This season has been going pretty well for Moose Jaw native Rhett Gardner with the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks.

The team sits ranked second in the country among NCAA Division 1 teams, while posting a 20-3-3 record. Individually, Gardner has been in the lineup for 24 of his team's 26 games and has racked up nine goals and ten points.

“This season has gone better than I could have imagined,” said Gardner over the phone from Grand Forks, N.D. on Tuesday. “I've been in the lineup lots, I've gotten lots of opportunities and we're winning lots, so it's good.”

The Fighting Hawks feature at least 10 NHL drafted players in the lineup for any given game and Gardner has been able to work his way into a key role as the team's second line centre in recent weeks.

He had his best two-game stretch of the season this past weekend when he scored four goals in two games to help UND to a 5-5 tie against Colorado College on Friday and a 5-1 win over the Tigers on Saturday. Three of his four goals came in the third period.

His performance earned him National Collegiate Hockey Conference Rookie of the Week, his first weekly award.

“It was a really big weekend for me and the team,” said Gardner. “I was just in the right place at the right time both nights and capitalized on the opportunity.

“I came back wanting to have a big second half, so that kind of started this weekend.”

After two outstanding years for the Okotoks Oilers in the Alberta Junior Hockey League, Gardner made the jump to the NCAA-level this season and has been able to adjust well and quickly.

Gardner said the level of competition that he goes against each day in practice has been the biggest help for him to adjusting to the next level of hockey in his career.

“It's a lot faster than junior and guys are a lot stronger, it's harder to get them off the puck,” he said. “You just get use to it in practice though.”

Gardner was held out of the lineup for the team's season opener, but has only missed one game since, working his way up from a fourth line role to the second line over the past two games.

“Being in the lineup every game has been really big for my confidence,” said Gardner. “I get to just focus on just playing, so it's big for that.”

While he's been finding the back of the net in recent weeks, the area that Gardner has really made an impact this year is in the face-off circle. In last Friday's game, Gardner won 15 of 21 faceoffs, including a perfect 7-for-7 in the third period and overtime.

He currently sits fourth on the list of most faceoff wins by a UND freshman, two ahead of NHLer TJ Oshie and 48 back of Jonathan Toews in second place.

“That's a pretty cool list to be on. I was pretty successful on faceoffs in junior and I wasn't sure how I was going to make the adjustment here, but we work on faceoffs a lot in practice and it's something that I take pride in and so far it's gone good,” Gardner said.

There's actually two locals on the Fighting Hawks with Coltyn Sanderson in his senior season at UND. Sanderson has scored twice in the past three games as well, posting four points in 19 games this season.

Gardner said that Sanderson has been a big help for him in adjusting to playing college hockey.

“He's been really good to me,” said Sanderson. “It's pretty cool to be playing with another Moose Jaw guy all the way down the road in college hockey, so he's really helped out.”

Playing at the University of North Dakota is an experience in itself as the team is one of the most fiercely supported teams in NCAA Men's Hockey. Gardner said playing home games at the Ralph Englestad Arena has been incredible.

“Every home game we sell out with about 12,000, it's just crazy, and then when we go on the road, we have lots of fans that travel with us, so it's pretty unbelievable that way,” he said.

The focus is now on the Frozen Four for Gardner and the Fighting Hawks as they look to capture a national championship. They're at Western Michigan this weekend for two games.