 shots, led by Bennett Zmolek with 36 and Jake Livanavage with 30. Arizona State has blocked an astounding 346 shots in the same number of games, with Joel Kjellberg (42), Brasen Boser (40), Justin Kipkie (29), and Richard Baran (29) leading the charge.

North Dakota’s defensive corps has provided plenty of production from the back end, already notching fourteen goals and adding 51 assists in 166 combined games (0.39 points per game).

The nine Arizona State blueliners to play this season have combined for just five goals and 27 assists in 164 combined games played (0.20 points per game). Freshman Justin Kipkie leads the way with two goals and nine points, followed by sophomores Joel Kjellberg (1-5-6) and Brasen Boser (0-5-5). Boser is from Minot, North Dakota, while freshman defenseman Lincoln Kuehne (nine blocks in twenty games played) is from Fargo.

For the Fighting Hawks, it’s been two juniors – Jake Livanavage (4-17-21) and Abram Wiebe (3-11-14) – and a freshman (Keaton Verhoeff, with four goals and eight assists).

Verhoeff is widely expected to go in the top three of the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, while Livanavage (4-24-28 in 2024-25) and Wiebe (4-20-24) were two of UND’s top four point-getters a season ago.

Jake Livanavage is North Dakota’s lone candidate for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award. Livanavage plays more than 24 minutes per game and is useful in all situations; he has a plus-14 rating this season.

Arizona State has two senior forwards among the eighteen Hobey Baker nominees hailing from the NCHC: Cruz Lucius (12-20-32) and Bennett Schimek (10-21-31).

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 just 2.08 goals against (5th in the country) and 22.8 shots on goal per game (1st).

Fighting Hawks’ graduate netminder Gibson Homer (6-4-0, 2.43 goals-against average, .895 save percentage) started each of the first four games of the season and then split the next four weekends with freshman Jan Spunar (12-2-0, 1.64 GAA, .927 SV%, three shutouts) 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 starts in home series vs. Omaha and Mercyhurst before the freshman started both nights at Colorado College and vs. Denver; I would expect Spunar to get the nod in tonight’s opener, with Homer – who played his first three seasons at Arizona State – manning the crease in the rematch.

Here is a quick peek at how North Dakota and Arizona State stack up in various categories:

Goals per game: ASU 3.04 (30th of 63 teams); UND 3.75 (6th)

Goals allowed per game: ASU 3.08 (41st); UND 2.08 (5th)

Shooting percentage: ASU 10.1% (29th); UND 11.7% (6th)

Save percentage: ASU .910 (18th); UND .909 (19th)

Shots on goal/game: ASU 30.0 (27th); UND 32.0 (19th)

Shots on goal allowed/game: ASU 34.4 (56th); UND 22.8 (1st)

After this weekend’s action, North Dakota will have eight league games remaining before the NCHC playoffs begin on Friday, March 6th:

January 30th and 31st: no games scheduled
February 6th and 7th: at Minnesota Duluth (NPI 4)
February 13th and 14th: vs. Miami (NPI 24)
February 20th and 21st: vs. St. Cloud State (NPI 16)
February 27th and 28th: at Western Michigan (NPI 5)

Arizona State Team Profile

Head Coach: Greg Powers (11th season at ASU, 163-173-25, .486)

National Ranking: NR/NR
NPI Ranking: 22nd
KRACH: 162.0 (20th)

This Season: 12-11-1 overall, 4-5-2-1 NCHC (t-5th of 9 teams)
Last Season: 21-14-2 overall (missed NCAA tournament); 12-4-3-5 NCHC (2nd)

2025-26 Season Statistics:

Team Offense: 3.04 goals scored/game – 30th of 63 teams
Team Defense: 3.08 goals allowed/game – 41st of 63 teams

Power Play: 22.2% (20 of 90) – 17th of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 83.5% (66 of 79) – 22nd of 63 teams

Key Players: Junior F Bennett Schimek (10-21-31), Senior F Cruz Lucius (12-20-32), Sophomore F Cullen Potter (12-14-26), Junior F Kyle Smolen (3-9-12), Sophomore D Joel Kjellberg (1-5-6), Sophomore D Brasen Boser (0-5-5), Senior G Connor Hasley (8-7-0, 2.59 GAA, .920 SV%)

North Dakota Team Profile

Head Coach: Dane Jackson (1st season at North Dakota, 18-6-0, .750)

National Rankings: #4/#4
NPI Ranking: 3rd
KRACH Rating: 453.4 (3rd)

This Season: 18-6-0 overall, 10-2-0-2 NCHC (1st)
Last Season: 21-15-2 overall (missed NCAA tournament), 11-8-4-1 NCHC (5th)

2025-26 Season Statistics:

Team Offense: 3.75 goals scored/game – 6th of 63 teams
Team Defense: 2.08 goals allowed/game – 5th of 63 teams

Power Play: 28.7% (25 of 87) – 3rd of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 83.1% (64 of 77) – 23rd of 63 teams

Key Players: Freshman F Cole Reschny (4-20-24), Senior F Ben Strinden (13-10-23), Freshman F Will Zellers (10-7-17), Senior F Dylan James (13-5-18), Sophomore F Mac Swanson (4-11-15), Senior F Ellis Rickwood (5-13-18), Junior D Jake Livanavage (4-17-21), Junior D Abram Wiebe (3-11-14), Freshman D Keaton Verhoeff (4-8-12), Freshman G Jan Spunar (12-2-0, 1.64 GAA, .927 SV%, 3 SO)

Game News and Notes

Arizona State has been outscored 32-25 in third periods this season, while North Dakota has outscored opponents 34-13 in final frames. In 2023-24, Arizona State played its last season as an independent. Despite a record of 24-8-6, the Sun Devils finished in 20th in the Pairwise and missed the NCAA tournament. Fighting Hawks graduate netminder Gibson Homer spent his first three collegiate seasons at ASU. Greg Powers has been the only head coach in Arizona State Division I men’s hockey history. Powers, a former goaltender from the Sun Devils’ club level (WCHL/ACHA) days, graduated from ASU in 1999 and is a member of the Arizona State Athletic Hall of Fame. Mullett Arena seats just 5,000 fans; I would expect more than half of them to be wearing green this weekend.

Media Coverage

Both games will be available via webcast at NCHC.tv., with Friday’s opener also broadcast live on Mido Sports Network. All UND men’s hockey games, home and away, can be heard on stations across the Fighting Hawks Radio Network as well as through the iHeart Radio app. Puck drop is set for 8:00 p.m. Central Time on Friday night and 6:00 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.

The Prediction

Despite the series split in Grand Forks in mid-November, I like North Dakota’s chances of emerging from the desert with two victories. UND has a tremendous amount of depth and an edge in skill along the blue line, and those are two qualities that show up particularly well on the road. It won’t be easy, but the Fighting Hawks will do just enough to earn all six league points. UND 4-2, 5-2.

As always, thank you for reading. I welcome your thoughts, comments, and suggestions.

#5/#5 North Dakota (17-5-0) hosts #9/#10 Denver (12-9-2) in a key NCHC series at Ralph Engelstad Arena this weekend.

Last weekend, UND took four of six league points at Colorado College (2-3 OT loss, 5-2 win), while Denver was swept at home at the hands of the Western Michigan Broncos (1-4, 2-6).

With twelve games remaining in the NCHC regular season, North Dakota is in first place in the conference standings, five points ahead of Denver and six points clear of WMU. Minnesota Duluth is currently in fourth place, eight points behind the Green and White.

The Fighting Hawks are not scheduled to make a return trip to Magness Arena this season. UND will travel to face UMD on February 6th and 7th and make a road trip to Kalamazoo to face Western Michigan on the last weekend of the regular season (February 27th and 28th). Aside from those two road series, North Dakota will also travel to face Arizona State next weekend and host Miami and St. Cloud State on consecutive weekends in February (13th/14th and 20th/21st).

Before we dig into this weekend’s matchup, let’s take a quick look back at the past few games between the two teams…

Last season, the teams met four times, with DU sweeping the November series in Grand Forks by final scores of 5-2 and 3-2. The Pios’ Zeev Buium scored a hat trick on Friday night, and DU survived Saturday’s finale by blocking eighteen North Dakota shot attempts. In mid-February, Denver blanked North Dakota at home on night one, but UND turned the tables in the rematch, scoring on the power play late in period two and shorthanded early in period three to turn a 1-1 tie into a 3-1 road victory.

Two seasons ago, UND swept the Pios at Ralph Engelstad Arena on January 26th and 27th, 2024. Eight different Fighting Hawks lit the lamp in the two victories (by final scores of 5-2 and 4-2), and North Dakota went 4-for-6 on the power play while holding DU powerless on four man-advantage situations. The final shot counter for the weekend showed 62-43 in favor of the home team.

On December 1st and 2nd, 2023, North Dakota traveled to Denver for a pair of NCHC contests. In Friday’s opener, UND’s Dylan James got the visitors on the board less than two minutes into the action. The Pioneers would storm back with four first-period goals of their own, and it looked like the rout was on. The Fighting Hawks pulled within one in the middle frame, but a late DU goal from Tristan Broz had the Pios up by two with just twenty minutes remaining. The third period was all Green and White, as Jackson Blake, Louis Jamernik V, Riese Gaber, and Cameron Berg all potted goals en route to a 7-5 North Dakota victory.

In Saturday’s finale, UND never trailed in regulation but also never extended a lead past a single goal. DU tied things up at two goals apiece with nine minutes remaining and scored the game-winner during 3-on-3 action to take the extra league point.

Given how things started out on Friday night, grabbing four out of six points in the conference standings was a good result for the Fighting Hawks.

UND looked overmatched against the visiting Pios back in November 2022, as David Carle’s squad managed a 3-2, 6-3 road sweep over a Fighting Hawks team that had taken five of six points at Omaha the week before. Friday’s opener ended up as a one-goal DU victory, but that was only because North Dakota held the Pioneers scoreless on six man-advantage opportunities.

And in the rematch at altitude in February 2023, it was more of the same. Denver scored five goals each night and held the Fighting Hawks to five total goals on the weekend in securing the rare four-game season sweep. In Friday’s opener, UND played well enough to win but were undone by poor goaltending, as Drew DeRidder allowed four goals on the eleven shots he faced before giving way to Jacob Hellsten just five minutes into the second period. The last two goals that DeRidder allowed came just fourteen seconds apart.

In the 2021 NCHC Frozen Faceoff semifinals (held at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks), North Dakota needed overtime to outlast a gutsy performance by a Pios squad that had been decimated by COVID-19. DU dressed only nine forwards for the contest but led 1-0 with under 90 seconds remaining. With the goalie pulled, the Fighting Hawks’ Shane Pinto blasted a shot on net that hit Jasper Weatherby on the way in to send the game to overtime. It took over eight minutes of extra time before Gavin Hain sent the home crowd into a frenzy with a blast of his own that advanced the Green and White into the championship game; Denver had just killed Antti Tuomisto’s boarding minor but could not clear the zone. UND outshot the weary Pioneers 20-4 in the third period and overtime.

With the playoff victory, North Dakota moved to 20-5-1 on the season; David Carle’s squad saw its season end at 10-13-1, the first time DU failed to advance to the NCAA tournament since 2007. The 2020-2021 season was the first losing campaign for DU since the 1999-2000 team went 16-23-2. UND won five of the seven meetings between the teams three years ago, outscoring the Pios 22-14. North Dakota allowed ten goals in the first three meetings with a record of 1-2; since their loss in game one at Denver on January 17th, the Fighting Hawks notched four consecutive victories over DU (15 goals for, 4 goals against). That mid-January defeat was definitely a wakeup call for Brady Berry’s squad; from that point until the end of the season, the Green and White went 13-3, outscoring opponents 69-28.

Denver definitely rebounded four seasons ago, going 31-9-1 and defeating Minnesota State 5-1 for the program’s ninth national title. That championship game was tied 1-1 until the 7:33 mark of the third period. The Pios would add two empty-net goals for the misleading final score.

Since Denver ended North Dakota’s season in 2019, UND has gone 12-10-1 against the Pios.

In the NCHC, it is clear that Denver/North Dakota is at the top of the league rivalries, with the two programs combining for nine NCHC regular season titles and averaging a top-three finish in the league standings each year (UND 2.6, DU 2.8).

The teams have played 53 times during the first twelve seasons of the new conference (with seven ties and each side winning 23 games), but the feud goes all the way back to Geoff Paukovitch’ illegal check on Sioux forward Robbie Bina during the 2005 WCHA Final Five.

Since that 2005 Final Five contest (a Denver victory), the two teams have met thirteen times in tournament play. Denver won the 2005 NCAA title with a victory over North Dakota and claimed a 2008 WCHA Final Five win as well. UND has earned six victories and a tie in the last ten playoff games between the schools, including three consecutive victories in the WCHA Final Five (2010-2012), the 2011 NCAA Midwest Regional final which sent the Fighting Sioux to the Frozen Four, 2016’s thrilling Frozen Four semifinal (a 4-2 UND victory) in Tampa, Florida, and the 2017 NCHC Frozen Faceoff semifinal in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Denver turned the tables by dispatching North Dakota in the first round of the league playoffs at Magness Arena to end the Fighting Hawks’ 2018-2019 campaign.

(It is impossible to bring up the Paukovitch/Bina incident without also writing that Brad Malone‘s check on Denver’s Jesse Martin during an October 2010 contest at Ralph Engelstad Arena fractured three of Martin’s vertebrae and ended the hockey career of the Atlanta Thrashers’ draft pick.)

The rivalry intensified five seasons ago, with the teams combining for 187 penalty minutes in six regular season games (the NCHC semifinal game featured just four minor penalties). The last contest between the squads in Denver saw a DU goaltender run over with nine minutes remaining, which ignited tempers further. That spilled over to the series in Grand Forks in February, with the Pioneers “winning” the penalty minute battle 54-29. North Dakota won the specialty teams battle, scoring two goals on ten man-advantage opportunities and blanking DU on its ten power play chances.

In Saturday’s series finale, North Dakota led on the scoreboard 5-2 thanks to two goals by Jasper Weatherby and 18 saves from Peter Thome, who started in place of injured netminder Adam Scheel. And how was Scheel injured, you might ask? Denver’s Kohen Olischefski ran Scheel from behind late in Friday’s 3-0 UND victory. Olischefski was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for goaltender interference and was issued an additional one-game suspension by the league office.

And in the only series played between the teams four years ago, the two sides combined for 78 penalty minutes and ten power play opportunities. UND swept the series 3-1 and 4-1, thanks in no small part to a 1-for-5 effort on the power play and a perfect penalty kill.

Turning our attention to this season..

A half-point per game or better is my benchmark for solid offensive production, and David Carle’s squad has nine players who meet that threshold: junior forward Sam Harris (9-9-18), freshman forward Clarke Caswell (3-15-18), senior forward Rieger Lorenz (7-10-17), sophomore forward James Reeder (5-11-16), freshman forward Kyle Chyzowski (5-9-14), senior forward Samu Salminen (5-9-14), junior defenseman Eric Pohlkamp (13-11-24), junior defenseman Boston Buckberger (7-13-20), and freshman defenseman Eric Jamieson (6-7-13)

North Dakota boasts even more impressive scoring depth, with eleven players expected in the lineup this weekend scoring a half-point per game or better, including THREE – freshman forward Cole Reschny (3-17-20), senior forward Ellis Rickwood (4-13-17), and senior forward Ben Strinden (13-9-22) – averaging a full point per game or better. Other key offensive contributors include freshman forward Will Zellers (10-7-17), senior forward Dylan James (12-5-17), sophomore forward Mac Swanson (4-11-15), freshman forward Ollie Josephson (3-8-11), sophomore forward Cade Littler (4-6-10), junior defenseman Jake Livanavage (3-17-20), freshman defenseman Keaton Verhoeff (4-8-12), and junior defenseman Abram Wiebe (3-11-14).

Freshman forward Josh Zakreski had a fine start to his season, with one goal and two assists in his first six collegiate games, but he was injured in practice in October and has not returned to the lineup.

Offensively, UND narrowly outpaces Denver. To this point of the season, North Dakota has scored 83 goals in 22 games (3.77 goals per game, 6th in the country), while DU has managed 83 in its 23 games (3.61, 12th).

The Fighting Hawks have a narrow edge over the Pioneers in two key puck possession statistics:

Corsi: UND 56.8% (5th), DU 56.4% (7th)
Fenwick: UND 56.8% (5th), DU 56.8% (5th)

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.

Amazingly, Denver is putting more shots on goal per game than North Dakota (37.1 – 31.7). DU ranks first in the nation in that category; UND, 19th.

So how is it that North Dakota has scored at a higher rate than the Pios?

It’s quite simple. UND is scoring on 11.9% of its shots on goal (6th in the country), while Denver scores on just 9.7% (39th). Or, seen another way, opposing netminders have a save percentage of just .881 against North Dakota, while goaltenders facing DU have a save percentage of .903.

The Fighting Hawks also boast the nation’s third-best power play, clipping along at 31.3 percent. Denver is scoring on just 20.7 percent of man advantage opportunities (29th in the country).

UND’s penalty kill has been capable but not outstanding, negating opponent power plays at a clip of 82.9% (20th). The Fighting Hawks have scored and allowed four shorthanded goals this season.

On the penalty kill, Denver has been slightly worse, with a success rate of just 82.3% (27th). This season, the Pioneers have scored three shorthanded goals while allowing one.

Overall, UND is plus-13 on specialty teams, while DU is plus-8.

Defensively, North Dakota is only allowing 23.3 shots on goal per game (3rd in the country); Denver is allowing 28.4 (25th). Through the first 22 games, UND has allowed a total of 47 goals (2.14, 5th in the country) while DU has let in 55 in its 23 games (2.39, 15th).

As always, a key area to watch this weekend is the face-off circle. The Fighting Hawks are the nation’s 16th-best team on draws (52.6%), while the Pios are right behind at #20 (51.3%).

For UND, senior transfer Ellis Rickwood has been a huge addition up the middle, winning 187 of 307 (60.9%). Three freshmen – Cole Reschny (157 of 286, 54.9%), Ollie Josephson (157 of 297, 52.9%), and Jack Kernan (66 of 114, 57.9%) have performed admirably as well.

For the Pioneers, three centermen have exceeded 100 faceoff wins this season:

Senior Samu Salminen : 217 of 400 (54.3%)
Junior Kieran Cebrian: 204 of 382 (53.4%)
Freshman Clarke Caswell: 144 of 295 (48.8%)

Both North Dakota and Denver feature freshman netminders who have found success early in their collegiate careers.

For DU, Quentin Miller has appeared in 21 games, with a record of 11-8-2, a goals-against average of 2.27, a save percentage of .919, and three shutouts. In his eight losses, Miller has allowed a total of 29 goals while Denver has managed to score just eighteen.

Miller has not won a game since December 12th at St. Cloud State; since that time, he has allowed eighteen goals in his five starts and has a record of 0-4-1. Last Saturday night against Western Michigan, he was pulled from the contest midway through the second period after allowing five goals on just sixteen shots.

Fighting Hawks’ graduate netminder Gibson Homer (6-4-0, 2.43 goals-against average, .895 save percentage) started each of the first four games of the season and then split the next four weekends with freshman Jan Spunar (11-1-0, 1.67 GAA, .929 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 starts in the last two home series (vs. Omaha and Mercyhurst) before the freshman started both nights at Colorado College; I would expect Spunar to get the nod in tonight’s opener.

North Dakota finished up its non-conference schedule with two home victories over Mercyhurst a couple of weeks ago (2-0, 6-1). The Fighting Hawks went a combined 8-2 vs. St. Thomas (sweep), Minnesota (split), Clarkson (split), Bemidji State (sweep), and Mercyhurst (sweep). Those results – combined with a record of 9-1-0-2 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.

Western Michigan did the entire league a favor by defeating both #13 Boston College and #2 Wisconsin at the Holiday Faceoff three weeks ago. 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 (62-29-2, .677) and has four teams (#3 Western Michigan, #5 North Dakota, #6 Minnesota Duluth, and #9 Denver) 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 602-310-81 (.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.

Denver Team Profile

Head Coach: David Carle (8th season at DU, 191-83-19, .684)

National Rankings: #9/#10
NPI Ranking: 11th
KRACH: 206.8 (11th)

This Season: 12-9-2 overall, 7-3-1-1 NCHC (2nd of 9 teams)
Last Season: 31-12-1 overall (NCAA National Semifinalist), 13-7-2-2 NCHC (3rd)

2025-2026 Team Statistics:

Team Offense: 3.61 goals scored/game – 12th of 63 teams
Team Defense: 2.39 goals allowed/game – 15th of 63 teams

Power Play: 20.7% (17 of 82) – 29th of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 82.3% (51 of 62) – 27th of 63 teams

Key players: Junior F Sam Harris (9-9-18), Freshman F Clarke Caswell (3-15-18), Senior F Rieger Lorenz (7-10-17), Sophomore F James Reeder (5-11-16), Freshman F Kyle Chyzowski (5-9-14), Senior F Samu Salminen (5-9-14), Junior D Eric Pohlkamp (13-11-24), Junior D Boston Buckberger (7-13-20), Freshman D Eric Jamieson (6-7-13), Freshman G Quentin Miller (11-8-2, 2.27 GAA, .919 SV%, 3 SO)

North Dakota Team Profile

Head Coach: Dane Jackson (1st season at North Dakota, 17-5-0, .773)

National Rankings: #5/#5
NPI Ranking: 2nd
KRACH Rating: 512.2 (2nd)

This Season: 17-4-0 overall, 9-1-0-2 NCHC (1st)
Last Season: 21-15-2 overall (missed NCAA tournament), 11-8-4-1 NCHC (5th)

2025-26 Season Statistics:

Team Offense: 3.77 goals scored/game – 6th of 63 teams
Team Defense: 2.14 goals allowed/game – 5th of 63 teams

Power Play: 31.3% (25 of 80) – 3rd of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 82.9% (58 of 70) – 20th of 63 teams

Key Players: Freshman F Cole Reschny (3-17-20), Senior F Ben Strinden (13-9-22), Freshman F Will Zellers (10-7-17), Senior F Dylan James (12-5-17), Sophomore F Mac Swanson (4-11-15), Freshman F Ollie Josephson (3-8-11), Senior F Ellis Rickwood (4-13-17), Junior D Jake Livanavage (3-17-20), Junior D Abram Wiebe (3-11-14), Freshman D Keaton Verhoeff (4-8-12), Freshman G Jan Spunar (11-1-0, 1.67 GAA, .929 SV%, 2 SO)

By The Numbers

Last Meeting: February 15, 2025 (Denver, CO). UND scored on the power play late in period two and added a shorthanded tally early in period three to turn a 1-1 tie into a 3-1 road victory. One night earlier, Denver blanked North Dakota 4-0.

Last Meeting in Grand Forks: November 16, 2024. DU hung on for a 3-2 victory and a series sweep by blocking eighteen North Dakota shot attempts. One night earlier, the Pios’ Zeev Buium scored a hat trick in a 5-2 Denver win.

A Recent Memory: April 7, 2016 (Tampa, Florida). In the semifinals of the NCAA Frozen Four, the two league rivals squared off in a tightly-contested matchup. Senior forward Drake Caggiula scored twice early in the middle frame to stake UND to a 2-0 lead, but the Pioneers battled back with a pair of third-period goals. The CBS line came through when it mattered most, with Nick Schmaltz scoring the game winner off of a faceoff win with 57 seconds remaining in the hockey game. North Dakota blocked 27 Denver shot attempts and goaltender Cam Johnson made 21 saves for the Fighting Hawks, who won the program’s eighth national title on the same sheet of ice two nights later.

Most Important Meeting: It’s hard to pick just one game, as the two teams have played four times for the national title. Denver defeated UND for the national championship in 1958, 1968, and 2005, while the Sioux downed the Pioneers in 1963. But the game that stands out in recent memory as “the one that got away” was DU’s 1-0 victory over the Fighting Sioux in the 2004 NCAA West Regional final (Colorado Springs, CO). That North Dakota team went 30-8-4 on the season (Dean Blais’ last behind the UND bench) and featured one of the deepest rosters in the past twenty years: Brandon Bochenski, Zach Parise, Brady Murray, Colby Genoway, Drew Stafford and David Lundbohm up front; Nick Fuher, Matt Jones, Matt Greene, and Ryan Hale on defense; and a couple of goaltending stalwarts in Jordan Parise and Jake Brandt.

Last Ten Games: DU has won six of the last ten games between the teams, with a 35-30 edge in goals scored over that stretch. Only four of the past ten games in the series were played in Grand Forks.

All-time Series: UND leads the all-time series, 160-138-16 (.535), including a sparkling record of 94-48-10 (.651) in games played in Grand Forks. The teams first met in 1950, with North Dakota prevailing 18-3 in Denver. The 314 games played between the schools is the most among all of UND’s opponents.

Game News and Notes

Since Denver ended North Dakota’s season in 2019, UND has gone 13-9-1 against the Pios. Thirteen of Denver head coach David Carle’s 70 head coaching losses have come against UND. Two seasons ago, the Fighting Hawks won the Penrose Cup as NCHC regular season champions for the sixth time in the eleven-year history of the league; the Pioneers have captured the Penrose only three times (2016-2017 and back-to-back in 2021-2022 and 2022-2023). Three Pios players hail from the state of Colorado, while two Fighting Hawks are from North Dakota. Since seven of Michigan’s nine titles were earned by 1964, I consider Denver (ten titles) and UND (eight titles) to be the top two men’s college hockey programs of all time.

The Prediction

It’s the age-old question: Is Denver reeling after going 0-4-1 over their last five games, or will they re-focus and put forth their best effort against the high-flying Hawks? I would imagine that fans will see a little bit of everything this weekend as each side attempts to match the speed and intensity of the other. I am very curious to see how much Pios blueliners Boston Buckberger and Eric Pohlkamp will be able to contribute offensively while still defending UND’s stacked group of forwards. I give the edge each night to UND – playing at home and employing last line change against David Carle’s top line of Harris-Salminen-Reeder. To be fair, the Fighting Hawks just need a split or better this weekend to put themselves in the driver’s seat for the Penrose Cup. It won’t be easy, but I’ve got them earning four out of the six points in this series. UND 4-2, DU 4-3 (OT).

A Special Note

Saturday’s rematch has been designated as a WHITE OUT GAME. All UND fans are encouraged to break out their white jerseys, hoodies, and hats to be a part of the ice-cold atmosphere!

Broadcast Information

Both games this weekend will be broadcast live on Midco Sports Network 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.