GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- At the halfway point of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference slate, North Dakota is breathing in rarefied, if frigid, air at this time.
Heading into the second half of the battle for the league title, UND has perhaps exceeded expectations. It is holding first place going into the final 12 games of conference play. It is also ranking No. 2 nationally in the all-important NPI national rankings behind only Michigan.
Both of those rankings are important, the NPI perhaps more so since the final rankings in that determine the field for the NCAA Tournament.
Michigan's battle to maintain the top ranking received a big jolt last Saturday when star freshman goalie Jack Ivankovic suffered a knee injury in a game against Notre Dame.
The initial report from Michigan is that he will be out "long time'' per Michigan's comments on his status. Whether he can return this season remains unknown.
His injury could be especially hard for Michigan to recover from since he had played every minute of every game prior to his injury.
It emphasizes the danger of riding just a single goalie through the season. UND is fortunate that it has played super frosh Jan Špunar and grad transfer
Gibson Homer extensively this season in goal, and both have played very well.
With 12 league games remaining to be played, half of them are against the teams closest to UND in the chase for the title
Those six games against main contenders begin this weekend when the Denver Pioneers come to town. The Pioneers trail UND by 5 points in the NCHC standings, followed by Western Michigan at 6 back and Minnesota Duluth at 8 points behind.
UND draws Denver in Ralph Engelstad Arena this weekend, but travels to Kalamazoo, Mich., and to Duluth to face the Broncos and Bulldogs.
What is so intriguing to me about UND this season is that few of us had any clear idea how this season would pan out for the Fighting Hawks since there were so many unanswered questions.
With a roster featuring 10 freshmen, plus 5 transfers from other colleges, that alone created some uncertainty on how that would play out.
Add to that a rebuilt coaching staff headed by
Dane Jackson, first-year associate
Matt Smaby and first-year GM
Bryn Chyzyk, that's a lot of newness coming together for this traditionally-strong program.
It helps, of course, that all of them played collegiately at UND, so they have that familiarity with the program. Jackson in particular had spent 19 seasons as an assistant coach or associate head coach at UND, so he was well situated to become the 17h head coach in school history.
So buckle up and hang on fans, we have a wild ride to the finish awaiting us with this UND team.
They've shown us that they, as a team, as a new coaching staff, have what it takes to rise to the top.
Now it's a matter of building on that heading into the back half of the league race and the post-season play to follow.
Virg Foss covered UND hockey for the Grand Forks Herald beginning in 1969 until his retirement in 2005. Since then, he has written on Fighting Hawks hockey for UND Athletic Communications. He can be reached at virgfoss@yahoo.com.
