It’s no secret that North Dakota has some work to do if the Fighting Hawks are to make their fourth NCAA tournament appearance in five years.
Sitting 22nd in the PairWise Rankings after an 11-7-1 start, more things will have to start going the right way.
Kind of like they have in the last couple of weeks.
A North Dakota team dealing with injuries to some of its key players is entering the holiday break on a four-game winning streak. After eking out a tight pair of games Dec. 6-7 at Miami, the Hawks won twice again last weekend at home to St. Cloud State.
“I thought our guys did a good job of getting through the first half with some adversity, gaining some momentum in December here and heading into Christmas break with being in a good spot here, and trying to keep building for the second half,” North Dakota coach Brad Berry said during his weekly press conference Wednesday.
Among UND’s high-profile players that didn’t factor into any of those four games are a pair of upperclassmen in senior forward Cameron Berg and junior defenseman Bennett Zmolek. Berg has been out since early November, and it was announced Wednesday that Zmolek will miss the rest of the season with an undisclosed injury. Zmolek hasn’t played since UND’s season opener against Providence.
But for as big as those lineup omissions are, UND has seen many of its younger players blossom. For example, the Hawks’ three top point-producers are all underclassmen in freshman Sacha Boisvert (8-9-17) and sophomore defensemen Abram Wiebe (4-10-14) and Jake Livanavage (2-12-14). Sophomore forward Jayden Perron (6-6-12) and freshman Mac Swanson (2-9-11) aren’t far behind, sitting fifth and sixth on the list.
“I think that comes from, A, seeing what college hockey is all about,” Berry said of the contributions of UND’s youth this season. “When you jump from junior hockey or wherever you came from, it’s a huge step in the pace of the game, it’s a lot faster and it’s a lot more physical, and there’s a lot more physical maturity of playing against older guys. I think the combination of that, they get immersed into that, they get to see what the level is and then they play to that level.
“The other thing, I think, is confidence and knowing that they belong. Once you go through all of our practices playing against really good players, and then you get into the nonconference schedule, which was really tough, and then the NCHC, then you become confident in what you can do, and I think they’re playing with some swagger and confidence to make a difference, and they had to. With the guys that were out of our lineup, they had to make a difference, and we want to see that progression keep going, trending north, as far as their development.”
Youngsters have played key roles in UND’s success over the past couple of weeks. Boisvert scored the game-winning goal with less than a minute left in the Hawks’ 5-4 victory Dec. 6 at Miami, then three underclassmen scored the following night in a 4-2 win in Oxford, Ohio. Livanavage bagged an insurance goal in UND’s 2-0 win last Friday against St. Cloud State, then underclassmen scored the Hawks’ first three goals in a 4-3 overtime victory Saturday against the Huskies.
UND is off until it hosts Manitoba in an exhibition game Jan. 4, and then it’s all NCHC play after that. It won’t be too long before the Hawks are back at it, with an eye toward making up some ground.
“When you talk about the reasons why you’re winning games or losing games, there’s really no excuses built in,” Berry said. “We know where we’re at. At the end of the day, it’s, what are we going to do…the finger doesn’t go (outward), it goes (inward) whether it’s coaches or players, and what we have to do individually and better as a team.
“I do think that Friday game at Miami was kind of a defining moment for us. It was kind of like that Denver game on Friday in Denver last year where we had to come all the way back and win that game (7-5, last December), and I think that showed (for UND’s young players) that, ‘Hey, we belong. We made an impact in this game that we won at Miami and we can continue to do that.’
“The last thing I said to the guys after the game on Saturday is, ‘You’ve done a good job of leading the right way here, but now, us as coaches give you game plans and situations where we’re going to keep moving forward and give you a chance for success, but the success is going to align this locker room in the second half of this season because that’s where the leadership really takes over,” Berry continued. “That’s where the ownership of the dressing room takes charge right away in the second half, and I firmly believe that our guys believe that.”
