Senior center Corban Knight of North Dakota was the national player of the month in December. And he is doing pretty well in January, too.

Knight, the middle man on UND's top line, had a goal and an assist on Saturday as UND beat Colorado College 5-3 at the Ralph to split their WCHA series.

Next up, the final WCHA matchup ever with the Golden Gophers at Mariucci Arena. There might be a little emotion there, you think. It was the Gophers, after all, who ended UND's season last March in the West Regional final at the X.

Knight's recent stats are ridiculous. He has eight goals and eight assists for 16 points in the past seven games, and he has a 17-game points streak.

For the season, he has 10 goals and 21 assists for 31 points, which puts him second in the WCHA scoring race behind Nebraska Omaha's Ryan Walters, a junior forward from Rosemount.

Danny Kristo, Knight's senior right winger from Eden Prairie, is right behind those two in scoring. Kristo has a team-leading 13 goals plus 17 assists for 30 points. The speedy winger is coming off a four-point game, a career best.

He had two goals -- one an empty-netter which still counts -- and two assists in the win Saturday over CC. He also hit a pipe, so he nearly had a hat trick. Kristo is the leading active scorer in Division I hockey with 139 points.

The team formerly known as the Fighting Sioux had a seven-game unbeaten streak going until Friday when the Tigers beat them 4-3. Kristo had a goal and Knight an assist in that loss.

For the second game of the series, UND coach Dave Hakstol shook up the lines and got a better effort.

After falling behind 2-1 in the first period, UND outshot Colorado College 15-1 in the second period and took a 3-2 lead on goals by Joe Gleason, switched from defense to fourth line right wing, and junior Mitch MacMillan, put at left wing on UND's top line.

It was Gleason's third goal, MacMillian's f Knight had an assist on Gleason's goal, Kristo had the lone assist on MacMillan's first goal of the season in four games.

CC tied the score early in the third period at 3-3 before sophomore wing Dan Senkbeil, a walk-on from Fremont, Calif., scored his first goal in 40 games for a 4-3 lead at 7:45.

Not only did Hakstol change his lines, he gave freshman goalie Zane Gothberg of Thief River Falls his first start in 10 games. Gothberg stopped 21 shots, 10 in both the first and third periods.