GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Most of us lake cabin people have tucked away our boats for the winter, beginning the long countdown of days until warmer weather and the sights and sounds of spring awakening in the Far North reunite us with our boats and lakes.

For those like me who are huge college hockey fans, this is the time of the year where that sport fills that void in our souls. It is especially so when the attraction and excitement of UND hockey commands our attention from October until hopefully through the first 10 days of April and the NCAA Frozen Four in Washington, D.C.

It's been a rollercoaster of a ride so far, hasn't it?

From four straight wins over Bemidji State and Bentley to open the season, to losing 5-3 twice at Minnesota and once against Michigan State by 5-3 in the Hall of Fame Game in Texas, we've seen this team go through the expected growing pains of a very young team.

But we also saw this group grow some whiskers last weekend, against a very good Western Michigan team in the league openers at Ralph Engelstad Arena. Losing a shootout to the Broncos last Friday gave WMU two points in the standings to one for UND. The Fighting Hawks came back with a stout 4-1 victory the next night to win all three points and capture 4 of the possible 6 points available for the weekend. 

Since Western Michigan figures to be one of the teams battling UND for the league title and this being the only regular-season series between the Fighting Hawks and the Broncos, it definitely goes down as a successful weekend for UND. 

A road trip to St. Thomas is on tap this weekend. The Tommies have split with Air Force, Minnesota State and Miami and swept Alaska Anchorage, so this goes down as a big weekend for them as it does for UND.

UND will need to pay close attention to St. Thomas sophomore forward Lucas Van Vliet, who has 8 goals in 8 games to lead his team offensively. The Las Vegas draft pick is coming off a big weekend with 5 goals and 2 assists for a 7-point weekend against Anchorage.

That 5-goal weekend for Van Vliet match the number of total goals for UND's leading goal scorers, Cole Reschny and Cody Croal -- in 9 games.

The Fighting Hawks have been winning with balance throughout the lineup rather than with a player or two dominating the scoring. In the 5-0 shutout of Bentley, for example, 5 different players scored the UND goals -- Croal, Reschny, Connor Davis, Jack Kernan and EJ Emery. That depth of scoring will win you a lot of games.

To finish November on a strong note would mean much to UND. The coming month of December shows only four games for UND, but both are against teams who should be in the title hunt as well. The Hawks go to dangerous Denver the first weekend in December before closing out the 2026 calendar year at home against Scott Sandelin's potent Duluth Bulldogs the following weekend.

Virg Foss has covered UND hockey since 1969, first for the Grand Forks Herald, and since 2005 when he retired from the newspaper, for UND Athletic Communications. He can be reached at virgfoss@yahoo.com.