While UND students were recovering from the fall semester and celebrating the holidays, their men’s hockey team was hard at work solidifying their standing as one of the best teams in the nation.

In mid-December, after sweeping Duluth as the No. 4 team in the nation, the Fighting Hawks rose to the No. 2 spot with games against Alabama Huntsville on the horizon.

While Alabama Huntsville is an unranked team and most would overlook them, UND’s players knew that this would be a good test. Players got the chance to step up with two of the team’s best forwards in Brock Boeser and Nick Schmaltz competing in Finland for Team USA in the World Junior                             Championships.

“I think a lot of our forward group want to show we’re not a one line team,’’ UND forward Bryn Chyzyk said. “Obviously they have carried the bulk of the offense for us so far, but I think there’s a lot of guys up front that have a lot of skill and can put the puck in the net. This is the weekend we want to prove it.’’

The Fighting Hawks fought their way to a 1-0 win over     Alabama Huntsville and while their forwards may have not shined that night but their goalie sure did.

UND sophomore goal tender Cam Johnson broke a long standing school record for longest shootout streak. Johnson had been on fire the previous five games by stopping everything that came at him for 278 minutes and 38 seconds.

“It means a lot,” Johnson said. “At a school like this, for as long as this program has been around with all historic players who have played here, it’s pretty cool that my name will go down in history.”

Unfortunately for Johnson, his streak was also about to be history.

In game two against UAH, UND would start the scoring much earlier this time, with Paul LaDue scoring unassisted 25 seconds into the period.

But with 13 seconds left in the first period, the puck bounced off of UND defensemen Keaton Thompson’s stick and snuck past Johnson’s pads and ending the streak. The run ended at at 298 minutes and 25 seconds, good enough for the second best scoreless streak in college hockey history.

“I was disappointed,’’ Johnson said. “But all good things got to come to an end. I just hate the way it ended, kind of a flukey one there. At least I can try to chase my own record now.’’

From that point on though, it was all UND as the Hawks poured it on for a 4-1 victory.

At this point, UND was 18-2-2 and had the best record in the country. It was time they finally got back to being the No. 1 school in the nation.

Though their ranking would change, the results would not, as the Hawks took care of business in the exhibition game against the U.S. Under-18 team. Through a hot start, UND was able to score three goals in the first three minutes to put the game out of reach, with the final score reading 4-1.

This UND team has gotten off to one of the best starts in recent memory and with the return of Boeser and Schmaltz, will attempt to continue to stay hot into the winter when the games truly matter.

The scariest part of this team is that historically, UND is best in the second half of the year.

The Hawks will have their first big test of the year as they host No. 9 Omaha at the Ralph Engelstad. Puck drops tonight at 7:37 p.m. and Saturday at 7:07 p.m.

Alex Stadnik is the sports editor for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected]