GRAND FORKS (AP) - The University of North Dakota men's hockey team is used to digging itself a hole in the first half of the season.

To dig out, the Sioux to need to find some offense.

The Sioux are three games under .500, which ties the lowest point since Dave Hakstol became coach in 2004.

The problems were evident Saturday night when UND dropped a 3-1 decision to Minnesota-Duluth.

UND's offense (2.33 goals per game) is ranked ninth in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. The power play (13.8 percent) also is ranked ninth.

The Sioux haven't scored a five-on-five goal in 13 periods and five of their seven defensemen are still without a point.

While they did get their first goal from a defenseman in the series finale, it was only by a technicality. Brad Miller, a forward who was moved back to defense for the first time in his career, scored it midway through the third period.

And by that point, the Bulldogs had all but put the finishing touches on a three-point weekend.

The 2006-07 squad started the season 7-10-1 and rallied in the second half to reach the Frozen Four behind a dynamic top line of Ryan Duncan, T.J. Oshie and Jonathan Toews.

This year's squad doesn't have the luxury of having two first-round NHL draft picks up front, though.

"Nobody is happy with where we're at," Hakstol said. "I don't buy the terms frustration and lack of confidence. To me, those are excuses. We are where we are. We're going to be men about it. We're going to take a look at the things we need to improve and we're going to improve.

"We've gotten ourselves where we are as a group, starting with me, and we're going to get ourselves out of this."

The team had a lengthy chat after Saturday's loss, the first time a Sioux team had dropped a game in Duluth since 2004.

"We have to get more committed," assistant captain Matt Watkins said. "There are no excuses. We can't blame bounces and bad breaks. That's not acceptable right now. We need everyone pulling on the same ropes. Right now, we're going in different directions."

The Sioux, who only have one win in the last five games, return home next weekend to host Cornell in a nonconference series. Hakstol's hopes the offense will return then.

"We're in a bit of a rut right now," he said. "There's no lack of opportunities. I think it's two things. No. 1 has to be our execution. It hasn't been quite good enough. We've had open nets and we've bobbled a pass and given a goaltender enough time to get square. We've had empty nets and we've just missed.

"On the other side, I'm not looking for any excuses at all, but we've had no puck luck," the coach said. "You go through those stretches sometimes and we have to change that. You can't wait for that to change. You have to change that."

Duluth had been good to the Sioux in recent seasons. UND held a 16-2-2 record in the previous 20 games against the Bulldogs going into Saturday night.

But Duluth got a power-play goal on a tip from Michael Gergen in the first period, a two-on-one goal by Jordan Fulton in the second and a power-play tally by MacGregor Sharp early in the third. That was more than enough to hold off the Sioux, who are in need of goals and wins.

"We have to grow as a hockey team," Watkins said. "Every single guy has to do their role, it doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter what you did before you came here. Nothing matters except this team right now. We've got to figure it out. We've dug ourselves a hole and it's going to be tough to get out."