WHKY: North Dakota opens season against the Rensselaer Engineers

GRAND FORKS, N.D. -

The University of North Dakota women's hockey team will open its regular season on the road in upstate New York. North Dakota will face RPI in an ever-important non-conference game right out of the gate.

When playing in the WCHA, non-conference games can make or break a team's post-season hopes. This weekend is no exception and North Dakota hopes to win its first game in Troy, N.Y. this weekend. Veterans returning to this ice for the green and white understand that importance of this weekend. "We know what it's like to drop games early and, I guess, be punished for it at the end of the season," senior, forward Layla Marvin said.

Head coach Brian Idalski said that the focus is to win hockey games, but that the team needs to be patient with where its at at this stage in the season.

The last time the teams met at the Houston Field House, RPI swept North Dakota. Last season, the Engineers traveled to The Ralph for the season opener where North Dakota took the game 7-1.

Last weekend North Dakota struggled offensively in their exhibition against the University of Manitoba Bisons. The lone goal credited in the second to Anna Kiponen. The puck came off the skate of a Bisons player before entering their net. North Dakota gave all three goaltenders a workout during the exhibition.

Live stats will be available for tomorrow's game (5:00 p.m. CST) and Saturday (1:00 p.m. CST) match-up at RPI Athletics. You can also follow @UNDWHockey on Twitter for updates.

North Dakota will continue its caravan on the road through October 16th. The first home game of the season will be a Saturday afternoon match-up against the gritty, Bemidji State Beavers on October 17th.

Union and RPI Line Brawl

Union has given their head coach Rick Bennet a two-game suspension and I wouldn't be surprised if it's longer after this is all sorted out. Old time hockey at the Mayor's Cup Game. Here's what I want to know, why are the players from RPI coming off of the bench while there's a melee going on?

USCHO.COM --- ECAC Hockey officials are looking into the series of on-ice incidents at the end of Saturday’s Rensselaer-Union game in Albany, N.Y., one of which involved the head coaches getting in a heated dispute.

Videos showed that shoving started as soon as the Engineers won a last-second faceoff in its zone to seal a 2-1 victory over the third-ranked Dutchmen and escalated as Rensselaer players came off their bench to celebrate.

Union captain Mat Bodie is seen delivering a high cross-check to Rensselaer’s Brock Higgs after the faceoff, and other players assemble to create a mass of bodies.

Goon's Weekly Predictions 10-28-10-29

There are eleven teams playing this week in the WCHA, the walking wounded of Minnesota State University Mankato have a bye and they are off this weekend. There are five league game and one non-conference match-up between C.C. and RPI. Following last week record of (7-5) + (7-9) the week before I am now 14-14 for the season in my picks.

Denver vs MTU - DU Sweep
Bemidji vs UMD - Split
St. Cloud State vs UND - Sweep UND
UNO vs Wisconsin - Sweep Wisconsin
Minnesota and Alaska Anchorage - Split
C.C. vs RPI - Sweep Tigers