The Minnesota women’s hockey team completed its sweep over UND in a 5-0 win Saturday night at Ridder Arena.

UND is currently skating on a three-game losing streak, which has dropped its record to 3-3 in WCHA conference play. This leaves the team third in conference standings behind Minnesota and Wisconsin.

North Dakota had a chance Saturday to redeem Friday night’s 5-1 loss, but failed to find the back of the net, while Minnesota managed to have five players finish with multiple points in the game. Hannah Brandt was all over the ice for Minnesota, and she ended the night with two goals and three assists.

UND’s offense couldn’t get anything going on Saturday, recording its lowest shots on goal in a game this season with only seven. Minnesota found a way to get on the board early on, just over three minutes into the game off the stick of Brandt.

Minnesota recorded 51 shots on sophomore goaltender Lexi Shaw, keeping its impressive power play rolling and converting on two of its six opportunities.

Friday night’s outcome wasn’t in favor of UND, but the team was able to generate 28 shots with two goals.

“I thought we executed well, and I thought we played pretty well,” UND coach Brian Idalski said after Friday night’s loss.

The season remains young for North Dakota, which gives it plenty of time to find its game and develop a favorable position in the WCHA. UND is only six games into its 28-game WCHA schedule, and will continue the road of conference matchups the next five weekends.

Next weekend will be a good indication of how the standings are going to look in conference play early on for the WCHA.

Wisconsin sits on top of the WCHA with six wins leading with 18 points, and will be traveling to Grand Forks next weekend for a series at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

Wisconsin and North Dakota will meet for two different series in the next five weeks.

Last year’s matchup at the Ralph between Wisconsin and North Dakota resulted in scoreless tie in Friday night’s game and 3-1 loss for UND on Saturday. UND will have to try and come off this weekend’s pair of losses to Minnesota and add to its current nine conference points that has it sitting at No. 3.

North Dakota will have a matchup against Bemidji State after its game against Wisconsin next weekend, giving it a chance to grab points in conference.

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