The UND women’s hockey team will go into this weekend’s homestand carrying with it its longest streak without registering a three-point win since the 2009-10 season, when the team lost eight games in row.

“We need everybody going for us to do well,” UND coach Brian Idalski said after last Friday’s loss at Bemidji. “We can’t have a couple kids taking a day off from the gritty, hard work. It needs to be all the time.”

North Dakota hasn’t registered a win since Oct. 17, and its only points in the standings were earned in a shootout win over Wisconsin back in late October.

The women’s hockey team had a tough go this past weekend when it traveled to Bemidji State, losing both of the weekend’s matchups, only registering one goal in each of the games. It was a disappointing series loss for UND, dropping it to an overall record of 5-7-1 on the season.

North Dakota didn’t play bad hockey on the weekend, but the team’s problem as of late seems to be finding ways to put pucks in the net.

UND outshot Bemidji in both matchups, outshooting the Beavers 27-26 in Friday’s game and 32-18 on Saturday, but was unable to develop a strong presence in the scoring column.

“I don’t think the score is indicative of how well we had played, our zone-attack time and the shots, we just need to be grittier to win the inside and our compete level for the whole group just needs to be a bit better.” Idalski said.

Being able to finish on a play seems to be a big problem for North Dakota as of late as the team averages only 1.3 goals-per-game over its last eight games played.

“Couldn’t get to the inside,” Idalski said. “And we weren’t hungry enough on the rebounds.”

North Dakota will have an opportunity to assess the issues in the goals scoring category this week during practice as it prepares for a two-week home stretch at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

The next two weekends will be important for the women’s hockey team in gaining ground back in the WCHA standings.

With two WCHA teams coming to town over the next two weeks, North Dakota is sitting in a good spot to turn its season around.

UND currently sits tied at No. 5 with Bemidji state in the WCHA standings. Ohio State comes into Grand Forks locked in at No. 4 in the standings, ahead of North Dakota by four points. If North Dakota is able to earn a sweep over Ohio State, the team would be able to make a move passing it in the standings.

Ohio State is coming off a tough weekend itself, having just been swept by No. 2 nationally ranked Minnesota, but has been playing solid hockey as of late coming into Grand Forks with an overall record of 7-6-0. Before its losses at Minnesota, Ohio State had won four out of its last six games played against WCHA opponents.

With the long break in December coming around the corner, UND will look to turn its season around against Ohio State on Friday night at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

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