I was told by a friend tonight in an email that I should get the "Fire Hak!" thread going again. I laughed pretty hard when I read that email. Just think after losing to the UNO Mavericks 8-4 that there were fans that wanted the head coach of the Fighting Sioux fired for not winning that game and thought that if the Sioux didn't win the Frozen Four that would also be ground for Hakstol's termination. I would bet any money that those same fans that were calling for Mr. Hakstol's head are now firmly on board the Hakstol bandwagon at this very moment as the Sioux are once again going to the Frozen Four. But I digress... Not many coaches in the WCHA can claim to have the success that Dave Hakstol does.
The Fighting Sioux with the victory last night against the Denver Pioneers are making their fifth trip in seven seasons to the Frozen Four. Not a bad coaching job for Dave Hakstol and his staff. There were a lot of doubters in the Fighting Sioux fan base, but I never doubted this coach or this group of hockey players.
Good goaltending
There were people that questioned the goaltender Aaron Dell and said that he wasn’t very good. Those people were proven dead wrong as Aaron Dell took the reins from two year starter Brad Eidsness and won his 30th game of the season (30-6-2, 1.81 GAA and .924 sv%) with the win last night surpassed former NHL All Star and Fighting Sioux goalie Eddie “the Eagle” Belfour… Nationally, Dell is tied for first in the nation with 6 shutouts, number one in winning percentage, eight in save percentage, number one in goals against average. So I ask the doubters, how they can say that Aaron Dell isn’t very good goaltender?” Me personally, I would rather have Dell than any other goalie in the WCHA right now. Where would this team be if the Fighting Sioux didn’t have Aaron Dell, Brad Eidsness is a shell of his former self and couldn’t stop a beach ball earlier this season?
Balanced scoring
The Fighting Sioux were the second highest scoring team in the nation, second only to the EZAC team Yale, who was number one. You know how I feel about that stat so we will leave it at that, it is what it is, Yale racked up points playing a less than impressive schedule (44th SOS) the Fighting Sioux picked up their points playing the seventh toughest schedule. Breaking down the Sioux stats sheet, there are fifteen players on the Sioux roster with ten or more points, three players with twenty or more points, six players with thirty or more points, five players with forty or more points and one player with sixty points. That is some pretty good scoring dept.
Total Domination
Tonight after the first period I thought the Sioux did to the Pioneers what they did to the RPI Engineers, they beat them with their dept, the Pioneers were basically playing three lines to the Sioux rolling four lines and in the end the Sioux took the Pioneers to the wood shed.
An unnamed radio personality was complaining on twitter tonight about the Fighting Sioux still having their top players out on the power play at the end of the game. Like one of my old football coaches said, if you don’t want to get scored on play better defense, the time in the game is relevant. What the hell is the Fighting Sioux coaching staff supposed to do? UND isn’t a one line wonder like some teams and they are deep through the forward lines and the Pioneers were hacking away at the Sioux at the end of the game so I don’t blame Hakstol and co for putting the better guys out on the power play at the end of the game. The best cure for getting a team to stop taking penalties is to score on them on the power play. Just for the record Brett Hextall and Jason Gregoire are second line players. Yeah I know, they would be first line players on other teams in the WCHA.
Goon's three stars of the game
1.) Chay Genoway (0g-3a-3pts)
2.) Aaron Dell 1 GAA
3.) Brad Malone (1g-1a-2pts)
[Box Score]
