GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- North Dakota certainly learned much last weekend as it opened its college hockey season against a great rival, Bemidji State, just a couple of hours driving distance down Highway 2.

What it learned while picking up two important wins over the Beavers is that top preparation is needed for every opponent. BSU plays a disciplined brand of hockey, combining smart play, good skill level and excellent coaching. 

While the Beavers have not enjoyed national success at the NCAA Division I level that UND has, they always make an opponent play very well in all phases of the game to beat them.

UND did that well enough to open with two nonconference wins last weekend. Those wins could help UND in NCAA seeding at end of season, because BSU should have a successful season ahead it. If the Beavers do, that will add more stock to UND's two wins last weekend when records are compared and sorted out to select the 16-team NCAA field.

The trick now for UND is not to take a step back with Bentley University in town for a second straight home series before Hawks hit the road the following weekend to face a huge rival in Minnesota.

Bentley, a small school of approximately 5,000 students and the only NCAA Division II school on the East Coast playing hockey at the Division I level, has none of the great success at the Division I team as has UND with its eight NCAA championships at that level, the last coming in 2016.

How good this UND team is will be determined in the months to come. From what we've seen in two games, it is a team with great promise, skill and blend of very good newcomers. It is a team that could very well challenge for big honors at season end.

UND took care of business last weekend, handling a stern challenge from the Beavers in the always entertaining home-and-away series that is a delight for the fans both in Bemidji and Grand Forks. 

But all the good that comes from those two wins could be undone or unraveled if the Hawks should stumble this weekend against a program with very little pedigree at this point of Division I national success. It's what is known in the sports business as a "trap game,'' games the favored team should win, But upsets do happen all the time.

It is a bigger "trap series" than it normally would be, what with the huge Minnesota series on tap in the Twin Cities the weekend after this one. It would be easy for the player to look ahead to the Gophers and past Bentley, hence the need to look at these games as "trap games.''

I am impressed with the skill level of this UND team, with so many new players who will only fit better into this program as the season moves along.

There's always high expectations connected to UND hockey, the marquee athletic program at the school. Those eight NCAA championship banners hanging from the rafters at Ralph Engelstad Arena are visual reminders of what this program, this rink, was built for behind the financial generosity of Ralph himself, a former Fighting Sioux goalie.

With that in mind, UND can't overlook Bentley this weekend and think ahead to the Gophers and then the Hall of Fame Game in Texas at Michigan State. No doubt that message has been delivered to the team this week by Dane Jackson and his staff, along with the team captains.

Virg Foss covered UND hockey for the Grand Forks Herald from 1969 until his retirement from the newspaper in 2005. Since then, he has written about UND Fighting Hawks hockey exclusively for UND Athletic Communications. This is is 57th season covering college hockey. He can be reached at virgfoss@yahoo.com or at (701) 213-6866.