Fighting Sioux unimpressive in 4-2 defeat.

This should sum things up from last night pretty well. This weekend’s sweep at the hands of the Denver University Pioneers is unacceptable and down right depressing. The Fighting Sioux had their butts handed to them last night and looked like a bunch of boy playing men. Thirty minutes of hockey will not win you a game even against the last place team in the WCHA.

Cue the cute sports clichés, we didn’t play for 60 for minutes, we didn’t burry our chances, we didn't move our feet; we didn’t put the Pioneers away when we had them down 2-0 and on their heels. Blah, blah, blah, blah…

The home locker room in Ralph Engelstad Arena was full of frustration, disappointment and anger late Saturday night, consumed with a feeling that only two players inside of it have ever experienced.

For the first time in 37 months — a span of more than three years and 25 series — the UND men’s hockey team was swept at home after the University of Denver rallied for a 4-2 victory in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association series finale.

Coupled with a 2-0 victory Friday night, the Pioneers became the first team since Dec. 16, 2006 to win back-to-back games here, snapping the WCHA’s longest streak without getting swept at home. [Grand Forks Herald]

This Fighting Sioux hockey team is, well, lacking leadership, focus and heart. It is what it is, UND is going to be on the road for the first round of the WCHA playoffs and will probably be golfing with the Gophers this spring during the NCAA tourney if the don't get their head out of their collective asses. This is not acceptable at the University of North Dakota. Right now this team isn’t worthy of wearing the proud Fighting Sioux warrior on the front of their jerseys. We are definitely not hostile or abusive. The Fighting Sioux hockey team went down without a fight.

Here is what our fearless leader coach Dave Hakstol had to say after this weekend's debacle at the Ralph.

“It doesn’t sit very well,” UND coach Dave Hakstol said. “It has to be something that’s a real slap in the face and pushes you in the right direction. You can go two ways. You can start to get individualistic and point fingers at one another or you can pull together, do everything a little better and give a little more to your team and teammates. And that’s what we’ll do.”

Since a sweep of Minnesota State-Mankato earlier this month, UND has just one win in its last six games, dropping to 13-10-5 overall and 8-9-3 in league play. UND’s record against teams ranked in this week’s national polls is now 3-8-2 and the Sioux dropped into a tie for 15th in the Pairwise Rankings.

What was good

The Fighting Sioux won the first half of the game, was ahead for half the game before the roof fell in on them. The Fighting Sioux came out and got pucks deep and fore checked, and chipped pucks out of the defensive zone. The Fighting Sioux were a text book example of what championship hockey looks like. Keep your opponent on their heals; attack and counter attack. Play smart when you don’t have the puck.

Senior forward Chris VandeVelde had another one of those break out games and scored some nice goals, Vandy’s second goal was a thing of beauty.

Sophomore forward Jason Gregoire had a solid game and was flying around all weekend.

Matt Frattin is starting to get back his game legs back and released a few bombs that just barely missed. I expect these will start going in soon. I would have to say that he has one of the harder shots that I have seen.

Freshman Danny Kristo is an awesome player but he needs to shoot the puck more, he has a laser for a shot. If this kid could get hot he could carry the team on his back.

What was not so good

You can not leave an opposition forward all alone in the slot like they did on two of the four DU goals, you're going to get killed. DU has some very talented forwards and if you let them shoot the puck unchallenged in the slot they are going to burry the puck. Half of their goals were scored in said manner.

Sophomore goalie Brad Eidsness lacks focus and needs to get back to the basics, the first things that comes to mind when I see him play is, not square to the shooter, does not cover the short side well, goes down too early. Maybe you should watch some game tape of Marc Cheverie, and see what a fundamentally sound goaltender looks like. Maybe Eidsness should consider employing his goalie coach. While I don’t fault him on most of the goals, you can not keep getting beat on the short side all of the time, his glove had is brutal.

From here on out

UND has games against SCSU (X2), UMD (X2), C.C. (2X), and MTU (2X), I figure that UND has got to go 6-2 or 5-3 in those remaining games to even have a chance to make home ice in the WCHA playoffs. All but one of those teams are sitting ahead of UND in the standings. From here on out there are no mulligan’s or give-me’s. The Fighting Sioux are currently sitting at 15th in the Pairwise rankings right now.

[Box Score]

Let's Go DU hockey Blog [Click to read]

Denver Post write up: DU road rally sweeps Sioux[Click to read]

USCHO write up: Patrick Miller/USCHO Arena Reporter[Click to read]

Grand Forks Herald write up [Click to read]

Post game press conference [Click to listen]