GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Two weekends to go in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference regular season and I don't know what to think anymore.

Having been connected to UND hockey for more than half a century now as a reporter/columnist for a newspaper or the school itself, there have been far more great or very good years to write about than not.

This year, it's been a bit of both, and that's what bothers me the most.

Going into this final stretch of games, UND has played itself out of a chance for home ice in the first round of league playoffs. It has put itself in jeopardy of not even advancing to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff in St. Paul in a few weeks. And beyond that, earning a berth in the NCAA Regional down the road in Fargo may be the longshot of them all. 

It is a strange season, indeed.

There have been breakdowns in various facets of the game throughout the season. Moments of tremendous play at times, to be sure. But far too many occasions where the overall play has been below the level of excellence we have come to expect and enjoy.

So yes, it has been nearly as frustrating to us fans as it has been, I'm sure, for the players and coaches.

Take last Saturday's game against St. Cloud State, for example, a team high in the national rankings.

UND dominated that game, posting 30 shots on net through three periods and overtime, to just 13 for the Huskies. And UND clanked shots off goal posts three times, and certainly deserved far better than a 2-2 tie in the final official outcome.

At one point, UND held the Huskies without a shot on goal for more than 19 minutes, and cycled the puck in the SCS offensive zone for 5 or 6 minutes straight, but without a goal to show for it. Even some of UND's greatest teams ever rarely showed those periods of sheer dominance.

Then in the shootout to decide the extra point in the standings, the Huskies score the lone goal among six shooters combined to steal the extra point. And the player who scored the shootout winner for the Huskies didn't even have one shot on goal in regulation play that night.

So even when UND did most everything right, the final outcome came out wrong. Games can be like that in sports. Seasons can go that way.

But we are fans, thick or thin, through teams winning NCAA championships, through teams scrambling to find any consistency, any glory.

But you know what? UND has four games left before the league playoffs, and there's always hope. Hope that the great play of last Saturday can become the new consistency of this team, down the final weeks, into the playoffs.

And if this team can bottle that now and uncork it in weeks to come, who knows what could happen.

That's why we are fans. No matter what, we hope, we believe. This is our school, This is our team, our players, our coaches.

So until this team is out of it, count me in.

Hawk-ey Talk with Virg Foss is a new weekly column about North Dakota hockey by longtime writer Virg Foss. Foss covered UND hockey for 35 seasons for the Grand Forks Herald, including 5 NCAA title teams, before his retirement. Since his retirement, he's written about UND hockey exclusively for FightingHawks.com. This marks his 53rd season since he began covering UND hockey in 1969.