UND Hockey Prepares For No. 2 Minnesota State Mankato

The Fighting Hawks split a two-game series with the Mavericks last season

GRAND FORKS, N.D. –UND opened up the season in dominating fashion.

The Fighting Hawks completed a two-game sweep over Canisius in their opening weekend, outscoring their opponent 13-1 as 10 different UND players finished the series with a goal.

Things get a lot more difficult this weekend as they head on the road to take on the No. 2 team in the country in Minnesota State Mankato.

The Mavericks pose a much more experienced threat, as they return 20 skaters from last year. In it’s opening series, Mankato scored five power play goals on 15 attempts and killed all seven opportunities from their opponent.

The Fighting Hawks will have to raise the intensity level as they get ready to take on their first ranked opponent this season.

“Playing Mankato is going to be much different,” freshman forward Shane Pinto said. “They are going to come out hard, but  we just got to stay within ourself and play our game and not try to get overwhelmed. I just think the biggest thing is don’t try to do too much. They’re going to play hard and we just have to play hard and just play the right way.”

“They got a good power play. They got an experienced team. They got guys that can move the puck around,” head coach Brad Berry said. “But I think we have to keep doing what we do as far as our system and structure.”

“We know what we are dealing with.  They came into our building last year and they came out hard and strong against us and I thought we got better as the weekend went on but that was a message to our team, that we got to be better right away. There is going to be two good teams playing against each other.”