GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- UND senior Mark MacMillan might be the leading candidate for the Hobey Baker Award as the nation's best hockey player if he could play against Colorado College every weekend.

MacMillan scored his seventh goal in four games against the Tigers this season on Saturday night and his 10th in 16 career games against them to lead North Dakota to a 5-3 National Collegiate Hockey Conference victory and a series sweep.

The sweep was the fifth of the season by UND. More importantly, UND moved to within one point of league-leading Omaha in the NCHC race heading into next weekend's series in Omaha.

UND, 18-5-2 overall and 9-4-1 in league play, also moved to No. 2 in the national Pairwise Rankings, trailing only Minnesota State.

North Dakota once again flashed its strong depth in completing the four-game season series sweep from the Tigers. Five different players scored a goal each, led by a goal apiece from the line of Drake Caggiula, Bryn Chyzyk and Luke Johnson.

Team captain Stephane Pattyn joined MacMillan in goal scoring to round out the NoDak attack. Defenseman Nick Mattson chipped in with a pair of assists to join Caggiula (goal, assist) with a two-point game.

"That's something that's kind of been said all year, especially what we believe in the lockerroom, the depth of this team,'' MacMillan said.

But there are bigger goals ahead.

"If we're going to go a long way like we plan to,'' MacMillan said, "then our depth is what takes us there.''

For the second straight night, the last place Tigers (5-16-1 overall, 1-11-1 NCHC) put up a valiant battle, tied with UND at 2-all until late in the second period. That's when UND senior Mike Parks sped down right wing and circled behind the net to set things in motion.

Parks emerged on the other side of the net to find MacMillan all alone for his quick wrister at 17:19 of the second period to put UND ahead to stay at 3-2.

A rocket off right wing by Chyzyk at 8:41 of the third period and an empty-netter by Caggiula with 27 seconds left wrapped up the victory.

MacMillan scored his 13th goal of the season to match his career high at UND, set as a sophomore. He leads the NCHC in goals (10).

UND finished a six-game home stand that began with a 4-1 loss to Minnesota Duluth and concluded with five straight wins, this one in front of a sellout of 11,860 at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

UND coach Dave Hakstol said UND can continue to get better, through small steps.

"The goal is to push to become a better team every week we have the opportunity play,'' he said.

UND improved to 12-0-1 on Saturday nights, to 15-0-1 when leading after two periods and jumped both in the league and national standings/rankings.

Mattson joined Caggiula (goal, assist) with a two-point game to lead UND's scoring sheet.

Mattson assisted on UND's first goal by Johnson on the power play at 3:50 of the first period and on MacMillan's goal at 17:19 of the second period that put UND ahead to stay.

"You obviously want to contribute and help out, even if you're just blocking shots,'' Mattson said. "You can take ownership in the win a little bit, you weren't just a passenger, so it's a good to be part of a big win.''

UND goaltender Zane McIntyre finished with 25 saves to record his 18th win of the season, tops among national goalies.

Game notes: UND scored its first power-play goal in the last seven NCHC games when Johnson buried his wrister in the first period ... UND had converted just 2 of 33 power plays in the last 11 NCHC games until Johnson hit paydirt ... MacMillan, Mattson and Chyzyk were named the three stars, in that order ... Brendan O'Donnell led UND in shots on goal with 5 ... Defenseman Keaton Thompson led UND in the plus/minus rating with a plus-3 ... Pattyn played in his 150th career game, tops among active collegiate skaters.

Virg Foss covered UND hockey for 35 seasons for the Grand Forks Herald until his retirement. He's now in his 10th season of reporting on UND home games exclusively for UNDsports.com. Contact him at virgfoss@yahoo.com.