Raise 8

UND Men’s Hockey raises the roof with eighth National Championship flag before huge exhibition-game crowd.

A record Ralph Engelstad Arena crowd for an exhibition game of 11,706 jammed the the rink tonight to celebrate the past and take a peek into the future.

Prior to the 5-1 exhibition win for UND over the University of Manitoba Bisons, the NCAA championship banner won by UND last April in Tampa, Fla., was raised to the rafters at REA, joining the banners of seven past national title teams from UND.

With players or coaches from all seven of those title teams from 1959, 1963, 1980, 1982, 1987, 1997 and 2000 on hand to hoist their trophies as well, it was a festive atmosphere to officially celebrate last year’s title team in grand style in Grand Forks.

“I thought it was tremendous. I thought it was very special,” UND coach Brad Berry said. “I thought the University, Jody Hodgson and Ralph Engelstad Arena did a tremendous job of making this a special night. A big part of that was remembering the seven other championships, which laid the foundation for our success.”

While it was a night to celebrate past greatness, it was time to look ahead as well.

“We tried to turn the page days ago, or weeks ago,” Berry said. “This will bring some closure to it……”

As a team, it was a good start to the new season, but with lots of work ahead to reach the level of last year’s elite championship team.

And now that process is officially underway in the ultimate pursuit of NCAA title No. 9.

Virg Foss

Virg Foss covered UND hockey for 35 seasons for the Grand Forks Herald until his retirement. He’s now in his 12th year of reporting on UND home games exclusively for UNDsports.com.