GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- And so we head into the virtual unknown part of the season for our favorite hockey team, the UND Fighting Hawks.

A near-sure bet to be in the NCAA playoffs every year, and for certain the National Collegiate Hockey Conference Final Five, all that is in jeopardy this weekend.

UND, by virtue of its sixth-place seeding in the eight-team NCHC in the regular season, opens play Friday night ON THE ROAD in a best-of-3 series in Omaha, Neb., against the Mavericks, whom they have not lost to this season.

Without a win in this playoff series by UND, the Fighting Hawks and their legion of fans will not be in St. Paul for the NCHC Frozen Faceoff, nor in the NCAA Region tournament in Fargo. Attendance at both events would take a big hit without the thousands of fans who travel across the nation to watch the Fighting Hawks.

And as up-and-down in play as this season has been for UND, there is no guarantee the Fighting Hawks can build on their 3-0-1 record against Omaha this weekend to extend their season to the Frozen Faceoff in St. Paul.

But there certainly is hope that they can. I think there has been a showing of enough evidence in recent weeks to indicate that this team has put the pieces of the puzzle together to be a formidable force to deal with in the playoffs.

For starters, UND is playing its best stretch of hockey of the season, unbeaten in its last six games, including five that went to overtime.

So finally, this late in the season, this team has found a way to win. Whether the Hawks can extend that brief consistency into the playoffs where steady play matter most, is the big mystery out there.

But as I mentioned earlier, there is hope. UND has given up two or less goals in four of those six games, so defensive coverage, and goaltending, have improved in both quality and consistency. Those are bedrocks to the game to build on, and perhaps ride into the NCAA tournament, a big challenge awaiting.

Yet UND can be a tough team to beat when it plays at the top of its game. It has genuine stars on offense in Jackson Blake and Riese Gaber, and we're seeing the emergence of freshmen forwards such as Dylan James and Owen McLaughlin into possible future stars with some great play by them late in the season.

And of course, there's goaltending. Michigan State transfer Drew DeRidder appears to be at the top of his game right now. Winning hockey starts with goaltending and defense, allowing the offense to play with a bit more freedom and attack.

So this series at Omaha looms large, for both teams. Judging by their standings in the Pairwise Rankings, the loser of this series will see its season end, barring some miracle combination of other playoff games this weekend.

And win or lose, there is nothing more dramatic than playoff hockey, where one mistake, one goal, determines the fate of your season. Suspense of the highest order, for both teams, starting Friday night in Omaha.

These two teams certainly know each other very well. They've played four times already this season, including last weekend in Grand Forks, where UND eked out a 5-4 overtime win, and scored late to win 2-1 in the weekend finale.

There's every reason to expect more of the same in intensity this weekend.

Both teams have shown big improvement late in the season, and both are capable of advancing and winning the NCHC Frozen Faceoff, and doing damage in the NCAA tournament. And wouldn't be grand, and improbable, to hang another NCAA championship banners from the rafters of Ralph Engelstad Arena?

But only one team this weekend will advance on in the playoffs, highlighting the drama this matchup offers.

Drop the puck, boys. May the best team win.

Virg Foss is in his 18th season of writing about UND hockey for FightingHawks.com web site. Prior to that, he reported on UND hockey for 35 seasons for the Grand Forks Herald, including NCAA championship teams in 1980, 1982, 1987, 1997 and 2000. You can contact him at virgfoss@yahoo.com.