GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- If North Dakota is to rise to the top of the NCAA hockey rankings before the season ends in April, it will do some by playing its way up the ladder.
Going into a challenging non-conference series this weekend at ECAC power Cornell, it will mark another weekend of playing one of the more difficult opening schedules in school history.
The Fighting Hawks, 6/7 in current national polls, will face another top 10 team in the Big Red of Cornell, ranking 8/9 the polls despite having played just one exhibition game so far this season.
A glance at the current Pairwise rankings show No. 1 Denver, No. 2 Boston U., No. 5 St. Cloud State, No. 11 Minnesota State, No. 12 Western Michigan, No. 19 Colorado College, No. 20 Augustana, No. 25 Providence, No. 26 Minnesota Duluth and No. 28 Bemidji State doting UND's schedule of teams ranked in the top 30 in the country in the Pairwise going into this weekend.
And sitting just outside the top 30 is No. 31 Arizona State, which will host the Fighting Hawks in early January.
Beginning with the exhibition game against Augustana on Oct. 5, the schedule shows UND playing its first 12 games of the season against teams in the top 30 in the Pairwise. That's got to be most challenging schedule of any team in the country.
And it is even a tougher schedule than first glance. UND plays Minnesota Duluth, Denver, St. Cloud State and Western Michigan four times each in the NCHC, setting up what should be a fierce battle for top honors amongst that collection of very good teams.
North Dakota's impressive 7-2 win over a young and talented Boston University team last weekend in Grand Forks certainly gave a glimpse into the enormous potential of Coach
Brad Berry's team this season.
That BU came back with a stronger effort the second night and walked off with a spirited 4-3 victory behind two power-play goals and one key shorthanded tally, wasn't unexpected. Sweeps between two talented teams are rare. A tough night for UND's specialty teams played a big role in UND's failure to pull off a sweep.
Yet at the post-game press conference, Berry chose to not look at the failure of a sweep in any negative way. UND had its chances to win the second game, but came up short. Berry said he looked at that result as a glass half full rather than a glass half empty.
Those of us who have been around
Brad Berry for a number of years, from both his playing and coaching days at UND, know of the positive approach he brings to the game, in success or adversity. His words of the glass being half full after losing to Boston University was a subtle but consistent manner in which he runs his program, guides his teams.
The expectations are always high every season for UND hockey, after Gino Gasparini took three of his teams to NCAA titles and built the foundation for the success that has followed. That has certainly been helped along in a huge way by the $100-plus million arena that former UND goalie Ralph Engelstad built and gifted to UND. There is none finer.
This weekend marks the last chance for UND to polish its team game before returning from the East Coast to open NCHC play against old friend Scott Sandelin and his Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs on the road on Nov. 8-9.
Playing this difficult of a schedule didn't happen by accident. Playing top teams brings out the best in your own game, and I believe that will show on this team going forward.
And as season moves along and into playoff time, we'll learn how close to the top of the glass this team will reach.
But first, Cornell. One step at a time.
Virg Foss covered UND hockey for 35 seasons for the Grand Forks Herald until his retirement from the newspaper in 2005. He reported on the national championship teams for the Herald in 1980, 1982, 1987, 1997 and 2000 and as a contributor to UND Athletic Communications in 2016. He now writes a weekly season column exclusively for UND. He can be reached at virgfoss@yahoo.com.
