UND Rises to No. 1 Ranking; Host Bemidji State This Weekend

THE FIGHTING HAWKS RECEIVE NUMBER ONE RANKING FROM USCHO.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (KVRR)–The Ralph Engelstad Arena is the home of the current number one team in the country according to the USCHO poll. That ranking is the highest for North Dakota since March of 2021. That year, they went into the NCAA tournament as the number-one overall seed. But for now, UND is preparing to host Bemidji State at the Ralph this weekend.

Bemidji State is a team UND schedules every year. For Head Coach Brad Berry, it is all about the tradition.

“The biggest thing is respect for both programs,” said Berry. “Both programs were in the old WCHA. They had some hard fought battles in the WCHA and now they’re in different conferences. It doesn’t go away, and I think the mutual respect by head coaches filters on to the players and knowing that these are tough series.”

The Beavers come into the weekend series with UND with a 5-7 record overall and a recent series split with Minnesota State. Coach Berry and his guys know it will take a full 60-minute effort to record their third straight weekend sweep.

“Every year it’s you know, we know what is coming,” said Berry. “The way they play… their identity is very similar ours and I think it makes our team better. Our schedule was comprised of some very tough teams that we had to go through and this is another one… a very good team coming in here.”

Fifth-year defenseman Keaton Pehrson is looking forward to the battle with the Beavers and building upon what the Hawks have done so far this season.

“Definitely excited to keep the train rolling back out of conference,” said Pehrson. “Those points are always huge and they got a good team. They’re gonna play hard and they’re gonna play fast and physical…a little bit like Miami maybe. We were solid last weekend and know what we need to work on: just play our game focus on us.”

The same reigns true for junior forward Cameron Berg.

“It is kind of another non-conference competition here. They got a good team. They play with some skill, but they play really hard. So, we’re excited for it.”

North Dakota enters the weekend with a 9-2-1 record and are winners of their last 5 games. With their season long success, the Hawks are ranked No.1 in the country for the first time this season. But like any team would, they are happy about their past success and know they need to sustain it to the end.

“We are kind of happy with where we are, but we still have a lot to improve on to get better at,” said Pehrson. “I mean, the number one is a huge honor, but for us, we don’t care that we’re number one right now. We want to be number one in the end. This is kind of just a placement to see where we are at throughout the year so far. So, we’re pretty happy with that, but we still got much to prove and lot to gain.”

Puck drop for UND and Bemidji State will be Friday night at 7:07 P.M for game one and on Saturday night at 6:07 P.M. for Game Two.