UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA — Lucas Kanta has one goal going into the Army game against the University of North Dakota, to beat UND, his childhood team, in the Ralph Engelstad arena.  

“I made the decision that I didn’t want to go to UND because I wanted my own thing. I didn’t want to be the hometown kid. I didn’t want that,” Kanta said. “That’s my next goal; I need to beat them on their own ice, in front of their own crowd.” 

Kanta says he has been attending UND hockey games since he was six, and his parents have been season ticket holders for the past 15 years. He attended Central High School and won a state championship on their hockey team. Kanta is a Grand Forks kid, and now he is returning to play his hometown team on Oct. 13, and he is ready to face the crowds in the Ralph.  

“I’ve played in a lot of big situations like that,” he said. “The Ralph is probably the biggest, but… I care so much about the game it’s pretty easy for me, once the game gets going, to just focus on what’s happening on the ice.” 

He says he will have around 15 family members and some friends who go to UND or have just graduated coming to watch, which he says means the world to him.  

“Sometimes when you’re out east and have a regular schedule like we do, you kind of forget how many buddies and how many good friends and family you have back home,” Kanta said. “So, it’s a really good refresher to know they’re there on my side.”  

Kanta played hockey and lived in the Midwest for his entire life until committing to West Point, playing high school hockey at Central, and then juniors for the Minnesota Magicians in Richfield, Minnesota. Kanta said that moving to the East Coast was a bit of a culture shock. He was most struck by the proximity to cities like New York City, Boston, and Washington D.C. and the access to different food.  

“On the weekends, if we don’t have anything, we can really go anywhere and do anything,” he said. However, the people are what Kanta missed the most about the Midwest.  

“Midwest people are very nice people, and you don’t really realize that until you’re gone,” Kanta said. “There’s some nice people out here, but definitely the people are a little more, you know, not as nice is pretty much the best way to put it.”  

He also missed the staple Grand Forks restaurant Red Pepper, which he wishes he could take back to West Point, but specifically, the Original Red Pepper, on University Avenue. 

“Central guys are big about ‘we don’t really go to any other Red Peppers,” Kanta said. “It’s only that one.” 

Introducing his teammates to Chippers is another plan that Kanta has for Army’s trip to UND. “It is the taste of Grand Forks for real,” he said.  

However, what he says he wishes he had time to go fishing on the Red River. Something he often misses when he is at West Point is the ability to go hunting and fishing with his family. It is part of the “simplicity” that Kanta says he loves the most about Grand Forks. 

Kanta isn’t nervous about playing at the Ralph because he has done it before, winning the state championship there in 2018 for Central High School; he thinks that gives him an advantage over normal visiting players.  

“I’ve played there before; I kind of know how it is to play at the Ralph. It’s a really cool building. If you go in there, you’re going to be in awe of everything,” Kanta said. “I grew up in that building. So, I’m excited, more excited than anything.”  

The goalie for that championship-winning team was Kaleb Johnson, a current goalie for UND and someone Kanta wants to play against.  

“He’s one of my best friends. I played with him every year I grew up, so I still hang out every time I go home,” he said. “So, that’s going to be fun. I really hope he’s in the net.” 

Regarding how he approaches the game against UND, he is excited to see the new systems and style Army has been working on in the off-season.  

“We have a really good team this year. We’ve got a lot of young, young talent on the team … we’re a new team too,” Kanta said. “We kind of adapted a little bit of a new style this year different from last year, so I’m really excited to see it in the game.”  

Because the UND team is also very new and both teams will only have one game under their belt, Kanta says they can’t rely on “X’s and O’s” in this game. His strategy to defeat UND is out competing them mentally, challenging their grit and team unit.  

“If we go in and play how we play and be really hard on them right away and make them create doubt in themselves, that’s how we beat them,” Kanta said. “They’re probably not a team yet. They haven’t really bonded, haven’t been together for long, so the best way to beat them is to make them doubt themselves.”  

Maeve Hushman is a Dakota Student Sports Reporter. She can be reached at [email protected].