North Dakota prepares to take on Colorado College following getting swept at home earlier this season

GRAND FORKS — The last time the University of North Dakota played Colorado College, it did not end well.

The Tigers swept UND in Grand Forks, winning in overtime both nights, 3-2.

UND has no plans of dropping two overtime games again this weekend. North Dakota’s coaching staff has used the bye week to their advantage to prepare the team for playing in Colorado Springs.

In Wednesday's weekly press conference, UND head coach Brad Berry spoke about how refreshed and sharp the players have looked in practice this week.

“We’re excited to get going after the break. We’ve had really sharp practices here over the last three days. Guys are excited about the stretch run here.”

The Tigers haven’t given up much in conference play this year. CC is only averaging 2.40 goals per game, the best in the NCHC. Part of that can be credited to their goalie Kaden Mbereko, who is the only goalie from the NCHC to be listed as a top-10 semifinalist for the Mike Richter Award.

Over the last few years, UND has had issues getting on the board against CC in general. The Hawks have not scored more than three goals against the Tigers since February 2021. They will need to avoid repeating past mistakes with CC.

Regardless of the last few matchups vs the Tigers, UND will be fired up and ready to go.

“Obviously we had a sour taste in our mouths from the last time we played these guys,” Sophomore defenseman Bennett Zmolek said when asked about playing CC again. “These guys took two in overtime in our barn, so we are very anxious to get there and get ready to play Friday.”

Zmolek also touched on how he felt the team has improved since their two losses in overtime to CC.

“I feel like that was a good punch in the face. That’s something we needed, and obviously going on a Christmas break got us more tempted, more battle tests and everything like that. We just got to dig deep and play better in our zone, everything like that.”

For Brad Berry there was a strong emphasis on puck management this week in practice.

“Puck management is going to have to be key,” Berry said. “We’re going to have to accentuate our strengths of our game, playing fast north, and make it a situation where we have to try to capitalize on some of the things they do well.”

Last December, the Tigers held off UND's top players from the scoresheet. For UND to win two games this weekend, that cannot be the case again.

“Whether you’re up a goal, down a goal, whatever that looks like, you got to be predictable to your teammates,” Berry said. “It's a situation where everybody does it, and I thought Friday night we had played good enough to win, but we needed everybody, and I don't think we had everybody kind of playing that way, and when we do have success against a team that likes to sit back a little bit and be patient and try to wait for the other team to make a mistake, you got to make sure you force them into bad situations.”

Due to the low scoring nature of the last few games between North Dakota and Colorado College, there will be an extra level of importance added to the powerplay and penalty kill this weekend. 

“Powerplays are tough to come by these days,” Berry said. “ You have to earn everything you get. You make the other team drag you down, hook, hold, slash. Hopefully, there’ll be some plays that’ll be called to get us on the powerplay.”

The Fighting Hawks are 13–4-1 this year when scoring a powerplay goal . UND’s powerplay is running at 25.8 percent.

“Our powerplay has been going pretty good. You know it’s one of those things we want to get on the powerplay and score goals, but at least get momentum, and I think that helps with our five-on-five play this year; so special teams are going to be huge,” Berry said.

North Dakota will travel to Colorado Springs Thursday morning. Puck drop is set for 8:00 PM CT Friday night.