Showing posts with label Mike Hastings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mike Hastings. Show all posts

Sunday, October 13, 2013

NCAA Hockey: Mike Hastings perplexed by officiating



I can say that I don't blame the coach for being upset, and it could cause a head coach some concern when they're doing their non-schedules in the future. I wonder if the on-ice officials can strike a balance where they can protect the integrity of the game, by calling the right amount of penalties, as well as protecting the puck carrier. At the same time, not affect the flow of the game too much. No one comes to watch an official call a game.

I also agree that the refs have to cal the game tighter, but how tight? But the refs also need to find a happy medium. If the refs call 20-plus penalties in a game, it's going to affect the flow of the game and you're going to end up with games that are almost three hours long.
Puckato -- Last January, Cornell coach Mike Schafer blasted the WCHA referees after a 2-1 loss at Denver, calling their performance “disgusting” and ending his rant with, “I won’t come back to the WCHA.”

I have to say that this is an interesting and thought provoking read. On Saturday night, after losing 3-0 in a game that included a combined 25 penalties for 80 minutes, Minnesota State’s Mike Hastings had a message for Schafer (or to that night's refs).

“One thing, Mike Schaffer, I want to let you know, we’re even now,” he said, “because a team from out west came out here and … I saw you last year and it sounded like you got it pretty bad. And I’m going to tell you that I believe east and west are even now.”

Providence plays in Hockey East, not Cornell’s ECAC, but this was hardly the first time a coach has expressed frustration with the way the game is called conference to conference, region to region.
This past weekend, UND killed 15 of 16 Vermont power plays. That's a lot of penalties over the course of a weekend. Last night, during the post game press conference, UND head coach Dave Hakstol said that he agrees with the way the games were called last 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.”

The UND coach went on to explain that the players have to make adjustments to the way the refs are calling the game as well.

"Our guys made a conscientious effort to skate with guys and not use their stick on them," Hakstol said."It’s about creating angles and back-pressuring, instead of using your stick.”

If the refs keep calling the game this way, they will. make adjustments to the game is called. Also, it will be interesting to see how the WCHA calls their games this season.
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Thursday, March 14, 2013

Results of the 2012-13 Blogger/Website All-WCHA Awards

Western Collegiate Hockey Association logo
Western Collegiate Hockey Association logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
s/t to A Tradition of Excellence for putting on the Second Annual Blogger/Website All-WCHA Awards. This is how the vote shook out.

* Asterik denotes a unanimous selection


All-WCHA First Team:
F - Ryan Walters, Nebraska-Omaha
F - Erik Haula, Minnesota
F - Danny Kristo, North Dakota
D - Nate Schmidt, Minnesota
D - Nick Jensen, St. Cloud State
G - Stephon Williams, Minnesota State

All-WCHA Second Team:
F - Drew LeBlanc, St. Cloud State
F - Corban Knight, North Dakota
F - Rylan Schwartz, Colorado College
D - Mike Boivin, Colorado College
D - Joey LaLeggia, Denver
G - Adam Wilcox, Minnesota

All-WCHA Third Team:
F - Matt Leitner, Minnesota State
F - Josh Archibald, Nebraska-Omaha
F - Eriah Hayes, Minnesota State
D - Andrew Prochno, St. Cloud State
D - Andrej Sustr, Nebraska-Omaha
G - Juho Olkinuora, Denver

WCHA All-Rookie Team:
F - Alex Petan, Michigan Tech
F - Tony Cameranesi, Minnesota-Duluth
F - Jonny Brodzinski, St. Cloud State
D - Nolan Zajac, Denver *
D - Andy Welinski, Minnesota-Duluth
G - Stephon Williams, Minnesota State

WCHA Player of the Year: Ryan Walters, Nebraska-Omaha

WCHA Defenseman of the Year: Nate Schmidt, Minnesota

WCHA Rookie of the Year: Stephon Williams, Minnesota State

WCHA Coach of the Year: Mike Hastings, Minnesota State


Here's the rundown of the voters.

Ryan, Gopher Puck Live
Matt, Bulldog Country
Joe, Colorado Springs Gazette
Travis, @nodakhockey/Fighting Sioux Hockey Facebook Fan Page
Emily, Beyond the Pond
Taylor, The Hockey Writers Combine
Eric, Goon's World/The Hockey Writers Combine
Tim, Tech Hockey Guide
Matthew, USCHO
Nate, College Hockey News/SB Nation Team Minnesota
Donn, Goon's World
Andy, Bucky's 5th Quarter
Andrew, College Hockey High Horse
Jeff, Mav Mania
Dave, Sioux Sports
Chad, A Tradition of Excellence

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Thursday, September 13, 2012

Pre-Season Predictions (by Sioux 7)

Western Collegiate Hockey Association logo
PRESEASON PREDICTIONS The last WCHA season as we currently know it is about to start, this season will mark the end of epic an era. The WCHA has been one of the top conferences for as long as I can remember, and it will be reborn with some schools remaining (Michigan Tech, Minnesota State, Alaska-Anchorage, and Bemidji State) and new ones (Alaska (Fairbanks), Northern Michigan (they return after leaving the WCHA in ‘92), Ferris State, & Lake Superior State) joining. Before I get into this year’s predictions, let’s look back on how last year finished up, below are the final regular season records.

WCHA FINAL STANDINGS 2011-2012

Team………………..……W-L-T………Points
1. Minnesota…………...…20-8-0…..…….40
2. Minnesota-Duluth……..16-7-5….……..37
3. Denver…………...........16-8-4………....36
4. North Dakota.………....16-11-1….….…33
5. Colorado College …….15-12-1…….….31
6. St. Cloud St…………...12-12-4……..…28
7. Nebraska-Omaha……...11-12-5…….....27
8. Michigan Tech………..11-13-4………..26
9. Bemidji State……..…..11-14-3.…….....25
10. Wisconsin…....………11-15-2..….…..24
11. Minnesota State……...8-18-2..…….....18
12. Alaska-Anchorage…...5-22-1………...11

The Final 5 in St. Paul featured MTU, SCSU, UND, DU, UMD, and UM. The WCHA tournament went like this – Thursday, DU defeated MTU 3-2 in OT, and UND defeated SCSU 4-1 – Friday DU beat UMD 4-3 in a 2-ot thriller, and UND defeat UM in an exciting 6-3 comeback win – Saturday UND defeated DU 4-0, to claim their 3rd consecutive Broadmoor Trophy. With that in mind here are my less than well-educated guesses as to who will finish where…

12 – Alaska-Anchorage – Let’s face facts, the Seawolves have been in the bottom half of the standings every year. That doesn’t mean they are doormats though, they are in most of their games and they don’t give up. Dave Shyiak is a good coach; he keeps his teams competitive with the recruits/players he gets. Alaska isn’t high on most kid’s list of places to go to college, and all the long flights taking their toll on these college students. I don’t see them in the top half of the standings, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they finished out of the twelve spot.

11 – Minnesota State – The Mavericks will have a new coach this year, Mike Hastings, he replaces Troy Jutting, who was at MSUM for the previous 12 years. Hastings was an assistant coach with UNO the past 3 years, and was with Minnesota before that, he is a 1993 alumni of SCSU. With a new coach at the helm, players will have to adjust to their new leader. I think a year or two down the road these purple pucksters could make a run up the new WCHA standings.

10 – Bemidji State – The Beavers were one of four teams last year that had eleven wins in league play and where three games below .500. Like most of the bottom half teams, they need to get more scoring from their top lines, if they want to finish with a winning record.

9 – Michigan Tech – The Huskies from Houghton almost made it to an even record to end the season. But they did make the Final Five and gave DU all they could handle in their play-in game. You could say that BSU has a “favorable” schedule this year, in that they don’t play four games against many of the “powers that be”. Don’t be too surprised if you hear the Huskies do some howling this year.

8 – Wisconsin – The Badgers struggled last year, we’ll call last season a rebuilding year. They have been a defense first team, starting with the goalie and working out from there. Now that they have some experienced goaltending in their Badger burrow, they can start building themselves back up. Coach Eaves knows what it takes to win, so we’ll all have to watch and see how fast they put it all together in Madison.

7 – Nebraska-Omaha – The Mavericks lost assistant coach Mike Hastings to Mankato in the off season, but gained Mankato’s old head coach Troy Jutting as an assistant. MSUM and UNO games could turn into a rivalry now that they have swapped coaches. UNO needs to be more consistent across the board, last year it seemed as if the offense was good, then defense and goaltending were off, and vise versa. If they get that squared away they could be a top half team.

6 – Colorado College – The Tigers won four of their last twelve games to finish out their year, and lost their first round playoff series at home to visiting MTU. Last year they started off hot and cold off, I’m sure they want the same start this year, but a different finish…We’ll just have to wait and see…

5 – St. Cloud State The Huskies have a heavy sophomore class this season, which means they should all be improved from their freshman campaign. They have three seniors and they will be the backbone for the team, seniors Hanowski and Lee will be the keys to taking this year’s Huskies back to the Final Five and beyond. This season will also mark head coach Bob Motzko’s 8th season as the lead musher of SCSU hockey.

4 – Minnesota Duluth – The Bulldogs are coming off a strong season, unfortunately they watch last year’s McNaughton cup slip away from them and into the hands of Minnesota. When you look at the losses of seniors from last year, you might think of this season as a rebuilding year. I think it’ll be more of a reloading year.

3 – Minnesota – The Gophers had excellent year last, capturing the WCHA regular season title and advancing to the Frozen Four. The maroon and gold return plenty of talent from last year team. The big question will be goaltending, with the little or no college game experience; luckily they have some seasoned d-men.

2 – North Dakota – The teams formerly known as the Fighting Sioux, now just know as North Dakota (I’ll just use ND), will be in a similar boat as Minnesota. They have a question mark about the goaltending and how that will develop through the season. Also this year ND will have brothers playing for them at the same time, the MacMillan men, Mark and Mitch. (I believe that last time that happened was 03-04, with the Parise’s Zack and Jordan.) This will be coach Hakstol’s 9th season with ND, the coach staff has changed in the off season with Cary Eades departing the program.

1 – Denver – The Pioneers are my preseason predicted number one. How can I give them that honor over my favorite ND team, you ask? They return their goalie’s from last season and they both had playing time. And as for scoring, let’s just say DU has always been offensive, wink, wink. Win or lose the last WCHA title as we currently know it, coach Gwozdecky will still be the snazziest dressed coach in the league.
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Tuesday, June 05, 2012

It's official - Steve Johnson named assistant coach at UNO

Former SCSU assistant coach and former Fighting Sioux All-American forward Steve Johnson has been named the assistant coach at the University of Omaha Nebraska Mavericks. This great personnel move by the UNO Mavericks because it gives them a great assistant coach and will only make the Mavericks better.
OMAHA, Neb. University of Nebraska Omaha head hockey coach Dean Blais announced today that Steve Johnson has been named the team's new assistant coach. He replaces Mike Hastings who left UNO following the 2011-12 season to take the head coach position at Minnesota State.

“I'm very pleased to have a coach of Steve's caliber fill the void left by Mike Hastings' departure,” said Blais. “Steve has the ability to be a great recruiter for us, and his on-ice skills as a coach are very strong as shown by his work in both the United States Hockey League and at the college level. His knowledge and experience will make our team stronger. ”

Johnson spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach at WCHA rival school St. Cloud State. Prior to that, he succeeded Blais as the head coach of the Fargo Force of the USHL where he coached for one season, leading the Force to the 2010 Clark Cup Finals.
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