UNO's series in North Dakota includes a potential showdown with a formidable forward line.
Corban Knight has centered the 19th-ranked Fighting Sioux's top line that includes wingers Brock Nelson and Danny Kristo for the past six games, during which North Dakota has gone 5-1.
With 62 points among them, they rank as the second-most productive line in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, one point behind Minnesota's combination of Nick Bjugstad, Kyle Rau and Zach Budish.
"Kristo has very good hands, he's fast, and he sees the ice well," UNO coach Dean Blais said. "Nelson is a playmaker.
"They can score all different ways — 5 on 5, shorthanded, off faceoffs, cycling the puck. They're good on the power-play and penalty kill."
UNO will get an eyeful in the two-game series at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, N.D., with opening faceoffs scheduled for 7:37 p.m. Friday and 7:07 p.m. Saturday.
Knight, a junior from High River, Alberta, is a former fifth-round pick of the Florida Panthers. Nelson, a sophomore from Warroad, Minn., is a former first-round pick of the New York Islanders. And Kristo, a former second-round pick of the Montreal Canadiens, is a junior from Eden Prairie, Minn., and a former Omaha Lancer.
Nelson has 14 goals and eight assists for 22 points, Knight has six and 15 for 21, and Kristo has eight and 11 for 19. No other Fighting Sioux player has recorded more than nine points.
Blais recently broke up UNO's high-scoring line of Alex Hudson, Terry Broadhurst and Matt White, spreading their production over two lines. Even if they were still together, that group's total of 56 points would fall six points short of North Dakota's top line and would rank fourth in the WCHA.
When all the firepower is in one line, positives and negatives are weighed on both sides.
"We'll probably try to match up with them a little bit," UNO defenseman Bryce Aneloski said. "But you can't worry about it too much, because a lot of teams have really good first lines. St. Cloud (State) had one. CC (Colorado College) did ... you've just got to play the game because any line can hurt you.
"But you do want to make sure you pay attention when some of those guys are on the ice, making sure you take away time and space, because they're great hockey players."
Aneloski teams with Michael Young on the Mavs' top blue line pairing.
Like Aneloski, Young will try to combine wary watchfulness toward North Dakota's first line while at the same time not relaxing up against other forwards.
"I don't think we'll be keying on them too much," Young said. "We'll just try to play the way we've been playing defensively, try to roll our top six (defensemen) and play the way we can."
UNO's second pairing of Andrej Sustr and Jaycob Megna, and its third pairing of Tony Turgeon and, potentially, Kyle Ensign will also have their turns against North Dakota's high-powered unit.
Last year North Dakota's top line featured Matt Frattin (36-24-60), Evan Trupp (17-24-41) and Brad Malone (16-24-40), but Knight (14-30-44), Kristo (8-20-28) and Nelson (8-13-21) were among those contributing to a 32-9-3 team that reached the Frozen Four.
In splitting four games with UNO, Kristo had two goals while Knight had three assists and Nelson one assist.
"We'll try to put our best defensemen out there against them," Blais said.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1027, rob.white@owh.com
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Top WCHA Lines
Highest-scoring forward lines, by points, in the WCHA. List is based on line combinations in team’s most recent game or, in case of injury, in player’s most recent game.
63, Nick Bjugstad (26), Kyle Rau (19), Zach Budish (18), Minnesota
62, Brock Nelson (22), Corban Knight (21), Danny Kristo (19), North Dakota
58, J.T. Brown (24), Travis Oleksuk (19), Caleb Herbert (15), Minnesota-Duluth
52, Jason Zucker (20), Drew Shore (19), Beau Bennett (13), Denver
48, Mark Zengerle (25), Tyler Barnes (17), Brendan Woods (6), Wisconsin
46, Terry Broadhurst (23), Ryan Walters (13), Brock Montpetit (10), UNO
45, Ben Hanowski (20), Travis Novak (14), David Eddy (11), St. Cloud State
42, Jack Connolly (25), Mike Seidel (12), Joe Basaraba (5), Minnesota-Duluth
40, Matt White (23), Alex Hudson (10), Johnnie Searfoss (7), UNO
40, Rylan Schwartz (17), Jalen Schwartz (17), William Rapuzzi (6), Colorado College
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