North Dakota faces off against Providence in this year's U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game

GRAND FORKS — UND will need to clean some things up before its Saturday night tilt against the Providence College Friars.

The Fighting Hawks fell 4-1 to the Augustana Vikings last weekend in UND’s preseason exhibition opener. But for UND, that game is now in the rearview mirror.

“I think we can just play together better,” Ben Strinden said in UND’s weekly press conference. “We need to forecheck a little better and just play all around a little tighter.”

The Friars will play UND for the third time in the last 35 years this Saturday. In 2014, UND hosted Providence at the Ralph, winning Friday night 6-1 and tying 2-2 Saturday. Notably, Providence went on to win its first national championship that season.

This week's USCHO.com poll has the Friars ranked No. 13 in the country. Providence brought in a highly touted freshman class that includes Las Vegas Golden Knights first-round pick Trevor Connelly.

“We’ve pre-scouted them a little bit,” Strinden said. “They got some high-end skill, too. They’re a great team, too. They’re going to be a tough matchup, but we’re definitely ready for them.”

Despite the bright lights that come with this weekend's U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game, UND has stayed locked in during practice this week.

“We’re trying to keep it business-like,” Strinden said. “We’re coming in each day with a purpose for sure. Every day we got to get one percent better and get a little bit better for the weekend, and we’re doing that for sure.”

One thing that UND will need to do better this weekend is generate chances on offense. 

“At the end of the day, you have to be more predictable to your teammates,” UND head coach Brad Berry said. “You have to be more committed to putting the pucks into areas where you can have success. When you’re turning pucks over in the neutral zone or high in the offensive zone, that doesn't give you a lot of chances to sustain offense. I think it's a situation where it’s got to be with more conviction, and playing north.”

Providence is a speedy, strong skating team that will be hungry to score this weekend. UND will need to brush up its play in the neutral and defensive zones. Boxing players out in front of the net was one of the things addressed this week in practice. 

“Early identification when pucks are coming to the net, not having traffic come to our net,” Berry said. “I think we’ve done a good job over the years of doing that, and we got to get back into doing that.”

North Dakota and Providence will only play once this weekend. Putting on a lot more pressure to perform Saturday night, like a playoff game. UND won’t get another shot at playing Providence for the rest of the season.

“We only play one game this weekend, a very important pivotal game,” Berry said. “But we have time here to make sure that we are productive at the things we want to get to. The most important thing is making sure that there's urgency in our game throughout the week here.”  

“They play hard and heavy, they’ve got good defenders, they’ve got a good goaltender. They’re a team that plays a simple north game, and they play hard,” Berry said.

Berry talked about the importance of puck possession and winning faceoffs.

“The start of every play is a faceoff and who’s going to gain possession,” Berry said. “One of the things we always talk about is the centerman in there. You have an obligation as a center, but you have an obligation as wingers to help out too. A lot of times, pucks aren't just ripped back. They’re laying right behind the centerman, and you have to have wingers willing to jump in and tap it back to gain possession.

“The other thing is, on faceoff wins, you have possession, you can go on offense. On faceoff losses, now you're trying to chase the puck down to get it back and you expend energy doing that, so we want to make sure our energy is focused on trying to play offense and not trying to get it back.”

Quick hits

• UND is 7-3 all-time in U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Games.

• Senior netminder T.J. Semptimphelter has played the Friars twice in his career. He went 1-1 while posting a .933 SV% - 2.48 GAA.

• North Dakota is 9-5-1 against the Friars (6-2-1 in Grand Forks). The last time UND lost to Providence was in 1984 (7-3).

• UND is 20-2-1 in home openers at the Ralph.