There have been a few missteps along the way, but overall the UND men’s hockey team has gotten off to a fantastic start to 2016.

The Hawks have had the luxury of playing at home for the seven games to start the year, but one of the marks of a good team is taking care of business at home and against lesser teams.

UND went 5-1-1 over that stretch and are looking to add to their impressive 20-3-3 against NCHC rival Western Michigan this weekend.

For the second straight weekend in a row, the Hawks will face off against a team that sits in the bottom tier of the NCHC. The Broncos are 7-14-3 overall and sit at a lowly 4-9-1 against the rest of the NCHC Conference. What makes matters worse for Michigan State is the fact that it hasn’t won a game in the last six and this weekend does not look promising either.

Once again, UND cannot sleep on any team in the conference a fact that become evident last Friday against Colorado College.

The Tigers are last in the conference but almost came back from a four-goal deficit against the Hawks in The Ralph Engelstad Arena. UND appeared to stop skating as hard in that game and it almost cost the team, a mistake it will not make again.

“The last two Fridays have been parts of a game, not a total 60-minute game,” Berry said. “I thought the two Saturdays, the bounce back Saturdays, have been 60-minute games, so going forward that is what we want to strive to.”

Consistency will be a key to winning this road series. UND players will need to keep its tempo up even in the face of fatigue. The Broncos are a physically brooding team with their average player clocking in at around 6 feet 1 inch.

“They are a big physical team, they try and wear you down, they try to take away time and space,” Berry said. “I know the last two times we’ve played there over the course of the last two years, we came out of that rink and guys were fatigued. They were mentally and physically tired coming out of there, and we need to make sure that we have a lot of energy going in there.”

UND has its own players that Michigan State needs to worry about. A week after fellow rookie Brock Boeser won the award, Rhett Gardner took home the NCHC Rookie of the Week after a four goal weekend against CC.

He and players such as Luke Johnson, who scored two goals last weekend, have taken up the mantle of scoring in the absence of top line players such as Nick Schmaltz and Drake Caggiula.

The other challenge that the Hawks face this weekend is complacency. It would be very easy to overlook a lower-tier team with the bye week coming up right after. But if UND can take care of business, it will be sitting in great position heading into the week off and have the opportunity to rest players who are banged up.

“Every year at this time of year we get that by week, and I think that’s good from a standpoint of trying to work on some things system wise where you need to,” Berry said. “You get a chance before the last push and also you try to get bodies healthy 100 percent for the last the last run.”

Puck drops tonight at 6 p.m. in Kalamazoo, Mich. and at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

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