Historically, UND is known for their special teams play. Almost yearly, UND is in the top-20 of Division I hockey for special teams play. So far this season, the Fighting Hawks have struggled on the power play and penalty kill.
This past weekend, UND was (3/10, 70%) on the penalty kill. UND’s penalty kill is ranked 8th overall in the NCHC. Based on the skill of UND’s forwards and defense, that’s unacceptable. If UND has aspirations of going deep into the NCAA playoffs, they will need to improve their penalty kill numbers. I predict they will.
UND fans should be patient, UND is replacing veteran penalty killers like Steph Pattyn, Connor Gaarder, Michael Parks and Mark McMillian with freshmen forwards and sophomore forwards. That group scored 12 short-handed goals last season. I don’t think this group is going to come close to that number this season.
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