Seniors Tori Williams and Andrea Dalen speak with referees at Ralph Engelstad Arena earlier this season. The seniors will be playing in their last regular season home games this weekend. Photo by Nicholas Nelson/The Dakota Student.

The UND women’s hockey team will host its last regular season matchup of the season this weekend as WCHA rival Minnesota State travels to Grand Forks.

The series also marks the final regular season games played at Ralph Engelstad Arena for the four seniors on North Dakota’s roster.

“It’s going to be really sad,” senior captain Andrea Dalen said. “It’s exciting finishing up with school, but being done with hockey will be tough.”

Senior forwards Dalen and Josefine Jakobsen, along with defensemen Tori Williams and Johanna Fallman, will take the ice for a crucial series. It also will be the final regular season games of the players’ collegiate careers.

Picking up at least one win this weekend is important for North Dakota when it comes down to the seeding of playoffs. The Green and White currently sit in third place in the WCHA and are at risk of being moved into fourth place if the team fails to pick up points this weekend, potentially being passed by Minnesota Duluth in the standings.

“If we win this weekend, we will be better seeded for the playoffs,” Dalen said.

Minnesota State currently sits in last place in the WCHA conference with a conference record of 1-24-1 but that doesn’t mean the team should think these wins will come easy.

Minnesota State came to Grand Forks at the end of last season around the same time and ended up sweeping North Dakota on home ice.

“We lost two games last year to them at the end of the year,” said Dalen. “They are going to come out hard, and even though they are ranked lower than us, they could still win if we’re not doing our job.”

North Dakota has been playing good hockey down the stretch, winning nine out of its last 10 games, all of which came against WCHA opponents.

Shelby Amsley-Benzie continued her great play in net, adding to her career shutouts record by posting back-to-back scoreless games against St. Cloud State last weekend, stopping 38 shots on the weekend.  Amsley-Benzie moved to 47 career wins with 12 shutouts, both UND records.

Now for the third time in five weeks, the junior goaltender has been named the WCHA Defensive Player of the Week. Amsley-Benzie’s currently leads the nation with a .953 save percentage since Jan. 1.

North Dakota, now 18-11-3 moves to No. 7/8 in the national polls, passing ahead of Minnesota Duluth.

Minnesota State Mankato has struggled with its last stretch of games as it picked up only one conference win since coming out of the holiday break. The Mavericks also have had problems with scoring goals this season, getting outscored by conference opponents, 120-30.

The Green and White, on the other hand, hold on to a conference record of 14-9-3, outscoring their opponents 58-43.

Before entering the first round of playoffs, North Dakota will look to end its final homestand of the season on a high note when Minnesota State comes to Ralph Engelstad Arena this Friday at 7:07 p.m.

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