UND Hockey Looking to Build Off Strong First Half

Starts second half with exhibition against USA U-18 Team on Saturday

GRAND FORKS, N.D — North Dakota hockey celebrated the holiday break as a top five team in the country and as holders of the number one spot in the NCHC. That’s all despite losing 14 players and eight who had NHL contracts coming into the year.

The reason for the success has been seeing that red light flash often. UND is first in the conference in scoring offense with 114 goals  through 29 games, that’s an average of almost four per contest. Half of those have come defensively with 40 in the final period, the most of any in the NCHC as well.

Head coach Brad Berry says it comes from the team learning how to win.

“You never knew where we were at as a team and we got there relatively quick. The biggest thing was getting wins under our belt,” Berry said. “The games getting tougher in the second half and it’s nice to know we had a good start to have a base and a foundation with wins to get going and now turn the page. We talk about playing with swagger and the only way is winning some games and putting a string together like that.”

North Dakota plays an exhibition this weekend against the USA Under 18 team before the second half begins January 7th against Cornell.