Showing posts with label Grimaldi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grimaldi. Show all posts

Sunday, October 13, 2013

UND and UVM skate to a tie

Grand Forks, ND – The University of North Dakota hockey team came into the weekend concerned about their special teams. When the weekend was over, special teams appeared to be less of a concern for the UND coaching staff. The refs called the games very tight and this gave the UND’s special teams a work out. The Green and White held their ground and killed 15 of 16 Vermont power plays. They also scored three power play goals on 12 power play opportunities. UND head coach Dave Hakstol seemed pleased with the play of his special teams.
“Specialty teams are going to be a big part of it,” Hakstol said. “Especially the early part of the season, as all of this transitions to the new level of calls, smooths out. I thought out PK became more and more sound, as we went through the weekend. We were a little bit hit and miss yesterday, even though we did a good job and killed 10 out of 11 (penalties). I thought we were better and more in synch today.”
The UND coach seemed fine with the way the games were called this weekend.
“I am on board with the emphasis on the hooks; basically protecting the offensive player’s hands,” Hakstol said. “Allowing an offensive player on the wall to protect the puck without being held, those are the three that I think are significant and good steps for our game.”
Another emerging theme from the weekend was the play of sophomore forward Rocco Grimaldi. The dynamic forward had a great first weekend, scoring (2g–3a—5pts) in two games. Fellow linemate, sophomore forward Drake Caggiula, also had a good start to the season, scoring (2g-2a—4pts) on the weekend.
It was obvious from watching Adam Tambellini, Grimaldi and Caggiula play, that their line had chemistry and they had a good weekend playing together.  UND pressed hard at the end  of the game, but couldn’t get the game winner.
“I think we’re playing really well together,” Grimaldi said. “I think we’re reading off each other real well. Obviously with Tambo (Adam Tambellini) he’s doing a good job with both of us as well.  The three of us are playing good hockey together and making things happen. Tonight, we didn’t make as many things happen as we wanted to. Obviously, we needed one more to win this hockey game and I put a lot of blame on myself. I had a couple of chances that I could have hit the net and it didn’t go in.”

Fans get first look at the Shootout

The game would officially end in a 2-2 tie and the game would go to a shootout. Since it was a non-conference game the shootout was meaningless and didn’t count for anything. Actually, the biggest cheers in the game came during the shootout which the fans seemed to enjoy.  Grimaldi talked about the shootout at the end of the game.
“Today kind of stunk, because you know you were playing for nothing,” Grimaldi said. “I think it’s going to be good. Obviously, it’s another area of your game that you can work on. That can give you another point, that could either win you a championship, or possibly put you in an NCAA berth, or whatever.  So, that’s something that we’ll definitely be working on once or twice a week.”
UND kicks off league play October 18-19, 2013 when they travel to Oxford, Ohio to play Miami University in their first ever NCHC series.
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Friday, October 12, 2012

Game time UND vs USDT U-18



This is what caught my attention from the video... “None of the conditioning that we do – do we do it at 80 or 90 percent speed, coach Hakstol said. We do what we can do at 100 percent 100 percent speed.” As it says in the basement at the Ralph - "Speed Kills" and this years UND Hockey team is built for speed.



Looks like the injury bug is starting to hit UND a bit already.


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Friday, August 17, 2012

Rocco Grimaldi on the Pipeline show

This past Tuesday, UND forward freshman forward Rocco Grimaldi was on the Pipeline show with Guy Flaming. [Click to listen]

For those that are wondering about Rocco's recovery from the knee surgery. There is some good news. Last week, Rocco said that he has been skating for 45 minutes three times a week.

Rocco was asked if he was disappointed for not getting drafted in the first round of the 2011 NHL draft.

“Friday was definitely an interesting day as well," Grimaldi said.

"Getting there obviously like you said I was a wild card and I was told that too. So I wasn’t surprised about that I might go first, second, third, fourth whatever. So I was kind of just sitting there not knowing anything, like I know that some kids have an inkling enough of where they might end up, but I literally had nothing… Like I had no idea, so I am sitting there waiting and waiting and you know I thought it was a possibility, I heard end of the first beginning of the second, was probably where I was about to go. You know, obviously you want to go as high as you can, not that it matters but that was me personally, the first day ended and I didn’t get picked and I will be honest I was pretty upset. I wasn’t a very happy camper.”

Roco was asked about his faith and if it has ever been an issue for any of his fellow teammates.

“No I don’t think so,” Grimaldi said. Especially not with teammates, or those close to me because they know the true me; they know that’s just me and how I live my. I believe in the Lord. That’s just my life, Jesus is my life, and they know that and respect that. We just both respect each other. If we have something between us that kind of boiling and kind of getting angry, you know it’s the respect factor.“

"For the people that don’t know me, I don’t know. I obviously gotten some critics I guess just from the things that I have said. Most of them being misconstrued but there is nothing I can do about that. I am not really too concerned about what others are saying about me. As long as the Lord has said good things about me I am not too concerned about other people say about me.”
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