North Dakota debuted their new team by hosting the Ice Breaker Tournament and demonstrated that their training camp had been put to good use.

The Fighting Hawks suffered their first defeat of the year the following week but they did manage to earn a split with #1 Minnesota in a continuation of their long-standing rivalry.

As the victories piled up, North Dakota rose to #1 in the nation and looked strong even when they lost to #3 Denver at the beginning of December.

TO make matters worse, Persson suffered an injury over Christmas and the team had to turn to untested Hobie Hedquist when they began the second half of the season.

With the offense continuing to fire on all cylinders, the team remained atop the conference standings and got back up to #2 in the national polls by the beginning of February.

In the middle of the month, North Dakota suffered its worst weekend of the season and were swept by Colorado College for a second time.

While losing the season finale to Omaha didn't help their case, North Dakota suffered a bigger loss during the week when Persson went down to injury for a second time.

Michigan picked up the pace in the second, tying the score in the opening minutes but Blake was able to get his team back into the lead before the midway point.

North Dakota fought desperately to tie the game and Jackson Kunz did his part by firing a rebound short-side.