COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Entering tonight's NCHC opener at Colorado College, North Dakota had never won four straight games at the Broadmoor World Arena, formerly the Colorado Springs World Arena, which opened in 1998.

In fact, UND had not claimed four straight wins in Colorado Springs since the early 1990s.

History mattered not to UND's freshmen class in tonight's National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) opener.

Rookie forwards were responsible for all five goals as top-ranked North Dakota stayed unbeaten with a 5-2 win over the host Tigers. Chris Wilkie scored a pair of goals and classmates Shane Gersich, Brock Boeser and Rhett Gardner added single tallies, giving UND its fourth win in as many tries at the World Arena.

“They've been good. Tonight was a n example of them contributing offensively,” UND head coach Brad Berry said of his rookie class. “I thought the (Johnny) Simonson line did a really good job with Gersich and Wilkie. It's nice to see young guys having success to start the year.”

Gersich got the ball rolling just 4:11 into the game, picking the top corner after scooping up a Keaton Thompson rebound. Wilkie scored his first of two goals only six minutes later, as Bryn Chyzyk's backhand attempt banked in off of Wilkie's shin pad to send the visitors into the first intermission leading 2-0.

While freshmen accounted for all of the goals, it was upperclassman Troy Stecher who ignited what was likely the key play in the game.

With UND having just killed off the first of two penalties during a 5-on-3 penalty kill, Stecher grabbed a loose puck and led a 3-on-1 rush up ice. The junior defenseman gently slid a drop pass to a trailing Gardner, who whistled a shot past Jacob Nehama for his first collegiate goal.

“I just kind of hung high,” explained Gardner. “Stech made a nice play back to me. I kind of buried my head and just kind of threw it on net. It was a good feeling just to get that one out of the way. Last weekend I had a lot of chances and to finally get one it felt really good.”

Stecher said passing to Gardner was not his first inclination on the play.

“I actually wanted to shoot it but I didn't want to go high and wide and give them a four on one. Rhett made a nice play, bore down and got his first goal.”

The heady play by Stecher and finish by Gardner came 10 minutes after CC had gotten on the board on a Teemu Kivihalme power-play goal. It turned a 2-1 lead into a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes.

“Any time you go down 5 on 3, that's a critical time of the game. If you can get a kill off that it usually gives you pretty good momentum,” said Berry.

Wilkie added his second goal from a difficult angle at 6:49 of the third and Boeser got in on the action with a breakaway goal with 11:26 remaining.

CC got one goal back with Cole McCaskill's first collegiate tally two minutes later.

Gardner deflected the credit when asked about the contributions of he and his classmates.

“Obviously there's a lot of us so we need to make an impact. I think it's a credit to the older guys for making an easy transition for us,” said the native of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

Berry, while pleased with the result, said he wanted to see more out of his team in Saturday's series finale.

“Good win, good two points, good road win,” said Berry. “We were a little sloppy in a few different areas. We have to make sure that we clean up a few different areas tomorrow. We didn't have a lot of momentum in the second period because we took a lot of penalties. We've got to get better on the discipline side of it tomorrow.”

Stecher, one of UND's assistant captains, concurred.

“Any time you come on a road trip, the expectation is to win two games and you can't do that unless you get the first one. At the same time we've got to be a lot better,” said Stecher. “We were pretty sloppy tonight in all three zones and we better clean it up heading into tomorrow night.”

Notes: Matt Hrynkiw stopped 19 of 21 shots to stay unbeaten on the year at 4-0-1 … UND went 1-4 on the power play and killed six of seven CC chances … Wilkie, freshman defenseman Christian Wolanin, and McCaskill were named the game's three stars … Wolanin had a pair of assists, including the pass that sprung Boeser for his breakaway goal … UND outshot the Tigers 32-19.