UND, RANKED 16, AND ST. CLOUD STATE, RANKED 9, CLASH AT THE RALPH THIS WEEKEND FOR AN NCHC BATTLE.
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (KVRR) –Fresh off a sweep over Miami of Ohio last weekend, North Dakota is looking to bring that momentum into the Ralph Friday against number-9 ranked St. Cloud State.
North Dakota trails the Huskies by just a single point in the NCHC standings coming in and a big emphasis this weekend is special teams. NoDak with a top-5 power play in the country, and St. Cloud State with a top-5 penalty kill. The team says their focus this weekend is on that and getting off to a fast start.
“Obviously our power play has really been clicking,” said recently named NCHC defenseman of the week Abram Wiebe. “It just starts with good puck movement, moving the puck fast and they got a good PK. It’s always, for us, outwork the PK and the PK is outwork the power play. So, it’s going to be a battle going into this weekend. Obviously, just use that last weekend as confidence and then try to win this first 10 minutes against St. Cloud and just kind of go from there.”
North Dakota is ranked number-16 in the most recent USCHO poll,their lowest ranking of the season thus far.
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Part of their early season struggles can be attributed to their health. This past weekend, UND was without five players including its captain and two alternates due to injury. Head coach Brad Berry says he expects at least one player back in the lineup this weekend and credits his players for having the next man up mentality.
“Caleb McDonald will be in the lineup,” said Berry. “What I love about our group right now is there are some guys that aren’t wearing a letter, that are older players, that are in leadership roles right now. And I think that’s going to serve us well in the second half.”
This weekend’s series with the Huskies will be the final series of 20-24. North Dakota will next return to the ice January 4 for an exhibition with Manitoba before returning to conference play January 10 and 11 vs. the newest member of the NCHC: Arizona State
Puck drop Friday night with St. Cloud State is slated for 7:07 P.M.
Saturday night’s game two will be at 6:07 P.M.
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North Dakota is 4-3-3 vs. the Huskies in their last 10 battles.
Montana Lady Griz (1-5) at North Dakota Fighting Hawks (1-7)
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Grand Forks, North Dakota; Wednesday, 8 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Montana aims to end its five-game slide with a victory over North Dakota.
The Fighting Hawks have gone 1-2 in home games. North Dakota is second in the Summit in rebounding with 35.4 rebounds. Walker Demers leads the Fighting Hawks with 9.8 boards.
The Lady Griz have gone 0-2 away from home. Montana is 1-5 against opponents over .500.
North Dakota scores 53.4 points per game, 23.9 fewer points than the 77.3 Montana gives up. Montana averages 10.0 made 3-pointers per game this season, 2.7 more made shots on average than the 7.3 per game North Dakota allows.
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TOP PERFORMERS: Mackenzie Hughes is scoring 11.6 points per game and averaging 3.0 rebounds for the Fighting Hawks. Demers is averaging 10.6 points and 9.8 rebounds while shooting 47.8%.
Mack Konig is averaging 15.2 points and 3.7 assists for the Lady Griz. Avery Waddington is averaging 12.5 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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