Sioux 4 Mavericks 8 Ouch!

JOHN STENNES/GRAND FORKS HERALD

What’s a blog post without a Friedrich Nietzsche Quote - That which does not kill us makes us stronger… Well, maybe not! I am sure right now Rival fans across the country are enjoying the fact that the Fighting Sioux lost tonight to the UNO Mavericks 8-4, however, it’s not the end of the world and there is no reason to get our pitch forks and rakes and march on Ralph Englestad Arena just yet. For the Sioux fans that are ready to call for Coach Hakstol's head the University of North Dakota is not going to fire coach Hakstol and the Sioux are still sitting pretty good with an 17-7-2 record. While this was the worst loss since the Sioux lost 10-1 to the Gophers on March 6th 1992 there will be better days and I think this team is something special.

I have been watching the replay of the game to see if it was as bad as it looked from the stands and unfortunately it was. Tonight was not a good game for the Fighting Sioux; in my opinion the Fighting Sioux got beat at their own game, they were out muscled and out hustled to the puck all night long. One might say that the Fighting Sioux were run out of their own building by a more motivated hockey team.

This was also a case of the Fighting Sioux not playing well for the last four games and it finally caught up with them causing them lay a steamy stinker on the ice tonight and there is no sugar coating it, they played like dog crap. I can think of a 1000 sports clichés to describe tonight’s game but the plain and simple explanation was that the Fighting Sioux came out flat and the Mavericks hammered them, it is what it is. The UNO Mavericks are a good hockey team and they are coached by a future hall of fame coach they had the right game plan tonight.

After the game during the post game radio interview with Tim Hennesy Fighting Sioux head coach Dave Hakstol took the blame for the loss but I think we can lay the blame at the players feet, coach Hakstol wasn’t out on the ice taking undisciplined penalties that cost the Sioux five power play goals on seven power play chances. Coach Hakstol said the same thing in this morning's paper.

We weren’t good and that starts with me,” UND coach Dave Hakstol said. “Bottom line. That’s where it starts. That’s where it ends.

“The difference in the game was that we weren’t ready to play tonight. I didn’t have the guys ready to play. Saw a few signs of it early in the week. We weren’t ready to play. We didn’t prepare well enough and you saw the results.”

It’s one loss and I am not ready to write off the season or call for the university to fire the head coach yet. It’s time for some perspective, the Fighting Sioux have a 17-7-2 record and have played the toughest schedule to date in NCAA hockey, and they didn’t rack up 17 wins playing the weak sisters of the poor or by beating non-conference cupcakes. I have also been reading the comments on the UND Athletics chat from earlier tonight and I must laugh, The Mavericks were the better of the two teams and they jumped on the loose pucks and capitalized on the turnovers and buried the Sioux on the power play going 5/7 tonight.

[Box Score]

USCHO

UND Hockey Blog

Fighting Sioux

Omaha.com