The Sioux have dug a pretty deep hole, but there is still a lot of season left. In my opinion, there is no reason to panic yet or start a movement to have Fighting Sioux head coach Dave Hakstol fired as the coach of the Fighting Sioux.
Even if the Fighting Sioux fail to make the Final Five and the NCAA tourney Dave Hakstol will still be the head coach of the Fighting Sioux when the season is over.
I think it’s safe to predict that the Fighting Sioux will not repeat as champs in the WCHA, however, they can still salvage the season by making a solid run in the second half of the season and making the NCAA playoffs. Last season UMD proved that the fourth best team in the WCHA can still win the NCAA title.
The Fighting Sioux with the 3-2 loss on Saturday night dropped to an unimpressive record of 3-5-1 overall and 1-5-0 in WCHA action. That is the worst start for the Fighting Sioux since the 1974-75 season when the Fighting Sioux started the season 1-9-0.
I was out hunting in the Devils Lake area and I was able to listen to both games on the radio and it would appear that Aaron Dell was great in net all weekend, any time you can limit a team like the Gophers to five goals against for the weekend; that’s an impressive feat. I also believe that the Fighting Sioux wasted two nice goaltending efforts by Dell. Dell stopped 39 of 42 shots on Saturday night and that is the most saves Dell has had in a games since last year's WCHA Final Five championship game against Denver University. Dell also stopped 30 of 32 shots in Friday night’s game. For the weekend Dell stopped 69/74 shots for a .932 save percentage.
The Fighting Sioux penalty kill has started to put up impressive numbers. The Fighting Sioux held the Gophers vaunted power play to one goal all weekend long, The Fighting Sioux killed 14 of 15 Gopher power plays and now have only given up one goal in the last 22 power plays, killing 21 of the last 22 opponent power plays.
This goal by Roco Grimaldi gives me reason to be optimistic.
Gopher fans like to talk about how the Fighting Sioux are a bunch of goons. Under no circumstances will Minnesota's Pansies on Ice drop the gloves.
Aaron Dell was in the zone against the Gophers and here is an example of this as Dell makes a nice save against Minnesota
