Junior forward Andrea Dalen handles the puck near the net last weekend against Ohio State at the Ralph Engelstad Arena.  Photo by Chester Beltowski/The Dakota Student.

The UND women’s hockey team will head on the road for the first time this season on Friday.

North Dakota will face off against the St. Cloud State Huskies in St. Cloud at the newly renovated Herb Brooks National Hockey Center on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.

Prior to last weekend, the Green and White’s 4-0-1 record was the best start to a season in program history. After a split with Ohio State last weekend, North Dakota will look to improve its game.

“I thought we were pretty solid those last two periods, and the fact is, we probably played better in the loss than we did in the win,” UND coach Brian Idalski said of the team’s performance last weekend.

UND will face a St. Cloud State team that has had a rough start to its year. The Huskies are winless on the season with an 0-4-2 record overall. However, St. Cloud has tied two teams — Ohio State, which beat North Dakota last weekend by one goal, and Quinnipiac.

North Dakota is focused on not letting the Huskies get an early jump on it like Ohio State did in last weekend’s series as the Buckeyes tallied two goals in the first period during Saturday’s game.

“I thought it was more the early goals,” Idalski said. “I thought Ohio State came out and played pretty well. I thought Shelby (Amsley-Benzie) made some key saves for us early on before (Ohio State) got the goals.”

While the Green and White couldn’t make a comeback last Saturday, it will be looking for a clean sweep this weekend — but not without the challenge of facing off against a team in its own building.

“(St. Cloud) hasn’t been an easy out,” Idalski said. “They’ve taken points from Quinnipiac, who’s in the top ten and probably should have won, to be honest … they’re going to be fired up in their building.”

In the last 10 games between these two teams, UND has come out on top in all of them. In seven of those games, UND recorded a shutout. North Dakota will look to hold its record this weekend while St. Cloud State will look for its first win of the season.

UND’s freshman class has yet to compete against St. Cloud this season, and will come into the weekend leading the nation in scoring for freshmen with 22 points combined.

Friday night’s game will start at 7:07 p.m., and Saturday’s afternoon game will start at 3:07 p.m.

Mariah Holland is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected]