No. 10 UND rolls No. 5 Western Michigan, 4-1, to cap unbeaten weekend

UND Athletics/ Russell Hons GRAND FORKS, N.D.(UND Athletics) – Tenth-ranked North Dakota fired on all cylinders to defeat No. 5 Western Michigan, 4-1, on Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd of 11,622 at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, N.D. The victory caps off an unbeaten weekend for the Fighting Hawks (5-3-0, 1-0-1 NCHC) to begin conference play and halts the team’s winless streak at four. Junior forward Cody Croal led the way for the hosts, scoring two goals and dishing out an assist for his first-career game with three points while sophomore captain Cole Reschny and junior forward Gavin Lindberg each potted a goal and an assist for multi-point efforts. Sophomore goaltender Jan Špunar finished with 17 saves on 18 shots against to improve to 3-2-1 on the season and hold the nation’s top scoring offense to just three goals over the two games. After giving up an early goal on Friday, it was UND who jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead as Lindberg sniped home his first of the season off a great feed from Ollie Josephson just 1:14 into the contest. The Hawks doubled their advantage with another pretty connection – this time between Mac Swanson and Reschny for the captain’s fifth of the season to make it 2-0 NoDak after one period. Croal extended the advantage to 3-0 near the midway point of the second period with a nifty backhander over the goaltender for his fourth of the season and the only scoring of the middle frame. WMU (6-2-1, 0-1-1 NCHC) clawed back to 3-1 in the third, but Croal iced the game with his second of the net to secure the 4-1 victory and four points for the Hawks in the NCHC standings. North Dakota will hit the road next weekend for a league series against St. Thomas beginning on Friday night at 7:00 p.m. (CT) on NCHC.tv and the Fighting Hawks Radio Network. Postgame Notes UND is now 33-17-2 all-time against Western Michigan and 15-8-1 in Grand Forks Cody Croal scored two goals and potted an assist for his first three-point game of his career The win was UND’s first over a ranked opponent this season (1-1-1) UND saw its four-game winless streak come to an end The Hawks improve to 4-0-1 at home this season – their best start since 2020-21 NoDak limited WMU to three goals on the weekend Cole Reschny potted two points to become the first UND player to reach double digit points this season Gavin Lindberg scored his first goal as a Fighting Hawk Ollie Josephson recorded an assist to give him points in three straight games (3A) Jan Špunar finished with 17 saves and improved to 3-2-1 this season UND improved to 4-0-0 this season when scoring at least four goals The Hawks are also 4-0-0 this season when scoring first and when leading after one UND went 0-for-5 on the power play while WMU was 0-for-3 Saturday marked the first time this season without scoring a power play goal Shots were 28-18 UND Faceoffs were 31-15 UND, with Reschny leading everyone at 10-4 How It Happened First Period: 01:14 | UND – Gavin Lindberg (1) from Ollie Josephson (3) and Cody Croal (3) 08:42 | UND – Cole Reschny (5) from Mac Swanson (5) Second Period: 07:54 | UND – Croal (4) from Lindberg (7) and Reschny (5) Third Period: 08:23 | WMU – Adam Benak (5) from Theo Wallberg (8) 17:57 | UND – Croal (5, EN) Game Recap: Men’s Hockey | 11/7/2026 10:02:00 PM | Alec Stocker Johnson, FightingHawks.com