UND's seniors talked this week about what it takes to be successful in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs.
They have a pretty good idea.
UND has won three straight Broadmoor Trophies and will enter this weekend's first-round playoff series against Michigan Tech on the longest league playoff winning streak ever -- 13 games.
The senior class has won the WCHA postseason championship every year they've been in college, and tonight, they start their quest to go four-for-four.
"We seem to always play our best at this time of year," senior defenseman Joe Gleason said. "Guys finally start to get comfortable and settle into their roles. I think that has a lot to do with seeing certain guys click."
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UND has twice been the No. 4 seed and once the top seed during its last three Broadmoors. This year, UND goes in with the No. 3 seed and a 19-10-7 overall record.
"This weekend is a clean slate," UND senior Corban Knight said. "Obviously, we've had some success in the last couple years, but this is a new year, a different team and different guys. I don't think any of us have that in the back of our mind at all. We're pretty focused on the weekend.
"The great thing about playoffs is that anything can happen. It doesn't matter what team you're playing against, especially in this league. The WCHA is so close, especially this year. I don't think any of us are looking at our past success and banking on that at all."
This will mark the fourth time in six years that UND has hosted Tech in a first-round series and it's the second time the teams have met this season, but the Huskies may not look familiar to UND.
When UND swept Tech in December, the Huskies were struggling in net with a .884 team save percentage. Senior Kevin Genoe played both games and started 10 of 17 in the first half.
Since then, the Huskies have a .923 save percentage, led by freshman Pheonix Copley, who has started 15 of 17 games in the second half.
Michigan Tech's power play was struggling at 16.9 percent when UND was in town. Since then, the Huskies are at 28.1 percent and they have the best power play in the nation since Jan. 1.
"They are more complete in the way they're playing," UND coach Dave Hakstol said. "They're still the same hard-working team, they're just more complete in their game and you expect that at playoff time.
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"You're going to see a good series. You come to this time of year and everybody is excited to get to playoff time. It comes down to a short series. You have to be really focused. You have to be really ready to bring your best game right away Friday night. I expect it to be a real difficult, highly contested series."
And for the seniors, it's one last weekend to play in Ralph Engelstad Arena.
"It's something that's too hard of a topic to even talk about," Gleason said.
Knight, Kristo
& Grimaldi honored
Three UND players earned all-WCHA honors Thursday.
Danny Kristo was named first-team all-WCHA, Knight made the second team and Rocco Grimaldi made the all-rookie team.
St. Cloud State forward Drew LeBlanc was named the league's player of the year; Husky defenseman Nick Jensen is the league's defensive player of the year; Minnesota State goaltender Stephon Williams is the rookie of the year; and first-year Minnesota State coach Mike Hastings, a Crookston native, is the coach of the year.
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Call Schlossman at (701) 780-1129; (800) 477-6572, ext. 1129; or send e-mail to bschlossman@gfherald.com .
