Fargo, ND – The Dubuque Fighting Saints (36-17-4-0, 76 pts) visit the Fargo Force (35-18-3-2, 75 pts) to begin a weekend series on Friday night.
Here are five things to know ahead of the matchup:
1. Road Race
The Fighting Saints make their final road trip of the regular season for a series in Fargo as they enter the week holding the second seed in the Eastern Conference standings.
Dubuque holds a one-point lead above Cedar Rapids for the second seed entering play this weekend. The Saints begin their final road trip of the season with Friday's matchup and enter the final five games of the season.
2. Clutch Captains
Members of the Saints leadership group scored six of the team's eight goals in last weekend's sweep over Green Bay, including Michael Barron's game-winner in overtime on Friday.
Assistant captain Colin Frank and captain Teddy Merrill lead the Saints with 30 and 28 goals respectively, while assistant captain Michael Barron leads the team with 63 points.
3. Strong Saves
Vojtech Hambálek has seven wins over his last 10 starts and points in eight of those starts for Dubuque. Hambálek has a .919 save percentage over his last five starts for Dubuque.
Over his last seven appearances for the Fighting Saints, the Czechia native has worked at a .934 clip between the pipes for Dubuque.
4. Helping Hand
Teo Besnier set a career-high with three assists in Friday's win over Green Bay and has five assists in his last three games. Besnier is second on the team with 29 assists from the Dubuque blue line.
Of his 29 assists, he's recorded 19 of them on the power play for Dubuque. In the last three games Besnier has recorded a point, he has logged at least two assists for the Saints.
5. Force Finds
The Force enters the weekend as the second seed in the Western Conference and take the West's best defense into play. Fargo allows less than three goals per game and plays much of the game at even strength.
Fargo is the least penalized team in the USHL and the only team with under 600 penalty minutes (540). The Force have had the fewest power-play chances (127) and the fewest penalty-kill chances (139) in the USHL.
Friday's matchup is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. at Scheels Arena. The game can be found on Eagle 102.3 and FloHockey.
