Showing posts with label Dave Hakstol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dave Hakstol. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

UND Injury Update

This weekend, when the University of North Dakota (4-6-2, 3-5-0 NCHC) plays St. Lawrence University (7-5-2, 2-2-2 ECAC), in a two-game non-conference match-up, they will be without the services of some key forwards, and could be playing defensemen in their place again this weekend.  The move actually seemed to work last weekend against the BU Terriers. 

First, there is some good news. “(Brendan) O’Donnell should be available, he’s practiced all week,” Hakstol said.

“(Derek) Rodwell, (Mark) MacMillan and (Colton) St. Clair are unavailable (this weekend),” Coach Dave Hakstol said. 




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Sunday, November 24, 2013

UND ties Boston University 3-3

Seal of the University of North Dakota
Seal of the University of North Dakota (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Last night, the University of North Dakota put a season high 58 shots on the Boston University net, but still had to settle for a 3-3 tie. Standing in the way of a UND victory, was Terrier goalie Matt O’Connor. The sophomore goalie was nothing short of amazing, as he stopped a career-high 55 shots. Many of his saves were of the spectacular variety. Yes, I am cuing the hot goalie storyline.

I didn't know that was a crime? 

If it wasn’t for O’Connor, the game “probably” would’ve been very one sided, as UND attacked the BU net in waves. It was one of UND’s best efforts of the season, as they held a 58-31 shot advantage over the Terriers.

“He’s a good goalie,” UND junior forward Stephane Pattyn said.

According to the UND SID Jayson Hadju, that’s the most shots that UND has put on net in a game since December 30, 2000, when UND put 65 shots on the goal, to beat Princeton 4-1.  

Did I mention the play of the BU goalie? So did UND’s head coach Dave Hakstol.

“That’s the game of hockey,” Hakstol said. “Their guy (Matt O’Connor) played well in net.”
“We played a better game tonight than we did last night,” Hakstol said. “As usual when you come out on an eastern swing you usually run into different challenges. Obviously, we ran into some challenges this weekend, but we probably got better as a hockey team.”  

While some will look at this weekend as a lost weekend, I think you can look this weekend as a building block, moving forward. UND came out last night and was on their toes for most of the game. Rocco Grimaldi was the best player on the ice for UND. Second best player for UND was junior forward Brendan O’Donnell, who looked really good in his return to the lineup, after missing five games due to injury.

I think he was the difference in the game for UND. I would imagine that UND should get Mark MacMillan back soon. Moving forward, I wonder, if we will see the all junior line of Mark MacMillan, Michael Parks and O’D? That line seemed to have some chemistry together before the run of bad luck and injuries took hold for UND.

Stats, stats, stats

On Saturday night, UND was one-for-seven on the power-play, and had 19 of its 31 shots on the power-play. UND was one-for-nine (.10%) on the power-play for the weekend.
After writing an article about UND forward Rocco Grimaldi and Drake Caggiula,  Grimaldi had a six game point streak snapped last night and Caggiula was kept off of the score sheet all weekend long.
After last night’s game, Zane Gothberg’s season numbers 2-5-2, 2.84 GAA, .906 save percentage.
After this Friday’s game, Clarke Saunder’s season numbers 2-1-0, 3.50 GAA, save percentage .910.
This season, UND is 1-1-2 against Hockey East this season.

Looking ahead to next weekend 

With the tie the University of North Dakota is (4-6-2, 3-5-0 NCHC) and entertains ECAC opponent St Lawrence (7-5-2, 2-2-2 ECAC) at the Ralph Engelstad Arena, in an important two game nonconference series. 
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Saturday, November 23, 2013

A couple of coaches have a chat


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(Video) Brendan O'Donnell Slashing Penalty



At the 16:57 mark of the third period, Brendan O'Donnell was incorrectly assessed a two-minute minor penalty for slashing. You can see by the video that O'Donnell never should have been given a penalty. That was a blown call by Kevin Shea. Thank God it didn't cost UND the game. 

My six-year old child could tell you that this was a bad penalty. This was a blown call by the Hockey East officiating crew. In my opinion, I thought that Scott Hansen, Kevin Shea made some ticky-tacky calls all night long. Hate to say it, but I would rather have some of the officials that we have had in the WCHA. There's no excuse for this call. 
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A New Drinking Game for UND Hockey



This one is actually funny. I still like the one where you take a drink in the post game press conference when head coach Dave Hakstol says, "You know."
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Let's not jump off the Sorlie Bridge yet... UND hockey

Sorlie Bridge connecting Grand Forks, ND to Ea...
Sorlie Bridge connecting Grand Forks, ND to East Grand Forks, MN (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Site information: Yesterday I tried to install the Disqus commenting system and I couldn’t get it to work. I am going to take another crack at installing the Disqus commenting system when I get a chance. If anyone is good at HTML code and wants to help me, let me known and I will buy you a couple of beers.

I also deleted my Intensedebate comments system. So I don’t have a real commenting system right now. You can comment on the blog if you have a Goggle + Account. Which is the wave of the future, or so I have been told. I am also in the process of redesigning my blog; I have no Idea where I want to go with it.

Last night’s game.


First off, I don’t see any reason to jump off the Sorlie Bridge (pick your bride, Sorlie, Kennedy, Columbia, Point). Not yet, but if want to jump ship, make sure to cut a hole in the ice so you don’t break your neck. I am not ready to give up on this team.

Rocco Grimaldi seems to think that the boys can right the ship.

Contrary to what some say, I think that there’s talent on the UND hockey team. Let's take a deep breath. I think that the goaltending has been questionable, but that will come. I thought Clarke Saunders was left out to dry last night. One the on goal, I thought that he was caught cheating as well.  I think that Zane Gothberg has had concentration issues and needs to focus.

I find do it comical that some fans are panicking already. We have seen this drill before. There’s a lot of season left. In nine plus seasons that Dave Hakstol’s has been the head coach, his teams, have been second half teams. Only exceptions, were the 2010-11 (Frozen Four team) and the 2012-13 season (Lost in the West Region to Yale).

This is a young team. It’s not an excuse. Last week during the Wednesday hockey press conference Dave Hakstol said, “This is a young team.” I was actually shocked that he said it. Hakstol wasn’t offering up an excuse, just stating a fact. I see no panic in the man’s body language. Although, the head coach didn’t look happy very happy either.

I know it’s cliché, but there’s a lot of season left. Sure, UND hasn’t looked very good so far this season. But, let’s examine reality. UND has 11 healthy forwards skating right now. That’s not an excuse, that’s brutal reality.

I have said this before and I will say it again. You don't hang Banners for winning in the early season. There’s no award given for the best record in October, November, December and January.

From the UND game notes: UND head coach Dave Hakstol, now in his 10th season behind the bench of his alma mater, is the only active head coach in Division I men’s hockey who has recorded a winning record in every season as a head coach. That includes Jerry York. 

Last night’s game


I thought the guys took some undisciplined penalties at key times during last night’s game. That has to stop if they’re going to be successful this season. 

From my perspective, from my seat on the couch last night, I thought the officials called some horrible ticky-tacky penalties last night. When I went back and looked at the play on my DVR, I thought where was the penalty on that call?  I don’t like the way that Hockey East officials call their games. I think that ECAC officials calls the game much like they do in the West. 

Brutal!

In my opinion, I felt that the refs let the Terriers get away with a lot of things that could have been called penalties both ways. That's how I saw it. I will be doing some video work this week. Let's also give credit, where credit is due. I thought BU played a pretty good hockey game, too. 

This is what head coach Dave Hakstol had to say about last night’s game. It is what it is. There’s no sugar coating it with Dave Hakstol, he call it like he see it. I don’t see him making any excuses.

“I thought BU played well tonight,” Dave Hakstol said.  “They capitalized on opportunities, did a good job on the power play.”

This is what the head coach had say on UND’s penalty trouble and trying to fight back after falling behind.

“I thought we had a real good first seven, eight minutes of the game. We spent last half of the period killing penalties.” “Had a two goal deficit, that’s hard to overcome on the road.”

“BU did a good job defending,” Hakstol said. “We had to attempt to kill five penalties in a row.

The head coach was asked about the team’s injuries.

“We had 20 guys dressed,” Hakstol said. That’s not an issue what-so-ever that’s not a topic in our locker room.

A couple of stats


During the 2011-12 season, UND started the season 4-7-1.

UND is 3-2-1 on Friday nights, 0-4-1 on Saturday nights and finally, 1-0-0 on Sunday nights.

Clarke Saunders 2-1-0, 3.50 GAA, .910 save percentage.
Rocco Grimaldi (4g-7a—11pts)
Drake Caggiula (4g-4a—8pts)
Michael Parks (3g-5a—8pts)

Goals for 29
Goals against 36
Scoring margin 40/59
Penalty Minutes 28
UND power play 26

UND penalty kill 10
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Wednesday, November 20, 2013

UND's injury situation



Last Saturday night, after the game against the UMD Bulldogs, UND head coach Dave Hakstol said that he would get Mark MacMillan some time off to heal what ails him. It was obvious to all of us that MacMillan was hurt. Hakstol said he's suffering from an undisclosed injury and that he had no choice to play him because of numbers. Mark will make the trip to Boston, but not play against the BU Terriers.


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Tuesday, November 19, 2013

UND Hockey: Chad Johnson: 1970-2013

There’s some sad news coming out of Fargo, ND today.  Our thoughts and prayers are going out to Former Fighting Sioux forward Chad Johnson and his family. Johnson was found dead in Fargo, ND on Monday.

Johnson is the Uncle of current UND hockey players Luke Johnson and Paul LaDue. Johnson played for UND from 1990-1993 scoring (6g-15a—pts).  Johnson was the coach for the Lincoln Star until resigning in September, to come home to deal with health issues.  Johnson was only 43 years old.  
Official press Release--- The University of North Dakota Athletics Department and its men's hockey program is saddened by the passing of former UND hockey player Chad Johnson.

Johnson, a native of Grand Forks, lettered at UND from 1990-91 to 1992-93, appearing in 95 games for the Fighting Sioux.


"The UND hockey family has lost a great member," said UND head coach Dave Hakstol, who was a collegiate teammate of Johnson's. "Chad had such a positive impact on everyone who knew him, including myself, his UND teammates, and the hundreds of kids who loved playing for him.


"We are all better for knowing him and we will miss his quick wit and genuine friendship. We will have Chad and his family in our thoughts and prayers."


After his collegiate playing career, Johnson played professionally for three seasons before embarking upon a coaching career in the United States Hockey League.


Johnson's brother, Steve, also played at UND from 1984-88 and his nephews, Luke Johnson and Paul LaDue, are both freshmen on this year's hockey team.


UND Athletics would like to extended its deepest sympathies to Johnson's family and friends.


A press release from the USHL team, the Lincoln Stars dated Sept. 18 said:










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Monday, November 18, 2013

UND Women end Minnesota's 62 game win streak



Ironically, the UND women were the last team to beat the Gopher women 62 games ago. Hats off to them.








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Saturday, November 16, 2013

UMD Slaps UND 6-3

The University of North Dakota’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde season continues. Coming into tonight’s game the University of North Dakota had a respectable record of 3-1-0 on Friday nights. On the flip side, the UND hockey team has yet to win a hockey game on Saturday nights, 0-3-1 and 1-0-0 on Sunday. 

Tonight, with the 6-3 loss to the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs, UND now has a 0-4-1 record on Saturday nights. Through 10 games (4-5-1 – 3-5-0 NCHC), the Green and White has yet to win a hockey game on Saturday night. Tonight’s loss didn’t appear to sit well with UND head coach Dave Hakstol.

“We didn’t play a complete game as we needed to,” Hakstol said. “I thought we had to play really intelligent complete game. Little bit low on energy. I thought…we didn’t manage obviously the last two minutes of the first period very well after playing an excellent first period. After digging ourselves out of that we didn’t manage the last minute of the second period very well. That’s the difference in the game, those three, three and a half minutes. The end of the day it’s the result that counts.”

The UND hockey team faced some adversity this week. Key players are dealing injuries.   Quite a few players missed practice because of the flu. You also have to give credit where credit is due, UMD played a better hockey game than UND did tonight.

“It’s been a bit of a long week,” Hakstol said. “We didn’t cut ourselves any slack. We needed to play very intelligent and full 60-minutes tonight to give us a chance to win this game. That’s the way that I feel. I give Duluth all of the credit in the world, they’re a good hockey team. They made a lot of plays. I don’t think we did everything that we need to do tonight... to give ourselves the best chance to win this game. “

“Obviously there’s some stuff we need to work on as a team,” North Dakota freshman defenseman Paul LaDue said. “We had a few breakdowns and they (UMD) capitalized on them.”

In a night where some might want to look at the negatives, there were a few positive points to build on going forward. Ladue also scored the first goal of his UND career.

“It felt pretty good, but it would feel a lot better with a win right now”, LaDue said. “It’s good to get it off my back and hopefully they will keep coming.”

But another positive to take away from tonight’s game, UND sophomore forward Bryn Chyzyk scored his first goal of the season.

“Just kind of got a loose puck off of the wall,” Chyzyk said. “Just tried to feed it to the net – it must have hit a few sticks or something. I don’t know, but it went in. Obviously it wasn’t enough.”


Next weekend, UND travels to Boston, Massachusetts to play a two game nonconference series against the Boston University Terriers at Agganis Arena.
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Overhead picture of Michael Parks Goal


Can you see the puck? It's right next to the goalies glove.
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College Hockey top 20 Strength of Schedule


Today, I took the top 20 teams for strength of schedule in NCAA for Division I college hockey. If you look at the numbers you can see that Miami, UND, SCSU and Minnesota have played some of the toughest schedules to date. I got these numbers from the KRACH. You can draw your own conclusions from the numbers if you want.
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UND takes bite out of Bulldogs 4-2

English: Ralph Engelstadt Arena at the Univers...
English: Ralph Engelstadt Arena at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota. *Personally photographed by the undersigned May 8, 2007. Elcajonfarms 03:46, 3 July 2007 (UTC) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Grand Forks, ND – Coming into tonight’s game against the University of Minnesota Duluth, the University of North Dakota had lost two home games in a row and was looking to right the ship and get their first conference win at home.  In the last three games at home, UND was winless and held a 0-2-1 record.
With tonight’s 4-2 win, make that 1-2-1.
So far this season, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference games have been a war. Six teams are currently separated by three points. With each game, the league standings shift and teams move up and down depending whether they win or lose.
Tonight’s game between UND and UMD is probably what the founding members’ envisioned when they first decided to embark on the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference.  Let’s just say, the game was an exciting 60-minute dog fight. No pun intended.
“Pretty exciting hockey game I would imagine for the fans,” head coach Dave Hakstol said.
UND would jump to a 2-0 lead with goals by Rocco Grimaldi and Michael Parks. Then the momentum swing in the Bulldogs favor.
UMD would come racing back to tie the game on a couple of UND miscues in a 20-second stretch during the third period. UMD would score its first goal of the game at the 06:37 mark of the third period on a goal by forward Alex Iafallo. It appeared that UND goalie Clarke Saunders thought the ref was going to blow the whistle on the delayed penalty, but the ref didn't, and the puck ended up in back of the UND net. UMD would score again 20-seconds later on the power play with a goal by Adam Krause.  Tie game 2-2.
“Everyone is human and I went oh crap for about 10 seconds,” UND goalie Clarke Saunders. “Delayed penalty, I don’t know if that’s defined as possession or not. I thought so. The puck was there and I went for it.”
On the second UND goal, initially, the goal had been waved off after referees Derek Shepherd and CJ Beaurline had reviewed the goal. Upon talking to the UND bench, the officials returned to the penalty box area and reviewed the play again and then awarded UND the goal. The replay in the press box was obvious, it was a good goal. For some reason, the second review of  the goal by the officials took a long time. When head coach Dave Hakstol was asked if he had asked the refs to take another look at the goal.
“Yeah, I did,” Hakstol said. “They don’t come and ask coaches what they should do. They go and make calls on their own. I thought they did a real good job.”
UND goalie Clarke Saunders was under attack all night long and he stopped 34 of 36 shots. After the game coach Hakstol was very complimentary of his starting goaltender.
“Clarke did a real good job tonight,” Hakstol said. “I think that Clarke has been excellent his last two outings.”
Sophomore defenseman Jordan Schmaltz would get the game winner on the power play at the 10:05 mark of the third period and junior forward Stephane Pattyn would ice the game with an empty net goal at the 19:04 mark to round out the scoring for UND.
UND will go for its first conference home sweep tomorrow night 07:07 p.m. when they play the Bulldogs in game two at the Ralph Engelstad Arena. With the win UND improves to (4-4-1, 3-4-0 NCHC) on the season. UND is now tied for the lead in the NCHC, but has played three more games than Nebraska-Omaha and Saint Cloud State.
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Wednesday, November 13, 2013

UND hockey: Wednesday Links - It's cold and flu season

Again, this guy doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. It's blog I've never read, except last year, when BU played UND. Just for the record, I do think that BU is a great hockey program.

If you want to read a good BU fan blog, read this one from my friend Matt Dresens.  I don't know a western school that doesn't take the bus, to and from hockey games. UMD is five hours away from Grand Forks, ND, down highway two and they will be busing to UND this weekend. Busing is an non-issue with the UND hockey players.

I guess for some reason this particular BU fan has an issue with it. I don't know why he should have an issue with it. Some people should really worry about their own school like Boston University. Think about this, some of these players will go on to play in the minor leagues, they will take buses to their hockey games.






Sounds like the flu is ravaging the UND hockey team right now. Some players aren't in practice right now. We will know who can go as we get closer to game time on Friday night.

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Monday, November 11, 2013

Saturday, November 09, 2013

Finding a silver lining in a mountain full of garbage



This makes me very happy; the Boston Bruins continue their domination over the Toronto Maple Leafs. After the UND vs. UNO game, my wife’s cousin asked me what I thought and I told him, I was a fan of the Boston Bruins from 1988 to 2011 and I had to wait a long time to watch them win a Stanley Cup. I am not going to let this team ruin day. I am no too upset about this. This is just one part of the season. There’s a lot of season left. This is one game.

I must admit, I didn’t think that the season would play out like this, not with the players that this team has on the roster. So far, this team is under achieving and they’re really not doing much on the ice. Tonight they played better. I think it’s all minor things that the coaching staff will fix and fix quickly. If not, the coaching staff will sit the players that aren’t playing well and try another player.

As far as fixing what ails this team, It will happen either tomorrow night, next weekend, or soon. A Dave Hakstol team will not continue to play like this for very long. This is a coach that bag skated his team after they lost 1-0 to the BSU Beavers in November of 2011. If he doesn’t have their attention, he will soon.

I thought that UND played well against UNO tonight, In the second period. Bad goals have killed this team so far this season. I also think the goaltending has been poor all-season long. I also think that the forwards have been lazy getting the puck into the offensive zone and the defensemen have been doing things a step slow.

UND has lost four straight game for the first time since 2006. Something has got to give. So, their either going to get their act together and play well, or their going to get buried in the bottom half of the NCHC standings, time will tell. They have a tough schedule ahead of them in November. 
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Wednesday, November 06, 2013

Drake Caggiula scores the NCHC's top goal of the week



After being carried of the ice on a stretcher the week before against the U-18 team. Drake Caggiula scores one of the dirtiest goals I have seen this season to date to become the top goal of the week. Caggiula's goal also ended up being named the play of the day on Fox Sports 1 on Friday night. That's a pretty big honor as well.
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Monday, November 04, 2013

Where's all the antipathy coming from in regards to UND head coach Dave Hakstol

Game five and six on the season and the Fire Hakstol thread is already made it's first appearance of the season on Sioux Sports. I will be covering this topic more this week. This is a post that I originally Posted at the Hockey Writers Combine, a site that I used to write for that's no longer active. P.S Hak isn't going any where. UND isn't going to fire him. 
Recently, ESPN posted an article that was written by Craig Custance on their Internet site (subscription required) about possible future coaching candidates for NHL and AHL jobs. UND head coach Dave Hakstol was listed as the top college coach candidates by Custance. I mean, it makes sense to me.  I have always been a big advocate of coach Hakstol’s work and I think he’s a very good college hockey coach.
Naturally, UND Hockey beat writer Brad Schlossman posted a quote from the article on his media blog.  Why not? The head coach of the team you cover just made a major publication and he’s getting major props. Kind of blows up the Hakstol hater’s story line as well.
Almost on cue, the haters came out to post their displeasure and thoughts about coach Hakstol.  It’s funny how brave people become when they can hide behind the anonymity of a computer screen and a fake name. None of these people, would have the guts to say these things to Dave’s face.
Top college coach candidate
Dave Hakstol, North Dakota — He runs the powerhouse North Dakota college hockey program, one that continues to pump out NHL players such as Jonathan Toews, T.J. Oshie, Travis Zajac, Drew Stafford and Matt Greene.
“This guy is really intelligent,” said one NHL source. “I think he’s got a pro mind.”
Hakstol signed a six-year contract in 2012 that would keep him behind the bench in North Dakota through 2017-18 and said his focus is on sustaining his success there.
“I have a high level of respect for the guys who are able to produce successful and sustainable results at the NHL level. At some point in my career if I was able to earn an opportunity to work with a good organization, it would be a consideration,” Hakstol wrote in an email on Monday when asked whether he has NHL interest. “All that being said, I don’t spend much time thinking about hypotheticals. I feel like our entire staff has been around the game long enough to have a real appreciation for what we have here and has a commitment to producing that long-term success and sustainability at UND.”
So if you look at Coach Hakstol’s impressive resume, he’s lacking “one thing” an NCAA title. My question is; does this impressive resume deserve this much scrutiny, angst and antipathy? I don’t know, I don’t believe it does.
Years at UND: 9
235-119-37 (.648)
NCAA Appearances: 9
NCAA Frozen Four Appearances: 5
NCAA Championship Appearances: 1
WCHA Final Five Appearances: 9
WCHA Final Five Championships: 4
WCHA Final Five Championship Appearances: 5
WCHA MacNaughton Cup Championships: 2
I guess I don’t understand where the flames of discontent are coming from? The coaching staff at the University of North Dakota is second to none. All three coaches played hockey at UND. All three coaches have played professionally in the NHL, AHL or IHL, so they have the experience necessary to play at the next level. Dane Jackson (AHL) and Brad Berry (NHL) have coach in the professional ranks. Not a lot of Division I hockey programs can make that claim.
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