St. Cloud @ UND

[fightingsioux4life]

St. Cloud comes to Grand Forks for a key NCHC series. The Huskies are still in the mix for NCHC first round home ice, while the Fighting Hawks have a chance to clinch no worse than a share of the Penrose Cup with two regulation victories.

St. Cloud can score goals, but can also give up goals. If UND can play solid team defense and stay out of the box, I see two regulation wins and a share of the Penrose Cup for the home team.

[brianvf]

What happened to Adam Ingram? I remember him being a highly coveted recruit. Seems that he has really regressed since his soph season. 

[Wilbur]

Sweep the leg.  Playing for the league regular season championship.  Mbereko will get CC at least one point against Western right? Right?

How fun would it be to see Livanavage (#4), skate the cup in front of the Lawson lunatics though?  If you don't know what im talking about you haven't been paying attention.   

[cberkas]

13 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

Sweep the leg.  Playing for the league regular season championship.  Mbereko will get CC at least one point against Western right? Right?

How fun would it be to see Livanavage (#4), skate the cup in front of the Lawson lunatics though?  If you don't know what im talking about you haven't been paying attention.   

Unger has been the better goalie. Mbereko should be done for the year let Unger finish the season.

[Goon]

Anything less than a sweep next weekend unacceptable. 

[Wilbur]

13 hours ago, cberkas said:

Unger has been the better goalie. Mbereko should be done for the year let Unger finish the season.

Haven't seen CC play much other than against us.  Going on last weekend's results and Mbereko making 38 saves in a 4-1 win at Stearns County Concrete and Hockey facility I'm guessing he's going to be the guy against Western, at least on Friday night.  

[cowboys5xsbs]

Man senior night sneaks up on me every year 

[Godsmack]

31 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

Haven't seen CC play much other than against us.  Going on last weekend's results and Mbereko making 38 saves in a 4-1 win at Stearns County Concrete and Hockey facility I'm guessing he's going to be the guy against Western, at least on Friday night.  

Gotta get Unger his reps but at this stretch I’d be going with the more experienced Mbereko. I’m wondering if Mbereko has been dealing with a nagging injury the last few weeks as well. He left that Saturday UND game rather abruptly midway through the third period and I didn’t have the impression it was due to poor play. Unger gave up 6 goals on Friday at St. Cloud but man, his teammates certainly didn’t give him much help. They looked much better defensively on Saturday. 

[brianvf]

Pretty decent drop off in points after their first three of Gross, Burnevik, and Hall.
Gross has really exploded this year after two good seasons at SCSU.  Wouldn't be surprised to see him sign as a free agent after the season, strike while the iron is hot.
Burnevik has the really good shot.  I remember Thoreson is their punk...he'll be the one agitating and trying to draw penalties.

Hopefully the boys can take care of business.

[Wilbur]

11 hours ago, brianvf said:

Pretty decent drop off in points after their first three of Gross, Burnevik, and Hall.
Gross has really exploded this year after two good seasons at SCSU.  Wouldn't be surprised to see him sign as a free agent after the season, strike while the iron is hot.
Burnevik has the really good shot.  I remember Thoreson is their punk...he'll be the one agitating and trying to draw penalties.

Hopefully the boys can take care of business.

Guy is a clown all weekend and when its time to pay the price people will whine like crazy on the twitterverse when he gets his due.  

[nascar99]

On 2/15/2026 at 4:41 PM, brianvf said:

What happened to Adam Ingram? I remember him being a highly coveted recruit. Seems that he has really regressed since his soph season. 

Burnevik became that guy and Ingram hasn't progressed

[Und Princess]

Good Afternoon North Dakota Hockey Fans! Happy Tuesday! How are you doing today? I just released the Hockey Polls Blog! Where is UND Hockey in this week's polls? Read the blog in the link below to find out!

https://ftstspotlight.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-power-play-conquering-deep-dive.html?m=1

Go UND!!!

Und Princess 

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

4 hours ago, nascar99 said:

Burnevik became that guy and Ingram hasn't progressed

Ingram and Gardner both regressed. Doesn't look good for their recruiting efforts to have their highest picks turn bust.

[brianvf]

On 2/16/2026 at 9:56 AM, cowboys5xsbs said:

Man senior night sneaks up on me every year 

Right?  Can't believe it's already senior night weekend.
Regardless of what happens the rest of this season...it has really been a fun, fun season of UND hockey to watch.  Just a crazy turnaround this year, Dane really brought Sioux hockey back and it's been a blast to see it happen on the ice.

For seniors, we've been fortunate to get to see James and Strinden for four years in the green&white.  And both of them have really stepped it up this year...career years already...both of them already surpassing their career highs in goals & points.  We'll miss those boys next year.

[burd]

6 hours ago, brianvf said:

 

For seniors, we've been fortunate to get to see James and Strinden for four years in the green&white.  And both of them have really stepped it up this year...career years already...both of them already surpassing their career highs in goals & points.  We'll miss those boys next year.

Big time. There’s a lot of very important hockey yet to be played, but starting with his commitment to stay last summer, James could be this team’s mvp.  I know nothing of locker room leadership stuff, but he appears to have been an on-ice leader all season long.  

[tnt]

8 hours ago, brianvf said:

Right?  Can't believe it's already senior night weekend.
Regardless of what happens the rest of this season...it has really been a fun, fun season of UND hockey to watch.  Just a crazy turnaround this year, Dane really brought Sioux hockey back and it's been a blast to see it happen on the ice.

For seniors, we've been fortunate to get to see James and Strinden for four years in the green&white.  And both of them have really stepped it up this year...career years already...both of them already surpassing their career highs in goals & points.  We'll miss those boys next year.

As if Senior night isn’t emotional enough, it will be extra hard for Ben with his dad not being there for the parent introduction.  Don’t think they’ll be a dry eye in the house when this group has their final skate.

[ND_Texan]

1 hour ago, tnt said:

As if Senior night isn’t emotional enough, it will be extra hard for Ben with his dad not being there for the parent introduction.  Don’t think they’ll be a dry eye in the house when this group has their final skate.

Is Ben's grandpa Earl still around? I've been gone a long time.

[skateshattrick]

4 minutes ago, ND_Texan said:

Is Ben's grandpa Earl still around? I've been gone a long time.

No, he passed more than 3 years ago. 

[brianvf]

Maybe we'll see Zakreski this weekend?  And maybe a bit of line shuffling to try to get more 5x5 goals.

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/josh-zakreski-could-return-this-weekend-for-und

Quote

"His conditioning looks really good," Jackson said. "He's worked extremely hard. He was doing a lot of extra power skating, extra bike rides, extra skating with our assistant coaches. So, his fitness looks good. I've seen a bit of rust, but Josh has a lot of solid, two-way game to him. He elevated in our lineup because of his good hockey sense. He plays hard. I think all of those good things he does in his game — even if he's not making high-level plays or shooting pucks in the net — he's going to still be a strong, solid player for us."

Quote

Jackson indicated there could be more line shuffling this week.

Although UND's five-on-five analytics have been strong — both in terms of shots on goal and expected goals — the Fighting Hawks have only managed four even-strength goals in the last four games.

"Obviously, when you're winning, you don't feel the need to switch too much," Jackson said. "We always look at our two-way game. If we feel like we're driving possession and doing the right things, that's our biggest guideline. But I think you'll see a few changes this week as we go forward and try some different stuff. We always know we can go back to some of those lines."