Showing posts with label Dave Hakstol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dave Hakstol. Show all posts

Sunday, March 16, 2014

UND Advances to the Frozen Faceoff with Series Win

English: Ralph Engelstadt Arena at the Univers...
Grand Forks, ND – Coming into game three of their best-of-three series, the University of North Dakota Hockey team had no room for error. It’s was do-or-die, lose, and they most certainly would miss the NCAA tourney. There’s would be no second chances for the Green and White if they lost game three against the Colorado College Tigers.
After going 3-3-0 over the last three weekends, UND was once again a team sitting on the NCAA Tournament bubble.   With that in the back of their mind, the UND hockey team was exited to play under those terms.  They seemed to embrace it.
“I guess it’s exciting,” senior forward Derek Rodwell said. “It’s one of the games that you want to get up for and play. We knew everyone on this team was going to bring it tonight. Everything was on the line. We were going to put it down and play for each other. We did that tonight.”
Those sentiments were echoed by assistant captain Stephane Pattyn
“We were excited,” Pattyn said. “I think getting to the rink this morning we kind of wanted to keep it light. We didn’t want any nerves going out there. We knew just wanted to play our game and we did. We were excited and anxious to play.”
UND came out of the gates like a team possessed, they were relentless, they pushed the pace and took  a 3-1 lead to the locker room after one period of play.
In a surprise move, UND head coach Dave Hakstol reunited the Stephane Pattyn, Connor Gaarder and Derek Rodwell line and that move would pay immediate dividends. Combined, that line recorded five points in the first period (1g-4a—5pts).
This game would start differently than the previous two.  During the middle part of the first period, the Tigers started to push back and were buzzing the UND net.  UND goalie Zane Gothberg stood his ground, and came up big, making three big saves. And just like that – UND would clear the zone – take the puck down the ice and Troy Stecher would hammer home his second goal of the year. With the goal tonight, Stecher broke a 30-game drought.
The Tigers were only able to get one past Gothberg in the first period and UND would take a 3-1 lead into the first intermission. UND would outshoot C.C. 13-8.
In the second period, UND looked like they were trying to sit on the lead. Tigers forward Michael Morin would cut the lead to 3-2. The Tigers  would outshoot UND 12-9 in the second period.
In the third period the two teams would exchange goals and UND would hang on for the 4-3 win, sending them to the Frozen Faceoff next weekend in Minneapolis.
After the game, head coach Dave Hakstol was asked if the line change had anything to do with the game three rally.
“It has nothing to do with us changing the lines,” Hakstol said. “It’s just those guys making plays. I thought everybody played hard. We got contributions from a lot of guys. You can probably ask anybody on our team, nobody cares who scores. The key is that we scored enough to win tonight and everybody contributed.”
With the loss, the Colorado College Tigers end their season with a (7-24-6) record. UND improved to (22-12-3) on the season. More importantly, UND moved up to 13 in the Pairwise Rankings.

Interesting Statistics


UND will make the postseason conference tourney for a 12th season in a row.
UND has a 13-0-0 record this season when they score four or more goals. Also, UND is 17-1-0 when they have the lead after two periods of play. On the flip side, UND is 1-9-1 when they trail after two periods of play.
UND has killed 28 of 30 opponent power plays (93.3 percent) over the last nine games.
UND goalie, Zane Gothberg has allowed two or fewer goals in 16 of his last 19 starts. He allowed exactly 3 goals in each of the other three, all against Colorado College.
Tigers goalie Josh Thorimbert stopped 26-of-30 shots and wit the loss ends his season with a 7-23-3 record. UND goalie Zane Gothberg stopped 27-of-30 shots he faced and improved to 17-8-3 on the season.
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Friday, March 14, 2014

UND Scores Four Unanswered Goals, Take Game One

Grand Forks, ND – Coming into tonight’s game, the Colorado College Tigers were an offensively challenged hockey team, averaging 1.94 goals per game. The Tigers would get a quick start, scoring two goals before the game was eight minutes old.
It was not the start that the University of North Dakota hockey team wanted.
“Giving up a two goal lead at very start of the game is always tough, especially at home,” sophomore forward Drake Caggiula said. “I thought we did a good job battling back in the last six, seven, eight minutes of the first period. Kind of set us up for the second period, there. I think that was mostly just nerves. We have a lot of young guys on the team, first playoff series and stuff like that.  We will definitely be better tomorrow night.”
UND came out flat in the first period, and things weren’t clicking for the the Green and White.  The momentum started to swing in the middle part of the first period. Sophomore defenseman Jordan Schmaltz made a great play on Tigers forward Jeff Collett to stop a breakaway, keeping the score at 2-0.
That play was a defining moment in the game.
“We dug ourselves a hole, the most important part was we found a way to dig ourselves out of that hole,” head coach Dave Hakstol said. “It’s a credit to our guys. We weren’t ready to play at the drop of the puck, but we fought our way back to get it within one goal, even though nothing was coming easy. We build from there in the second period.”
UND didn’t panic and they started chipping away at the Tigers lead. They would get one goal back in the first with a beautiful goal by sophomore forward Drake Caggiula and head into the first intermission, down 2-1.
“The crowd got into it. Every time the crowd gets into we start to get a little more amped up,” Caggiula said. “It would have been terrible to go into the first intermission down 2-0.”
UND’s fortunes would change in the second period. Forwards Michael Parks and Bryn Chyzyk would add two more goals and UND would head to the second intermission with a 3-2 lead.
“It was good to get a puck in the slot and luckily it went in,” Chyzyk said. “I kind of saw the play developing. I knew it was going to the guys skate. I thought he was going to kick it, but he kind of slid through there. It was a gift – kind of – so I took it. It was a nice to see. It was a nice pass from them.”
Brendan O’Donnell pushed the lead to 4-2 with a goal at the 08:08 mark of the third period. UND would hold on and get the win. The Tigers would outshoot UND 6-5 in the third period, but UND was never really in any danger. 
When UND has a lead entering the third period, they usually win. Entering tonight’s game, UND had an impressive 16-1-1 (.917) record when leading after two periods.  You can make that 17-1-1 (.921) with the 4-2 win.
Tomorrow night, the same two teams’ meet again in game two of the best-of-three series. North Dakota (21-11-3) will try and close out Colorado College (6-23-6) and move on to the Frozen Faceoff. Game time is 07:08 p.m. Central.

Interesting facts

UND is 10-0-1 all-time when forward Brendan O’Donnell scores a goal for UND. O’Donnell has scored (13g-17a—30pts) during his career at UND.
Four of UND’s top-ten scorers on the team are defensemen.
UND was the only home team in the NCHC that won tonight.
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Wednesday, March 12, 2014

UND Hockey: About 2000 Tickets Remain for this Weekend's Playoff Series against C.C.

Today, I talked to UND Sports Information Director Jayson Hajdu at the Wednesday media day, and there's about 2000 tickets remaining for this weekend's NCHC first round playoff series against the Colorado College Tigers. 

If UND can get 12000 fans for each game, this weekend, they will pass the Minnesota Golden Gophers for top "average" home attendance in NCAA division I hockey. Currently, Minnesota is leading the NCAA in attendance with 231,057 and UND is sitting in second the NCAA in attendance with 218,436. UND will pass Minnesota in total attendance with the second game this weekend.

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Sunday, March 09, 2014

UND Hockey: Finding the silver lining in a Penrose-less day


Obviously, the UND hockey team is known for its second half surges. This season’s second half surge was the fifth best of Dave Hakstol’s coaching tenure at UND. Looking at the schedule and the results, I think it’s safe to say that on November 30, 2013, this season’s second half surge commenced.
While many of us are disappointed that UND didn’t win last night. There are many things to be excited about as well. This loss didn’t sit well with the players either.

I don’t know if anyone thought this team would own an  20-11-3 record after starting the season 4-7-2. I think this team might have actually exceeded expectations.
Since November 30, 2013, UND is averaging 3.25 goals per game and giving up 2.06 goals against per game.

After the rough start, I didn’t think that they would end up in second place of the NCHC standings. Nonetheless, the loss last night is kind of disappointing. The focus of the team now turns to getting a green banner.  
I think it’s safe to say that this team transformed from a hockey team finding its way, to a team that’s a threat to win a league playoff title and an NCAA title. What happens to them, will determined in the next few weeks.  

During that time, sophomore goalie Zane Gothberg is 13-2-1 with a .935 save percentage and a 1.63 goals against average. It’s hard to believe that Gothberg started the season off with a 2-5-2 record.
Speaking of Gotberg, he won the NCHC GAA title (2.26).  He beat out he beat out Ryan Massa (2.27). He was also tied for second with Lukas Hafner from Western Michigan in save percentage (.924).

Breaking down the numbers: After Saturday night’s game, UND is now 1-9-2 (.167) in games when they score two or fewer goals.
UND is 11-0-0 when they score four or more goals.

UND is 8-10-3 when they scored three or more goals.
UND is 6-7-1 when the opponent scores first.

When UND leads after the first period, they have a 11-1-1 record.

When UND leads after the second period, they have a 15-1-0 record.
When UND is behind after two periods, they have 1-8-0 record

When the opposition leads after the first period, UND has a 6-7-1 record.
UND is 6-6-0 against Nationally Ranked Opponents.

I don’t know what to make of this stat… UND is 6-0-0 on CBSSN.
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Saturday, March 08, 2014

UND beats WMU 2-0



Grand Forks, ND –  University of North Dakota head coach Dave Hakstol has won 20 games in each of the 10 seasons  that he’s coached. No other active Division I hockey coach can make that claim.

North Dakota started the season 4-7-2, and since November 30, 2013, has gone on a 16-3-1 run. Tonight, UND got the 20th win of their season by shutting out a scrappy Western Michigan 2-0 at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

In the second period, UND scored two goals 18 seconds apart by forwards Stephane Patty and Luke Johnson to break the game open. Sophomore goalie Zane Gothberg preserved the win, recording his second shutout of the season stopping 18-of-18 shots.

“Obviously it starts with our coaching staff,” Gothberg said. “They’ve been through the ropes. They’ve been through everything, throughout the years. And I think it just kind of came down from them.”

Gothberg continued, “Once we figured out how to play our game, each guy bought in. It was a simple mentality change, just a little bit before Christmas break. It was kind of cool to see what happened. You know what, we’re going out and proving ourselves every night, still. Proving to ourselves and to our team that we can be even better.”

After the game, Western Michigan head coach Andrew Murray was asked about his thoughts on his team’s play.

“I give North Dakota a lot of credit,” Western Michigan head coach Andy Murray said. “I actually thought our game in the first 15 minutes was pretty darn good.  We had two or three great chances in front of (Zane) Gothberg, and he made some good saves.”

“North Dakota was hungry and they were sniffing blood, and they came after us. They played hard, and we weren’t as good as they were.”

Coach Murray was asked what his team needed to do to get the win on Saturday night.

“There are a number of things that we need to do differently,” Murray said. “Coach needs to be better. We’re playing against a very good North Dakota team. I think you could tell we were ready to play tonight, the way we can, in the first 15 minutes. In reality, we could have been up by a couple of goals, here. They’re a good team and their coaches do a very good job. I think both teams play very similar. They just played better.”

After the game the UND players shared their thoughts.

“It was a good game,” sophomore forward Luke Johnson said. “I thought we played really well. I thought we played with a lot of pace. We played pretty fast, and they did too.”

“Probably the only people who believed in us was ourselves in that locker room,” junior forward Stephane Pattyn said. “We had a bit of a rough start there, it was ugly. We just stuck together. Everyone just nutted up and got the job done. We’re just going to have to keep doing the same thing.”

Tonight’s game was a hard fought game, and was a tie game until the 17:21 mark of the second period.  UND finally broke the game over with a couple of quick goals 18 seconds apart.

“It was nice that we got rewarded,” head coach Dave Hakstol said. “I thought we had a pretty good period. Then at 17 minutes (of the second period) or whatever it was, we didn’t have a lot to show for it. A nice power-play goal followed up with another quick one was critical for that period.”

With the win, North Dakota (20-10-3, 15-8-3 NCHC) has a chance to win the Penrose Trophy on the final night of the regular season.

With the loss, Western Michigan (16-14-5, 10-11-2 NCHC) will be on the road for the first round of the NCHC playoffs.

On Saturday night, the same two teams play again at 07:00 p.m. Central.

A few statistics from the game

UND out shot WMU 38-18 for the game.

Friday night’s game, was the first time UND has beaten a team when it scored two goals or fewer, UND is  now 1-8-2  (.181).

UND has killed 20 of the last 21 opponents power-plays.

[Box Score]

Thursday, March 06, 2014

UND Hockey: Dillon Simpson talks to the Student Body


I can't believe that the season is almost over. An absolute gem, Dillon Simpson has been fun to cover over the past three seasons... One of the nicest kids you'll ever meet.
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Saturday, February 22, 2014

(Video) UND 3 UMD 0



"It was a good road win tonight," head coach Dave Hakstol said. I have to agree, UMD is a good hockey team and they mirror the UND hockey team. With the win, UND moves into a tie with SCSU, who lost 4-3 to Miami tonight. UND is 6-2-1 when their games are available on DirecTV.



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Sunday, February 16, 2014

UND pounds Miami 9-2 in Grand Forks

Grand Forks, ND – The first shot on net by the University of North Dakota went into the Miami net. Unfortunately for UND, the referee ruled that junior forward Mark MacMillan interfered with the Miami goalie Ryan McKay. Video replay confirmed that MacMillan caught the McKay with a forearm, in the head, knocking his goalie mask off– you can’t do that.
The next shot by sophomore defenseman Jordan Schmaltz went in the net, this time it counted. UND would have another goal waved off in the first period, but it didn’t seem to faze UND all that much.
“It didn’t seem to matter,” head coach Dave Hakstol said. “We were ready to play. We had a great start. Couple of disallowed goals through the first period, but it really didn’t matter.  We were ready to play the next shift. Everybody was ready to play.”
UND would push the lead to 2-0, when sophomore forward Colton St. Clair scored his second goal of the season to make it 2-0. That was St. Clair’s first goal since October 19, 2013, when he scored against Miami.
Rocco Grimaldi and Keaton Thompson scored four minutes apart to push the lead to 4-0 after one period of hockey, and the route was on.
UND would score four more goals in the second period, and add a single goal on the power-play in the closing seconds of the third period. Yeah, you heard that right, UND scored two power-play goals on Saturday night. On Saturday night, UND was 2-5 on the much maligned power-play. After coming to the series going 3-for-38 on the power-play, UND was 3-11 (27.3%) for the weekend on the man advantage.
North Dakota had two goals waved off in the first period, but it didn’t seem to matter, as UND took Miami to the proverbial woodshed, winning 9-2. That was most goals that UND had scored at the Ralph Engelstad Arena since December 31, 2011, when UND beat Havard 7-3.
“I thought we had great jump from the start. all the way through the first period,” Rocco Grimaldi said. “I thought that every line was building momentum, every time they were on the ice. The power-play was clicking. Things were just going our way. It was a total team effort.”
While Grimaldi led UND with a goal and three assists, he was quick to credit his fellow teammates who played a sold 60-minute game.
“It was total team effort, every guy did his part,” Grimaldi said. “Every guy played his heart out, and was just motivated to get the three points. Especially looking at last weekend, we had Omaha on the ropes on Saturday night, and let it slip away and let them score five unanswered (goals). It was a message that was preached a lot.”
There were a lot of positives for UND tonight and the head coach seemed pleased with his team’s effort, 14 players recorded at least a point, and five players record two or more points.
“I thought our third period, other than probably two or three shifts where I thought we were happy to play defense in our own zone," Hakstol said. "We played on our toes. Guys were having fun.  Again, nobody stepped outside the box. They just went out and played well, played hard."
Sophomore goalie Zane Gothberg returned from injury, and continued his torrid streak. Over his last 10 starts, Gothberg is 9-0-1 with a 1.79 goals against average and a .924 save percentage.
UND now has two of its three remaining series on the road. Next weekend, UND travels to Minnesota Duluth, to play the Bulldogs in an important two-game NCHC series. With the win, UND improves to (16-9-3 and 10-7 NCHC).
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Saturday, February 15, 2014

(Video) UND 3 Miami 2



Kudos to CBS Sports Network, when they cover the games, their broadcasts are second to none. Here's something to chew on, during the 11-2-1 run, UND has won five games by a score of 3-2. Breaking it down further, UND is 15-2-1 when they score three or more goals. UND is 0-7-2 when they score two or less.
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Saturday, January 18, 2014

(Video) UND vs. BSU 1-1



Stick tap to Lakeland Public Television's Scott Williams and Eric Monsrud with the call. Goals by UND's Rocco Grimaldi and BSU's Cory Ward.
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Saturday, January 11, 2014

Compare and Contrast, Bryn Chyzyk and Adam Tambellini



I put this on my facebook page, but it applies.

Compare and contrast, a kid that was already on a team left at the first hint of adversity. Another kid, had that chance taken away from him and upon returning, talked about missing his teammates and thanked the coaching staff for getting another chance to be a member of that team.

Think about it. Both kids had the same number of points. Tonight, that kid made an immediate impact upon returning to the lineup. Nothing in life is given to you. Everyday is a battle and you have to work for every inch that you take.

In the old days if you were unhappy with the amount of playing time that you received you worked harder. You didn't quit on your teammates you didn't go find another team. You worked your ass off and strived to get better.

I couldn't be more happy for Bryn Chyzyk... He could have quit, but he kept at it. Go get em kid.
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(Video) UND vs C.C.



Here's the video of UND's goals versus Colorado College Tigers. Also, the the on the bench interview with Dave Hakstol.
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Friday, December 27, 2013

UND Hockey: If the season ended today, and it doesn't end today... But....


As I have said before, there's a lot of college hockey season left and when some were panicking, I wasn't. If season ended today and it doesn't,  UND would make the NCAA tourney. With the five-game win streak, the 4-2-2 non-conference things look "okay" for UND. Now, I am not going to make any bracketology blog posts or anything like that, but I am just putting things into perspective.
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Saturday, December 14, 2013

Friday, December 13, 2013

North Dakota beats Northern Michigan 4-1

English: Ralph Engelstadt Arena at the Univers...
Grand Forks, ND – Historically, the University of North Dakota hockey team is known for being a second half team. After losing three games in a row, to start the month of November, the UND hockey team has gotten back on track and has gone 5-3-1, since the 3-game losing streak.
With the win tonight, UND has gone 6-3-1 in the last 10 games.
UND would get on the board first at the 04:10 mark of the first period with a goal from forward Mark McMillian. Picking up assists on UND’s first goal were defensemen Troy Stecher and Nick Mattson.
UND would outshoot Northern Michigan 10-5 in the opening period.
North Dakota would break open the game with two power play goals in the second period. UND forward Luke Johnson would score a power play goal at the 09:57 mark of the second period, giving UND a 2-0 lead. Drawing assists on Johnson’s power play goal, forward Rocco Grimaldi and defenseman Jordan Schmaltz.
“I just tried to get it on net,” Luke Johnson said. “I was just lucky that it went in”
UND would strike again, to stretch the lead to 3-0 at the 16:23 mark of the second period. This time, it was a power play goal from the caption Dillon Simpson.  Picking up assists were Rocco Grimaldi and Jordan Schmaltz, again.
Northern Michigan would outshoot UND 11-8 in the second period and trailed 3-0.
“I thought we had a good start,” freshman defenseman Paul LaDue said. “Second period got a little shaky at times. We buried our chances and we have to come out tomorrow with that same mentality.”
Northern Michigan would break the Zane Gothberg’s shutout bid at the 07:40 mark of the third period with a wraparound goal from Daren Nowick.
Northern Michigan appeared to have scored their second goal, on the power play, but the on-ice officials ruled that a Northern Michigan player visually impaired the goaltenders view in the crease. In essence, college hockey has the “Avery Rule” as well.
According to head coach Dave Hakstol, “(Player’s) foot was in the crease, taking away his vision. If he had been on the side of the crease and not in the goaltenders vision it would have been a good goal.”
UND would push the lead to 4-1 with a goal from by Paul LaDue. Assisting on the goal was forward Connor Gaarder. With the win, UND pushed its current winning streak to four games.
“I thought we got off to a good start,” head coach Dave Hakstol said. “We had a good first period. We had our ups and downs. I thought we played a pretty good hockey game.”
UND will go for the series sweep against Northern Michigan at 7:07 p.m. Central at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

Stats of interest

With the win tonight, UND has a 7-0-1 record when leading after two period.
Tonight, UND went 2-for-4 on the power play. UND is ranked 21st nationally 17/81 (21.1)
Tonight, UND went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill. UND is ranked 18th nationally 74/88 (84.1).
Over the last four games, Zane Gothberg is 4-0-0, 1.75 GAA and has a .939 save percentage.
Over the last three games freshman forward Luke Johnson has scored (3g-2a—5pts).
With the win tonight, UND’s Non-conference record is now 3-2-2
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Wednesday, December 11, 2013

UND Hockey: Will UND get to Host a Regional?

Will the UND Men and Women's hockey team(s) get to host a NCAA regional championship? We will find out today. I will have an update this afternoon when I find out.


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Monday, December 09, 2013

Sophomore Bryn Chyzyk suspended from team indefinitely



GRAND FORKS, N.D. – University of North Dakota head men’s hockey coach Dave Hakstol announced today that he has suspended sophomore forward Bryn Chyzyk indefinitely due to a violation of team and athletics department policy.

Hakstol also indicated that any potential reinstatement will not be revisited prior to January 2014 and that no further comment will be provided.

Chyzyk had appeared in 13 of UND’s 16 games this season, registering two goals and two assists.






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