The University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks learned earlier this week they'll be ranked at number 11 in the nation in this preseason's USCHO Division I Men's Poll.

Last year's UND team finished at 17-13-10 and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 16 years, but return a 19 letterwinners from last year for the 2018-19 campaign.

Defending national champion Minnesota Duluth took the number one ranking as they received 44 of a possible 50 first-place votes. The defending champs were followed by Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan, and Providence to round out the top five.

Teams ranking sixth through tenth are St. Cloud State, Cornell, Boston University, Denver and Minnesota State, respectively.

UND will open up their season with an exhibition game against Manitoba on Saturday, October 6th at the Ralph Engelstad Arena. The Fighting Hawks regular season schedule will feature 35 games. The first regular season game on the schedule is at Bemidji State on Friday, October 12th.

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