Reflecting on the season and looking ahead.

With most of us still feeling the sting of yesterday’s loss I have started to reflect on this past season. There were a lot of up and downs this past season. The biggest downer was the loss our senior captain Chay Genoway to a dirty hit. There was the off season suspension of junior Matt Frattin and his subsequent reinstatement of the Fighting Sioux hockey team at the Christmas vacation break. The unimpressive 5-7-2 record through December and January. The sweep at home to the hands of the Denver Pioneers. That was a very bitter pill to for all of us to swallow, but it also woke up the Fighting Sioux team. That went 12-1 down the stretch (12-2 the last 14 games) to make the NCAA tourney. The UND Fighting Sioux went from 6th place to finishing with one point out of third place.

Season in Retrospect

As with end of every Fighting Sioux the season, there will be some fans that want to question the coaching methodologies of Fighting Sioux head hockey coach Dave Hakstol, most of us will try to put things into perspective, try this on for size, the Fighting Sioux coaching staff took a team of 13 sophomores and freshman and won the Broadmoor Trophy from the Thursday game of the final five.

Most of the teams playing in the Final Five had rosters loaded with juniors and seniors (Wisconsin 6 seniors and 8 juniors – Denver 6 Seniors and 10 juniors – SCSU 5 seniors and 9 juniors). UND had 6 juniors and 3 seniors, one senior Chay Genoway played in 9 games this year before his season was cut short by injury. I am not real good at math but that tells me the Fighting Sioux although young have better days ahead of them. DU, Wisconsin and SCSU are loosing some elite players this off season.

I was always told by Gophers fans that one method of measuring success for a season was if your team won a league playoff title. Well there you go... Some will say that I am trying to spread sunshine on a disaster. So be it, there is a lot to be thankful for and a lot to look forward to next season.

Think about this final thought, the UND Fighting Sioux lost an all American and potential Hobey Baker Memorial Award canidate, maybe final three in Chay Genoway from their line up and still won 25 games, I don't know about you but that is a pretty good coaching job in my opinion. Lastly, I will also miss the two seniors that have played their last game of their Fighting Sioux careers.