Looks like it’s time for the Fighting Sioux hockey team to wear their black jerseys on Friday night in St Cloud when they open their away series with the SCSU Huskies. I think it’s also time for the Fighting Sioux hockey team to end their futile drought on Friday nights.
Grand Forks Herald --- The last time UND won a Friday night game in St. Cloud, defenseman Dillon Simpson was 5 years old.
Yes, it has been that long.
The Sioux are 0-7-3 in their last 10 Friday night games in the National Hockey Center, dating back to a 4-3 victory on Nov. 27, 1998. On that night, the Sioux escaped with a win after Adam Calder broke a 3-3 tie with 5 minutes, 33 seconds remaining in the third period.
Since then, it has been more than a decade of struggles to open series in St. Cloud. The Sioux will try to break that streak at 7:07 p.m. Friday, when the teams open a two-game Western Collegiate Hockey Association series.
Some of the best recent UND teams haven’t been able to snap the skid. Consider:
- The 2000 national championship team was blanked 3-0 in its Friday night attempt. It was the only time that team was shut out that season.
- The 2004 MacNaughton Cup champion team tied 4-4. It tied Jordan Parise’s season high for goals allowed in a game.
- The 2009 MacNaughton Cup champion team lost 3-0, snapping the team’s eight-game unbeaten streak. It was one of two second-half losses for that team.
- And the Frozen Four teams from 2005-08 all stayed within a goal of the Huskies on Friday nights, but none of them managed to squeak out a victory.
“It’s a really tough building to play in,” UND coach Dave Hakstol said of the near 6,000-seat facility that has seating on two sides, box seats on one end and a walkway on the other.
