North Dakota faces off against Western Michigan in a critical conference matchup

GRAND FORKS — Although the regular season is only two weeks away from coming to a close, the Fighting Hawks will take on the Western Michigan University Broncos for the first time this season. 

The Broncos will travel to the Ralph for a big conference matchup. Western Michigan is 18-11-1 (9-11-1-5 NCHC) on the season, most recently splitting a series in St. Cloud.

WMU, like North Dakota and Denver, is one of the top offensive teams in the country. They are scoring 3.66 goals per game. 

Luke Grainger has led the charge for the Broncos; he has 42 points in 30 games this year. Western Michigan also has one of the top goal scorers in the NCHC. Dylan Wendt ranks third in the conference for goals this season with 21, trailing Minnesota Duluth’s Ben Steeves (22) and Denver’s Jack Devine (22).

During Wednesday's weekly press conference, UND head coach Brad Berry addressed the upcoming matchup and the Bronco's elite offense. 

“Very good team, very good offensive team that plays fast, plays hard,” Berry said. “They’re a hungry team. I watched video of them playing against St. Cloud, and they got a lot of things going. They got a lot of top-heavy scorers and a lot of really good forwards, big heavy D that jump in the rush. They’re getting good goaltending as well, so you know they’re playing good hockey right now.”

The Broncos are still in contention for the Penrose Cup and a chance to host home ice for the first round of the NCHC playoffs. They are in fifth place, three points behind Colorado College. If the Broncos remain in fifth place, they will have to travel to their first-round NCHC game.

This weekend's series will also have significant pairwise implications for UND and WMU.

North Dakota is a lock for the NCAA tournament. The only thing these last few games will decide is their seeding; UND has a good chance to be a one-seed in the NCAA tournament, so closing out the regular season on a roll will significantly help them.

Western Michigan, on the other hand, is a bubble team to make the tournament. Currently, the Broncos sit just inside the cutline for the NCAA tournament, ranked at 12. If WMU gets swept this weekend, barring how other teams do, they would drop to 15 in the pairwise, narrowly missing the tournament.

Berry emphasized how this weekend's matchup is a preview for the NCAA tournament.

“They’re fighting for home ice.; you know they’re fighting for staying in the national tournament.”

“We’re dealing with a really good team coming in here, some of the tendencies they have, even strength of powerplay and penalty kill. We had some good practices here where we’ve worked on some different things, but again we got to make sure that we continue to do the things we have to do that's given us success in the past.”

Last weekend, UND once again stepped things up on special teams, going 3/9 on the powerplay and 3/3 on the penalty kill.

“We took a lot of penalties in Colorado College,” Berry said. “We were un-disciplined in a lot of different areas, which gives teams more opportunities. We’ve done a good job of limiting (penalties) this year, so that goes into it. Have to continue to play hard, play on the edge, but not over the edge, and then the other thing too is making sure that we’re sharp with our details and habits.”

UND is still in first place in the NCHC standings, putting them in the driver's seat to win their fourth Penrose Cup in the last five years. The Hawks are three points ahead of St. Cloud, who sit in second place with 40 points.

“We want that Penrose,” Berry said. “We talk about it each and every year, and you know we have some pretty lofty goals, but our guys are all about trying to get to that level, and they’re focused, they’re dialed in, so again, we’re concentrating on that side, and there's motivation. The other thing we want is to be a number one seed in the NCAA tournament. We do not want to give up that top four seed.”

Like their home series against Denver, UND will need to play a lockdown defensive game to shut down Western Michigan's offense. When scoring three goals or less, the Broncos are 1-11 in NCHC play this year.

“Playing as a five-man unit, we can't get spread out over the zone. You know our D have to get up and have good gaps, our forwards have to be tracking back, like we have to make sure we play as a five-man unit up and down the ice.”

This will be the last regulation home series for the Fighting Hawks this year. UND will honor seniors Griffin Ness, Riese Gaber, Ludvig Persson, and fifth-year senior Hunter Johannes because he did not receive a senior day for Lindenwood last season, following Saturday night's tilt.

Puck drop is slated for 7:07 PM Friday and 6:07 PM Saturday.