UND Hockey Ready to Get Comfortable on Home Ice

Fighting Hawks play five of last six at home along with postseason tournament

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — Coming off a bye, North Dakota hockey still owns the top seed in the NCHC and a number two ranking in the latest USCHO poll. The Fighting Hawks have the best winning percentage keeping them ahead of St Cloud State and Minnesota-Duluth heading down the final stretch.

With six games left in the regular season, five of them come on home ice with the possibility of three more in the postseason. So far, the Hawks have only played one series at Ralph Engelstad arena a two-game sweep over Colorado College.

Starting with Denver this weekend, the Ralph becomes a very familiar place again and it only benefits  UND in helping them keep pace.

“It brings a lot into the fact that we’ve hard throughout the season but now we’ve earned the right to play at home here and play the right way to do what we want to do,” head coach Brad Berry said. We’ve had success in this building but it doesn’t guarantee future success. If we play to the identity of our team and play collectively as a group, it helps having the home ice.

“Playing in front of our fans,” defenseman Gabe Bast said. “We haven’t been able to do that much over the past year but last year we had a great home record and this year we just love playing for our passionate fans and can’t wait to do that.”

That record, an impressive 18-1.  UND is 2-2 against the Pioneers this season.