The UND women’s hockey team will host a pair of game against the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs this weekend.

North Dakota and Duluth played four games last season, UND won two while the other two were skated to a tie.

The team enters this weekend’s series with a level of optimism resonating from the positive it has received this week. Becca Kohler was named the WCHA offensive player of the week after a five-point campaign against Mankato last weekend. Kohler is touting a four-game point streak with nine points in the short season.

UND also moved up to No. 8 in the national in the USA Today poll. Previously, UND had dropped to No. 10 after a disappointing loss to Vermont two weeks ago.

UND is playing a Duluth team still looking for its first conference win after being swept by the University of Wisconsin.

The game will be another matchup of two strongly defensive teams squaring off. UND will face a Duluth defensive core lead by four upperclassmen.

UND is averaging almost four goals per game thanks to its consistent offensive play — especially with the combination of Kohler, Dufault and Jakobson.

“When they are making plays and moving their feet, good things happen,” UND coach Brian Idalski said.

While Kohler, Dufault and Jakobson are contributing to the majority of the scoring, there have been other bright spots for UND offensively. The team has been spreading the puck around, as eight players on the roster have scored so far.

UND’s penalty kill will look to continue its streak of 18 straight kills without allowing a goal to a UMD team that has only scored five goals on 25 attempts.

The two teams will face off Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 4 p.m.

Kyle Beauchamp is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected].