First, I am not going to lie, UND’s team stats don’t look very good right now. Honestly, there’s a lot of room for improvement in all three zones on the ice. Presently, the power play (6/45) is ranked 50th nationally and the penalty kill (37/47) is ranked 49th nationally.
To add injury to insult, the Fighting Hawks have already given up three shorthanded goals. Last season, UND game up two shorthanded goals all season long. The Fighting Hawks are also ranked 20th nationally on offense and defense. Those numbers will have to improve if the Hawks want to be successful.
While things might not look so rosy for the Fighting Hawks right now. The Fighting Hawks are building for the future, there’s a lot of potential on this team. During the offseason, the defending champs lost nine players to graduation and NHL defections. Gone from the lineup are 81 goals and 217 points. That means 50 percent of last season’s offense is gone. Currently, there are 19 underclassmen on the Fighting Hawks roster trying to make up the difference. While it sounds cliché, there’s no substitute for experience.
On Saturday night, the Fighting Hawks dictated play for large parts of the game, they outshot the Gophers 33-20. However, they still came up on the short end of the stick. They generated a lot of scoring opportunities but weren’t able to punch through. Moving forward this gives the coaching staff something to build on.
“Pretty much the way we wanted to play,” head coach Brad Berry told the media after the game. “We competed hard and dominated pretty much every category but the scoreboard, and obviously the effort we had tonight was the effort that we need every night. I’m proud of the way that our guys played.”
Finally, if you haven’t seen the replays from Friday night, you can watch the video below.
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