The Sky is falling in Grand Forks, ND – Time to fire the coach?!?

Here is a better version of that song. [Bad Day]

In Blais we trust

Last night the UND Fighting Sioux hockey team played the UNO Mavericks which are coached by former UND Fighting Sioux Head Dean Blais. The Mavericks got the best of the Fighting Sioux in the first game of the series winning by an 8-4 score. This result of last night’s game has caused a chain reaction in Grand Forks, ND and around the Fighting Sioux hockey nation and today “some” Sioux fans want head hockey coach Dave Hakstol fired. Yeah I am serious!!!

It’s no mystery that Dean Blais is a “God like” figure in Grand Forks, ND and his record speaks for himself, Blais was responsible for bringing the UND hockey program out of the basement of the WCHA and back into national prominence winning national titles in 1997 and 2000. Blais is a great hockey coach in my opinion; I believe that Dean Blais will someday be in the USA Hockey Hall of Fame, based on his accomplishments as a player and a coach.

After winning a McNaughton Cup and then losing to Denver University in the 2004 West NCAA Regional Final, Dean Blais left the University of North Dakota and headed to the NHL to become an assistant coach for the Columbus Blue Jackets, after a couple of seasons in the NHL Dean Blais moved on to coach a first year USHL team the Fargo Force in 2008-2009. True to form, Blais took a first year team to the USHL finals where his team finished second in the USHL playoffs. After one season in the USHL, the University of Nebraska Omaha was looking for a top flight coach and made Fargo Force head coach Dean Blais an offer he couldn’t refuse, I read somewhere that the salary offered was somewhere in the 250,000.00 range so off to Omaha coach Blais went. True to form Coach Blais gided his Maverick team to a 20-16-6 record, after his first year in the CCHA and the Mavericks moved to the WCHA with the BSU Beavers and coach Blais has the UNO Mavericks playing well sitting in fourth place of the WCHA with a 13-8-2 record over all and a conference record of 10-5-2.

Hakstol era

When Blais left the University of North Dakota he gave UND Fighting Sioux assistant coach Dave Hakstol his personal endorsement, basically saying that the University doesn’t need to look outside for a new head coach because they already have his replacement on staff at UND.

During his tenure at UND Fighting Sioux head coach Dave Hakstol has racked up an impressive record of 172-91-26 and a conference record of 104-63-18. The Sioux under coach Hakstol have finished as the NCAA runner up (1X), third overall (3X) , (2x) Broadmoor trophies and (1X) McNaughton Cup. In his first four seasons coach Hakstol was very successful going to the Frozen Four each seasons, but falling short each year by never winning the National title, during that run Hakstol’s teams lost to once to Denver and three times to Boston College. So by most people’s standards that’s been a pretty good run for the Fighting Sioux but for the Debbie Downers "we didn’t win the big game." I always wonder what it's like to be an SCSU, MTU or UAA fan?

Fans with pitch forks and rakes to storm REA

So last night the Sioux took one on the chin and lost the game 8-4 to the UNO Mavericks lead by Dean Blais, the game was a night mare and everything that could have went wrong did, it was one of those games where one team has been doing well in the standings and was prime for the picking. Coach Blais’ team was all over UND and you could say that they beat the Sioux at their own game, the Mavericks played a high pressure game and sent two fore checkers in on the Sioux. This threw the Sioux off their game and the Sioux also had trouble getting the puck deep and fought turnovers all night long. The Sioux also had to kill off like three five on threes last night and that even further derailed the Sioux effort, the defense and both Sioux goalies looked like they were a bunch of orange road cones that were caught out of position all night long. The spelled disaster for the Fighting Sioux.

Over on the UND Hockey Blog and Sioux Sports some Sioux fans have been calling for the head of Dave Hakstol and would like to see him fired. Are you kidding me? The University of North Dakota is not going to fire Dave Hakstol unless he does something really stupid or criminal. Let's not bail on this team yet, it was one game and there is a lot of season left.