UND Sweeps BSU in Hard-Fought Series

 

The UND hockey team began its 2026-27 campaign with an impressive two-game sweep of the BSU Beavers (3-2 W, 4-3 W) in a non-conference series. As Hall of Fame radio announcer Tim Hennesy would say, "Those pesky Beavers gave UND all they could handle."

It was a hard-fought, entertaining series. Honestly, either game could’ve ended differently. 

Defensively, UND held BSU to 42 shots on the weekend. On special teams, UND went 3/8 (37.5) on the power play, and the PK didn’t give up a power-play goal on five opponent power plays. On Saturday night, BSU didn't have a shot on their two power-play opportunities. Not bad for a team that is playing with a lot of underclassmen. 

Much has been made of the youth of UND’s defensive corps. What did head coach Dan Jackson think of his team’s defensive effort after the first weekend of play? 

“Our details defensively have to get better,” Jackson said. “We’re still giving up too many rush chances. We’re still probably not defending hard enough from the inside out. We got to get harder at our net. We got to get better. We’re giving up too many rush chances, so I think those couple of things are going to be key.”

Leading UND on the weekend were forwards Will Zellers (2g-4a--6pts) and plus-three Mac Swanson (2g-2a--4pts), plus-one Cole Reschny (2g-1a--3pts), and plus-two. Jan Spunar was solid in net, picking up two wins (2-0-0, 2.51 GAA and an .881 save percentage).

This was the first time in 10 years that UND swept the Beavers in regulation, October 21-22, 2016 (3-2 W, 5-4 W). In the last five years, every game has been a one-goal game, with at least one game going to overtime. Grand Forks Herald UND beat writer Brad E. Schlossman even predicted that BSU would win game one in overtime. 

Hmm…. The call: snip— Friday: Bemidji State 4, UND 3, OT
Saturday: UND 4, Bemidji State 1 Via @SchlossmanGF

— Eric J. Burton (@goon48) October 9, 2026

Based on what we have seen in this series, that’s not a bad take. This weekend’s series was unusual because none of these games went to overtime. In the last five games of this series, at least one went to overtime; UND went 6-2-2 in those 10 games. 

Next weekend, UND entertains Bentley University of Atlantic Hockey. The Falcons beat the University of Vermont 3-0 and lost to Northeastern University 5-1. 

Here are a few images from Saturday's game taken during the first period.