UND is heading to Mankato for the first time since the 2019-20 season

GRAND FORKS — The last time the Fighting Hawks played a two-game series in Mankato, UND went winless, tying 4-4 and losing 2-1 the next night.

But that weekend did not define the Fighting Hawks season. UND finished the regular season as the Penrose Cup champions and likely would have entered the NCAA tournament as one of the top seeds. However, the COVID-19 pandemic stopped UND from getting another shot at potentially facing the Mavericks in the postseason.

Last year, UND and MSU played a two-game series at the Ralph, which resulted in a 6-2 win for the Hawks on Friday night and a 2-2 tie the next night.

A familiar place

Bennett Zmolek is very familiar with the Mavericks. The Rochester, MN, native played 28 games with MSU before sustaining an injury that kept him out for his sophomore season. Zmolek transferred to UND last year but didn’t play against the Mavericks due to an injury.

“Definitely tough,” Zmolek said when asked about missing the last year's series. “Yeah, seeing the former guys I used to play with,  I was able to talk to a handful of them after the game on Friday and Saturday, but yeah, it was pretty tough to watch from the stands.”

Non-conference games hold a lot of value in the pairwise rankings, especially at the end of the season. Picking up wins early in the season can mean the difference between making and missing the NCAA tournament.

But for Zmolek and the rest of the Fighting Hawks, the Mavericks are just another faceless opponent. 

“It’s just another game,” Zmolek said. “They’re big and heavy; they defend hard, crash the net hard, and really hard. They got a good goalie, good defense, and good forwards. It will definitely be a challenge.”

Building momentum

The Fighting Hawks won’t be letting off the gas this weekend. After a tough exhibition matchup against Augustana, UND turned the page the following weekend and defeated Providence 5-2, receiving scoring from a multitude of players. For the first time this season, UND will play a two-game series.

“Going into this weekend here now, we’re playing two games,” UND head coach Brad Berry said. “There's nothing more important than Friday night, and Saturday night doesn't matter right now. Friday is the night you have to have the shift-by-shift mentality to carry over momentum here. It’s going to be a situation here where where it’s going to be a small, short-term focus on what we have to do.

“It’s a business trip, you know, that’s got to be first and foremost thing in our minds; it's not a situation where we’re going to Mankato for anything else other than business and again a situation where you’re going down, you get into a routine of what we do on a Thursday, go get into a routine of what we do on Friday morning with our meetings and our skate, and then we get into the games. In order to have success, you have to have that mentality of having a business-like approach and making sure the new guys in our group know that.”

Berry continued to talk about things that UND must do to find success this weekend.

“It’s about starting on time," Berry said. "I thought against Providence, it took us five or six minutes to get in the game; we’re going into a road scenario where it’s a packed house, they have a lot of passionate fans that are allowed in that building, and you know getting momentum right away is going to be a big thing and making sure we jump both feet in right away.”

UND will bus to Mankato on Thursday morning and practice later in the afternoon. Puck drop is slated for 7:07 pm (CT) Friday.

Quick hits

-UND is 40-19-9 against Minnesota State

-North Dakota last won in Mankato on March 8th, 2013

-The Mavericks are 2-2 heading into this weekend

-UND junior forward Owen McLaughlin has three points in two games against the Mavericks

-Former University of Minnesota forward Rhett Pitlick joined the Mavericks late this offseason. North Dakota fans might remember him for throwing his stick into the stands after scoring a goal against UND in a 2022 series at 3M Arena at Mariucci. Pitlick received a 10-minute misconduct penalty, which helped sparked UND’s comeback win, 5-4.