The UND’s women’s hockey team will face a familiar opponent this weekend as it will travel to Bemidji to take on the Bemidji State Beavers.

North Dakota is coming off a sweep of St. Cloud State while Bemidji will be looking to avenge its losses to Minnesota last weekend.

Bemidji lost by just one goal to Minnesota — but UND will be looking to utilize its offensive defenseman to fight off the Beavers.

“It definitely helped the transition with Monique (Lamoureux) last year and hopefully that’s something we’ve been keying on,” UND coach Brian Idalski said. “We can have a few other kids jumping up like she did, creating some offense off the rush for us because that’s one way to attack.”

The offensive defensemen was a key factor that was brought in last year and has already adapted to this year’s team.

“I think we prepare for this weekend like we do for every other weekend,” defenseman Tanja Eisenschmid said. “We just try to take a lot of shots on net.”

No Shave November

Idalski will be having a little fun this November once again, as he participates in the “Movember” or “No Shave November” in support of men’s cancer research.

Idalski already has a head start — despite November not officially kicking off until today — as he already has a little moustache growing. Last year, the team was on a winning streak while the mustache was growing. This year, Idalski hopes to have the same effect with a little different outcome in the end.

“Well, since I’ve been so late last year, I figured I’d cheat this year and start a little early, so hopefully I can be a little more competitive within the club this year,” Idalski said. “We got on a pretty good run last year.

“In fact, we were already debating that because we kept it for a week longer and then were hideous in Wisconsin, so I think at the last day of November, regardless of how it goes, it’s going off in a hurry.”

UND will look for that moustache luck as it will head to Bemidji for the first time this season. The games will start at 2:07 p.m. both Friday and Saturday.

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