North Dakota rolls into Omaha on a four-game win streak

WEST FARGO – The Fighting Hawks have been rolling since being swept by Colorado College in early February. 

UND has won its last four straight games, allowing only five goals and outscoring Minnesota-Duluth and Western Michigan 18-5. Most recently, the Hawks took down Western Michigan last Saturday night, winning 3-0. With that win, the Hawks secured their fourth Penrose Cup in the previous five years.

“I think, definitely, after the tragedy in CC, we just kinda found our game and found ourselves,” UND forward Cameron Berg said during Wednesday's weekly press conference. "I think we’re doing pretty good here at the perfect time when you need to get hot.”

North Dakota has some pretty high goals set for themselves this week, and coaching staff has stressed that every game still matters.

“I had on the dry board what’s on the line,” UND head coach Brad Berry said when asked about this weekend’s series. “I had what Omaha has on the line, and we have on the line. Omaha is 17th in the pairwise; you firmly have to be 14 and above to be in the tournament. They're fighting for that 14th spot or higher. They know that we’re a top team coming in. In order for them to get where they need to go, they need to go through us.”

In January, the Mavericks and Hawks split in Grand Forks, UNO winning 5-4 in overtime Friday night, followed by a 3-1 UND victory Saturday. Since the loss to Omaha, UND has gone 10-2-1. A big reason for Nodak’s recent success can be credited to Cameron Berg, who transferred from the University of Nebraska-Omaha and will play this weekend in Baxter Arena for the first time since losing to UND last March in the NCHC quarterfinals.

“Just kind of excited to go back there,” Berg said. “I mean, I played there for two years, (I am) excited, just another opportunity to play a game.”

Berg is tied for first place with Noah Laba (Colorado College) for goals scored in NCHC games; he has scored 14 in his 22 conference games thus far. When Berg scores a goal, UND is 13-2-1.

“I’m just probably getting more pucks to the net,” Berg said. “I think I’m just kind of shooting more and getting pucks there, and I play with some pretty good players, too, who find me, so it makes it pretty easy.”

Berg has also played an integral role on special teams. He has played all over the ice, which has helped make UND’s powerplay so versatile.

“Just a guy that's excited to play every single day, and it starts in practice,” Berry said when asked about Berg’s recent success. 

During Tuesday's practice, Berg stood out to Berry when the team was getting in reps on special teams.

“He’s on the powerplay unit, and the penalty kill gets a puck, and they’re coming up the ice, and man, he was the first guy out of the zone tracking back, and this is practice. You know, at the end of the day, sometimes you can just say, okay, we’ll let it go, we’ll wait for the next rep. He’s relentless, and when you see a guy being relentless in practice, that transfers into being relentless in games.”

UND will travel to Omaha on Thursday. They will look to extend their winning streak and head into the NCHC playoffs on a high note. During this week, the UND coaching staff has had no issues worrying about keeping the team motivated.

“For us, continue with our momentum, as far as what we’ve done over the last couple of weeks,” Berry said. “The other part is the pairwise. You know we’re in a one seed right now, we want to stay there, and we want to elevate. I just think staying sharp as far as what we’re doing here and not deviating from the plan, and not getting ahead of ourselves for the playoffs, and just taking this weekend one game at a time and making sure that we try to have success doing the right things.”

Puck drop is slated for 7:07 PM CT Friday and Saturday from Baxter Arena in Omaha.