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 This is a post that I originally Posted at the Hockey Writers Combine, a site that I used to write for that's no longer active.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.

Saint Cloud sweeps North Dakota

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)

“People like to label us as a young team, but that’s not an excuse now, we’ve been here two months,” North Dakota defenseman Troy Stecher on being swept at home by the Saint Cloud State Huskies.

Let’s say that it wasn’t a good weekend of hockey for the University of North Dakota, as they were swept at home for the first time in almost four years (January 29-30, 2010, against the University of Denver). There’s no way to sugar coat it, Saturday’s 3-1 loss was downright ugly. UND was outshot 29-17 by the Huskies, and they generated little offense. There where times during the game were UND was flatfooted, standing around, watching the Huskies make plays.

Defensively, the Huskies were air tight, and it was tough for the UND to generate much of anything in the way of offense. The Huskies pushed the pace and they were very good in all three zones on the ice.

“We didn’t generate enough,” head coach Dave Hakstol said. “We didn’t make enough plays coming out of our zone, through the neutral zone, to give us that speed to have some opportunities off of the rush.”

When the Huskies defensemen didn’t block another UND shot, get in the passing lanes, or stifle another UND offensive opportunity, their goaltender Ryan Faragher was there to thwart them once again. It has been the story of his career against UND.

UND has had no success against SCSU’s junior goalie Ryan Faragher who has been nothing short of amazing at the Ralph Engelstad Arena, record 4-1-1, .957 save percentage and a 1.50 goals against average.

“Tonight, we were getting them on target,” Hakstol said. “I think they blocked some and Faragher made some good saves. When we did get some opportunities… opportunities were pretty hard to come by both directions.”

Junior assistant captain Steph Pattyn didn’t pull any punches when he talked to the media after the game.

“They have a good team,” Pattyn said.  “Very good team in that locker room…energy wise, maybe we were strong, but we weren’t doing the right things. We didn’t get very many pucks on net today. Didn’t get much traffic in front of him today, we have to get in front of his eye and we didn’t do that today.”

Not a lot of positives taken from the weekend

If you were a UND hockey fan, there wasn’t a lot of bright spots and positives to take away from this weekend. There is one bright spot, UND’s penalty kill, UND has killed off 28 of 29 opposition power plays. Also, UND has killed off 28 straight opposition power plays and that leads the nation. On the flip side UND’s power play has not been as good, but they did go 1/2 on the power play tonight and are now 5/27 (.187) for the season. UND has lost three games in a row and travel to Omaha, Nebraska next weekend to play the University of Nebraska Omaha Mavericks in an important two game series.

Related articles

• UND Hockey: The Weekend Ahead (11/01-10/02) (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• SCSU bites UND 3-2 (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• North Dakota, Minnesota to renew historic rivalry (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• North Dakota and Minnesota to resume historic series (hockeywilderness.com)
• SCSU bites UND 3-2 (insidehockey.com)
• St. Cloud St. beats North Dakota 3-1 (miamiherald.com)

SCSU bites UND 3-2

Grand Forks, ND – What a difference a week makes, for the University of North Dakota.

Last Saturday night, during a game against the U-18 team UND sophomore forward Drake Caggiula tried to jump over a U-18 player, the sophomore forward fell and landed on his head.  Caggiula was taken off of the ice on a stretcher and transported to Altru Hospital. At first, it didn’t look good and it appeared that the talented forward might be seriously injured and miss some time.

Fortunately, that ended up not being the case.

Fast forward to this weekend, Caggiula was in the lineup and laid out a Huskie forward with a huge check, on his first shift. He also scored a highlight-reel goal at 3:10 of the opening period.



UND would give up three goals in the third period to Kevin Gravel, Kalle Kossila and Andrew Prochno. UND never could get any closer than one goal back and ended up losing the game 3-2, in their first ever  NCHC home conference game to the Saint Cloud State University Huskies.

Even though UND lost the game, Caggiula seemed relieved that he was able to get back out on ice after last week’s game.

“Nice to be back,” Caggiula said.  “Missed the first day of practice this week, I really told trainers that I want to go aggressive with the rehab. To get me back out there in the best condition that I could be in, I felt pretty good being out there.  It’s pretty exciting; I was pretty scared last week. It was just a good feeling to get out on the ice.”

One person that didn’t seem “real” happy with the results of the game was head coach Dave Hakstol. This is what the head coach had to say about the game.

“I thought it was a good hockey game, back-and-forth with a few momentum swings,” UND coach Dave Hakstol said. “I thought we were back on our heels for five minutes. Credit them for that little push, but we look for that push to come out of our locker room at the start of the third period.”

After five games this season there is one area of concern, the power play. UND is 4/24 on the power play (.167). On the flip side of the equation, UND has gone 1/27 on the penalty kill. Actually, UND has killed 26 opponent power plays in a row.

With the win SCSU is 4-0-1 and 1-0 in NCHC play, with the loss, UND dropped to 2-2-1 overall and 1-2 in the NCHC. The same two teams play again tomorrow night at 7:07 p.m. central.

Drake Caggiula's goal

This is the goal by UND sophomore forward Drake Caggiula that gave UND a 1-0 lead. This was a dirty goal...

Fans, we're efforting to get the @drakecaggiula goal on @SportsCenter and @FOXSportsLive tonight. Keep your eyes peeled, fingers crossed.
— Jayson Hajdu (@UNDSID) November 2, 2013

Related articles

• UND Hockey: Drake Caggiula Makes Speedy Recovery (thehockeywriters.com)
• UND beats U-18 team, Drake Caggiula injured (insidehockey.com)

Through These Doors

Watch the all-new episode of #ThroughTheseDoors, “Refreshed” on YouTube! http://t.co/cBYFynElLc #NDProud
— North Dakota MHockey (@UNDMHockey) November 1, 2013

Another great episode of Through These Doors.

Related articles

• NCHC Hockey: UND's beats Miami in Inaugural Game (thehockeywriters.com)
• North Dakota, Minnesota to renew historic rivalry (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• NCHC Hockey: Dave Starman Shares His Thoughts On The Historic Weekend (thehockeywriters.com)

The Rivalry Returns, Game on in 2016-17 at the John

This is good news.

"GAME ON!" -- Wayne Campbell, Garth Algar in 1992. Also, Zach Parise and Keith Ballard, today: http://t.co/r5j74GVtl0
— North Dakota MHockey (@UNDMHockey) October 31, 2013

Related articles

• North Dakota, Minnesota to renew historic rivalry (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• Sunday Morning brings good news, Dralke Caggiula okay (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• UND, Minnesota To Renew Hockey Rivalry In 3 Years (minnesota.cbslocal.com)
• NCHC Hockey: UND's beats Miami in Inaugural Game (thehockeywriters.com)
• Wilderness Walk 10-31-2013: Halloween Edition (hockeywilderness.com)

More good news: Drake Caggiula Practicing

From the press conference today the update on sophomore forward Drake Caggiula.

“He practiced on a limited basis yesterday, head coach Dave Hakstol said. “He’s making great strides. So, we haven’t made any decision for the weekend yet. Those final decisions, I think will be another 48 hours away.”

Drake Caggiula is practicing on a limited basis. Questionable for the weekend.
— Schlossman (@SchlossmanGF) October 30, 2013

On tonight's UND Coaches Show, Coach Hakstol said Drake Caggiula practiced without limitation today and that "all signs are excellent."
— North Dakota MHockey (@UNDMHockey) October 31, 2013

Sunday Morning brings good news, Drake Caggiula okay

Happy to say I walked out of the hospital under my own power. Thanks for all the support from family, friends and fans. #siouxfamily
— Drake Caggiula (@drakecaggiula) October 27, 2013

Scary moments during last night's game and the injury really put a damper on the game. No one wants to see anyone carried off of the ice on a stretcher. We've seen it a few times in the last 10-years and it's something you never forget. After the game, you could tell that the players and head coach were definitely affected by what they saw on the ice. Good  news began to emerge from Danny Kristo's twitter feed during the later part of the third period.

Tough to here the news about @drakecaggiula going to the hospital after his hit. Happy to here after cat scan he is moving everything. Contd
— Danny Kristo (@dkristo7) October 27, 2013

Drake Caggiula has been released from hospital and all tests came back negative. Outstanding news. @UNDMHockey
— Jayson Hajdu (@UNDSID) October 27, 2013

UND downs U.S. Under-18 Team in exhibition http://t.co/U2kfYNxh8N
— North Dakota MHockey (@UNDMHockey) October 27, 2013

North Dakota's Caggiula OK After Scary Fall - http://t.co/OGet4RBoJR
— College Hockey News (@chnews) October 27, 2013

Caggiula has been released from the hospital. Everything came back negative. No fractures.
— Schlossman (@SchlossmanGF) October 27, 2013

Related articles

• UND beats U-18 team, Drake Caggiula injuried (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• NCHC Hockey: UND's beats Miami in Inaugural Game (thehockeywriters.com)
• NCHC Hockey: Dave Starman Shares His Thoughts On The Historic Weekend (thehockeywriters.com)

UND beats U-18 team, Drake Caggiula injured

This season, the University of North Dakota has four exhibition games on their 2013-14 schedule. These exhibition games give the coaching staff a chance to evaluate their players. Also, the coaching staff can use these exhibition games as an opportunity to try different line combinations and defensive pairing that you couldn’t normally try in a regular season game.  UND was able to play a few players that hadn’t played so far this season.

In tonight’s exhibition game, the University of North Dakota faced off against the US National U-18 team at the Ralph Englestad Arena.  

UND would beat the US National U-18 Team 4-1, but the win would come with a cost. Sophomore forward Drake Caggiula would suffer an apparent injury in the early minutes of the second period. Caggiula tried to jump over an U-18 player, fell and landed on his head.  Caggiula was taken off of the ice on a stretcher and taken to Altru Hospital.

After the game, fellow line mate Rocco Grimaldi was asked about the Caggiula injury.

“It was really tough,” Grimaldi said. “Actually, I was kind of tearing up for him. I have never seen anything like that in my life, so it was tough for all of us to see. Obviously, your thoughts and prayers are going out to him. Hoping he’s okay. Hoping he can get back and everything is going to be okay with him.”

After the game, the head coach Dave Hakstol had this to say about the Caggiula’s injury.

“It’s hard to see with any member of the team,” Hakstol said. “We’re happy to hear some good news and waiting, hopefully we will hear some more good news."

While the injury did take the life out of the building, there were a few positives.

After having a rough first two seasons, junior forward Brendan O’Donnell has gotten off to a fast start this season and scored (1g1a—2pts) tonight.  When asked about his quick start to the season, this is what he had to say.

“You try to build confidence every game,” O’Donnell said. "Every practice, every week, in college hockey, the thing is week to week is such a big difference, fresh start every week. I just try to build on what we have done and look forward to the future."

One difference for O’Donnell this season is that he’s finally healthy.

“Obviously, you never want to be injured,” O’Donnell said. “Its been nice to be healthy...”

After the game, head coach Dave Hakstol was very complimentary of Brendan O’Donnell’s play.

“He’s just maturing in every way,” Hasktol said. “You see that maturity come through. The confidence that he’s playing with, he’s worked hard to elevate his play. He’s a guy that was out of the lineup an awful lot in the middle of the season last year. Instead of stepping back, he stepped forward. He worked extremely hard to get himself back in the lineup, late in the second half of last year. He had an excellent summer, where he was focused on all of the right things. He’s carried that into winning a job on our left side.”

On evaluating his team play, Head Coach Dave Hakstol seemed pleased with his team’s effort.

“Real good second period,” Hakstol said. “Lot of positives there, up and down first and third period. We got to the third period it was matter of just kind running out the 20-minutes from our stand point. Certainly we will give them a lot of credit. They played a game last night. They played good hockey in the third period, which was their sixth period of hockey of the weekend. Lots of credit to the young guys over there.”

Now for the good news: According to UND SID Jayson Hajdu, forward Drake Caggiula has movement and feeling in his extremities, he underwent further testing. The tests came back negative and Caggiula was released from Altru hospital.

Related articles

• NCHC Hockey: North Dakota and Miami Split Inaugural Weekend (thehockeywriters.com)
• UND Completes Comeback Against Vermont (insidehockey.com)
• UND completes comeback against Vermont (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• UND and UVM Skate to a Tie (insidehockey.com)

Hockey, Hockey, Oy, Oy... Saturday Links

Saturday night is all right for some UND hockey between the University of North Dakota and the U-18 team at the Ralph.

#hockey NCHC Hockey: Dave Starman Shares His Thoughts On The Historic Weekend http://t.co/1mtPwZkq3r
— The Hockey Writers (@TheHockeyWriter) October 26, 2013

Time for the NHL to harshly penalize players that hit opponents in the head http://t.co/Y4BJ1SlDsP
— Hockey Wilderness (@hockeywildernes) October 26, 2013

NCAA Women’s Hockey Morning Skate: October 25th, 2013 http://t.co/Rnu9ZZl7o1 #hockey
— The Hockey Writers (@TheHockeyWriter) October 25, 2013

7 #NCHCHockey teams in action tonight with 6 playing non-conference foes and @UNDMHockey playing an exhibition. 3 teams play at 7pm ET
— The NCHC (@TheNCHC) October 26, 2013

Watch this week's North Dakota Hockey with Dave Hakstol as Mi... http://t.co/Uj5FOsW1DK
— North Dakota MHockey (@UNDMHockey) October 26, 2013

Check out the all new episode of #ThroughTheseDoors! http://t.co/hVfu6iCOfb
— Eric Classen (@eric_classen) October 25, 2013

NCHC Hockey: North Dakota versus Miami goals (Video)

Last night, the University of North Dakota won the first ever NCHC game against Miami University. Here's the video of the goals scored by UND and Miami.

Programming Note: When the games are on the CBSSN, NBCSN, Root Sports or NESN I will put videos up. As I mentioned before, I don't have *Midco Sports Network. So far this season, I will be able to put up highlight videos for 9 games we will see if anything changes in the future.

Here's the box score form last night's game.

*To my pathetic, moronic, stalker take a minute to inform yourself there is a Midco Sports Network.

Related articles

• UND Hockey: The Weekend Ahead (10/18-10/19) (insidehockey.com)
• NCHC Hockey: UND's beats Miami in Inaugural Game (thehockeywriters.com)
• Clash of the Titans: Miami Plays North Dakota for Weekend Set (thehockeywriters.com)
• NCHC Hockey: 10 Must Follow Twitter Accounts (thehockeywriters.com)

NCHC Kicks off the league play

This weekend, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference finally kicks off play.

Related articles

• NCHC Hockey: UND Hockey Players Love Shootout Option (thehockeywriters.com)
• NCHC Hockey: Top Stories Surrounding New League (thehockeywriters.com)

Edit: Weekend ahead against Miami

Miami University (Ohio) logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This weekend, the University of North Dakota plays Miami University in the first ever National Collegiate Hockey Conference game between the two teams on October 18-19, 2013 in Oxford, Ohio. All-time, UND is 2-0-1 against the Miami RedHawks, but the two teams haven’t played on the ice since November 11-28-2009, when UND and Miami skated to a wild 5-5 finish at the Ralph Engelstad Arena. 

Recently, UND head coach Dave Hakstol talked about the upcoming series with the Miami RedHawks. There’s a building excitement surrounding the new league and the match-up with the RedHawks.

“We will be starting off the NCHC in mid-October,” Hakstol said. “Out in Miami, that should be a heck of series. We’ll generate an instant rivalry (with them), in my opinion.

So, Miami is currently an unknown to the UND hockey team and their fans. Nobody on the 2013-14 UND hockey team, except senior goalie Clarke Saunders, has played against the Miami RedHawks.

This should be a good matchup, Miami and UND were picked to finished first and second in the NCHC Media Poll. According to UND head coach Dave Hakstol, UND is a balanced team, and this is one of the more balanced teams that UND has had in his 10 years as head coach.

“We got tremendous balance within our team’” Hakstol said. “That’s the one thing that we know, we don’t know a lot of specifics, but we do know that we have a tremendous amount of balance on our hockey team.”

UND Top Line

10 Adam Tambellini (1g-1a—2pts) – 9 Drake Caggiula (2g-2a—4pts)  – 19 Rocco Grimaldi (2g-3a—5pts)

UND Top Defense Pairing

Dillon Simpson (0g-0a—0pts) and Jordan Schmaltz (0g-1a—1pts)

UND Top Goalie

Zane Gothberg 1-0-1, 1.21 GAA, .0955 save percentage.

Prediction on the weekend

I predict that this series will end in a split. That’s my best guess. But, any result other than that won’t surprise me either. 

Related articles

• UND Completes Comeback Against Vermont (insidehockey.com)
• UND and UVM Skate to a Tie (insidehockey.com)
• NCHC Hockey: UND Hockey Players Love Shootout Option (thehockeywriters.com)
• UND Hockey: Dillon Simpson named Captain of the UND Hockey Team (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• UND Hockey: Age Not a Factor for Dillon Simpson (thehockeywriters.com)

NCAA Hockey: Mike Hastings perplexed by officiating

I can say that I don't blame the coach for being upset, and it could cause a head coach some concern when they're doing their non-schedules in the future. I wonder if the on-ice officials can strike a balance where they can protect the integrity of the game, by calling the right amount of penalties, as well as protecting the puck carrier. At the same time, not affect the flow of the game too much. No one comes to watch an official call a game.

I also agree that the refs have to cal the game tighter, but how tight? But the refs also need to find a happy medium. If the refs call 20-plus penalties in a game, it's going to affect the flow of the game and you're going to end up with games that are almost three hours long.

Puckato -- Last January, Cornell coach Mike Schafer blasted the WCHA referees after a 2-1 loss at Denver, calling their performance “disgusting” and ending his rant with, “I won’t come back to the WCHA.”

I have to say that this is an interesting and thought provoking read. On Saturday night, after losing 3-0 in a game that included a combined 25 penalties for 80 minutes, Minnesota State’s Mike Hastings had a message for Schafer (or to that night's refs).

“One thing, Mike Schaffer, I want to let you know, we’re even now,” he said, “because a team from out west came out here and … I saw you last year and it sounded like you got it pretty bad. And I’m going to tell you that I believe east and west are even now.”

Providence plays in Hockey East, not Cornell’s ECAC, but this was hardly the first time a coach has expressed frustration with the way the game is called conference to conference, region to region.

This past weekend, UND killed 15 of 16 Vermont power plays. That's a lot of penalties over the course of a weekend. Last night, during the post game press conference, UND head coach Dave Hakstol said that he agrees with the way the games were called last weekend.

“I am on board with the emphasis on the hooks; basically protecting the offensive player’s hands,” Hakstol said. “Allowing an offensive player on the wall to protect the puck without being held, those are the three that I think are significant and good steps for our game.”

The UND coach went on to explain that the players have to make adjustments to the way the refs are calling the game as well.

"Our guys made a conscientious effort to skate with guys and not use their stick on them," Hakstol said."It’s about creating angles and back-pressuring, instead of using your stick.”

If the refs keep calling the game this way, they will. make adjustments to the game is called. Also, it will be interesting to see how the WCHA calls their games this season.

Related articles

• UND and UVM Skate to a Tie (insidehockey.com)
• NCAA Hockey: Focus on Obstruction and Checking from Behind (hockeywilderness.com)

UND and UVM skate to a tie

Grand Forks, ND – The University of North Dakota hockey team came into the weekend concerned about their special teams. When the weekend was over, special teams appeared to be less of a concern for the UND coaching staff. The refs called the games very tight and this gave the UND’s special teams a work out. The Green and White held their ground and killed 15 of 16 Vermont power plays. They also scored three power play goals on 12 power play opportunities. UND head coach Dave Hakstol seemed pleased with the play of his special teams.

“Specialty teams are going to be a big part of it,” Hakstol said. “Especially the early part of the season, as all of this transitions to the new level of calls, smooths out. I thought out PK became more and more sound, as we went through the weekend. We were a little bit hit and miss yesterday, even though we did a good job and killed 10 out of 11 (penalties). I thought we were better and more in synch today.”

The UND coach seemed fine with the way the games were called this weekend.

“I am on board with the emphasis on the hooks; basically protecting the offensive player’s hands,” Hakstol said. “Allowing an offensive player on the wall to protect the puck without being held, those are the three that I think are significant and good steps for our game.”

Another emerging theme from the weekend was the play of sophomore forward Rocco Grimaldi. The dynamic forward had a great first weekend, scoring (2g–3a—5pts) in two games. Fellow linemate, sophomore forward Drake Caggiula, also had a good start to the season, scoring (2g-2a—4pts) on the weekend.

It was obvious from watching Adam Tambellini, Grimaldi and Caggiula play, that their line had chemistry and they had a good weekend playing together.  UND pressed hard at the end  of the game, but couldn’t get the game winner.

“I think we’re playing really well together,” Grimaldi said. “I think we’re reading off each other real well. Obviously with Tambo (Adam Tambellini) he’s doing a good job with both of us as well.  The three of us are playing good hockey together and making things happen. Tonight, we didn’t make as many things happen as we wanted to. Obviously, we needed one more to win this hockey game and I put a lot of blame on myself. I had a couple of chances that I could have hit the net and it didn’t go in.”

Fans get first look at the Shootout

The game would officially end in a 2-2 tie and the game would go to a shootout. Since it was a non-conference game the shootout was meaningless and didn’t count for anything. Actually, the biggest cheers in the game came during the shootout which the fans seemed to enjoy.  Grimaldi talked about the shootout at the end of the game.

“Today kind of stunk, because you know you were playing for nothing,” Grimaldi said. “I think it’s going to be good. Obviously, it’s another area of your game that you can work on. That can give you another point, that could either win you a championship, or possibly put you in an NCAA berth, or whatever.  So, that’s something that we’ll definitely be working on once or twice a week.”

UND kicks off league play October 18-19, 2013 when they travel to Oxford, Ohio to play Miami University in their first ever NCHC series.

Related articles

• UND Completes Comeback Against Vermont (insidehockey.com)
• NCHC Hockey: UND Hockey Players Love Shootout Option (thehockeywriters.com)
• NCHC Hockey: 10 Must Follow Twitter Accounts (thehockeywriters.com)
• UND Hockey: Age Not a Factor for Dillon Simpson (thehockeywriters.com)

UND completes comeback against Vermont

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)

This season, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference begins its inaugural season of play. We were told back in May, that the NCHC would be pioneering an innovative standard for their on-ice officials. So, fans wanted to know what that actually meant. Tonight, University of North Dakota and the University of Vermont Catamounts were whistled for 21 minor penalties.

That’s not a misprint. Seriously!

“I thought we created some of our problems with some penalties early,” head coach Dave Hakstol said. “I thought it lead to us wasting the first 10 minutes of each of the first and second periods. We found a way to battle back and win a game, so that’s a real positive.”

At first, it looked like it was going to be a rough night for the home team. Vermont had just taken a 3-1 lead on a goal by UVM freshman defenseman Rob Hamilton. UND head coach Dave Hakstol had seen enough and made the change in net. Hakstol replaced senior goalie Clarke Saunders with sophomore goalie Zane Gothberg. The rest is history. UND would rally by scoring four unanswered goals and would skate to a 5-3 win. After the game, head coach Dave Hakstol talked about his goaltending change.

“I thought he (Zane Gothberg) did a good job,” Hakstol said. “I thought he did his job in that situation. You have to have the door slammed at that point in time. If one more (goal) goes in, it’s pretty hard to dig your way out. Some nights you make a goaltending change, it’s a goaltending issue. Tonight, I felt like tonight was a team issue. I felt that third goal against was a little bit of evidence of that and we needed to get going a bit.”

And going they did, the Green and White were led by junior forward Mark MacMillan (1g-1a—2pts) and sophomore forwards Rocco Grimaldi (1g-3a—4pts) and Drake Caggiula (1g-1a—2pts). Rocco Grimaldi downplayed his quite four point night.

“Yeah I think it was too,” Grimaldi said. “Obviously, a couple of five on three points, those aren’t extremely noticeable. When you have a five on three you’re supposed to score, you have a big advantage. So, I just did what I could, to get this team a win. I tried to do everything I could for my line mates, kind of helped them out and pushed the pace. Obviously, we had a rough start a little bit and we came back kicking at the end. So, it’s a good two points for our team.”

With all of the penalties, the game lacked flow. UND would kill 10/11 Catamount power plays and would go 2/7 on the man advantage. That being said, the game lacked flow with all of the penalties and Mark MacMillan agreed with this assessment after the game.

“Obviously, there were a lot of penalties each way,” MacMillan said. “So, when there’s a lot of a special teams, it’s hard to get some flow to the game. Parts of the game we stared to get some flow into the game.  Started to get some five on five shifts going – couple of big shifts from some guys – started getting that flow going.”

It was evident that once UND slowed their march to the penalty box, they were able to take the game over and over power the Catamounts.

UND will go for the sweep tomorrow night as the same two teams face off at 7:07 p.m. at the Ralph Engelstad Arena.

Related articles

• NCHC Hockey: UND Hockey Players Love Shootout Option (thehockeywriters.com)
• UND Hockey: Two Headed Monster in Net for UND (thehockeywriters.com)
• UND Slips Past Manitoba (insidehockey.com)

UND SID Breaks down UND's TV Situation

For those that haven't seen this, @UNDSID explains UND's TV situation on Sioux Sports. This could answer some questions that you might have. 

I'm all for engaging in discussion on here if we can leave the name-calling (different post) and conspiracy theories out of it. The person I talked to was not affiliated with Midco, nor were they trying to "sell" UND's "media people" on anything. I merely asked in casual conversation, out of my own curiosity, about FTA and its prevalence in this day and age.

Believe me, the last thing I want to do is rehash the exact same discussion every month about the television situation. I would guess most of you feel the same way. No, it is not ideal in its current incarnation, but how many collegiate television situations are? It is an extremely fluid landscape but we are committed to making the best of it. Not just now, but going forward.

There are some on here (and elsewhere) who continue to presume that we as an athletics department -- the paid professionals whose job it is to operate in the best interests of our University and our student-athletes -- don't value maximum exposure. That we apparently are content to have fewer games on national television. That we aren't concerned with losing hockey viewers who previously watched us on FCS. This is utterly preposterous.

Over the past six years under Brian Faison:

§  A relationship has been established with FOX College Sports (available in more than 50 million homes) that has provided live national broadcasts of not just UND men's hockey, but also UND women's hockey, football, men's basketball, women's basketball and volleyball.

§  A partnership has been formed with Midco Sports Network that not only provides us with a regional broadcast stronghold, but ever-important financial stability. Further, as we begin just year two of that 5-year partnership, Midco has already addressed some of the biggest macro (high definition) and micro (penalty clock) issues that many fans have had with our broadcasts over the years.

§  Midco has also committed to produce and broadcast North Dakota Hockey with Dave Hakstol, the first men's hockey-specific show we've had in at least 20 years, if ever (my time here dates only to the mid-90s so I don't know if there was a Gino Gasparini show). This show, along with UND Sports Extra and UND Insider Weekly, provide us with no fewer than three weekly television shows.

§  Significant resources (financial and manpower) have been committed to widening and improving our online coverage. This ranges from live events (webcasts that include all men's hockey, women's hockey, football, men's basketball, women's basketball and volleyball home games, as well as select soccer, baseball and softball games) to original programming (Through These Doors, Opening Drive, etc.). This has also included the continued development of mobile apps, now and going forward.

§  The state and regional radio network has been significantly expanded.

§  If the exposure discussion goes beyond the traditional realm, our student-athletes have been featured prominently by Sports Illustrated, TSN, CBC, New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, ESPN the Magazine, Los Angeles Times and more. Truthfully, many of these opportunities simply fall into our lap. But quite often, we must aggressively pitch and pursue them. That is our job.

Yes, fewer men's hockey home games will be available on national TV this year. Unfortunately, that was the cost of business associated with forming a first-rate men's hockey conference. Do we as a department find the loss of those games ideal? Of course not, but that doesn't mean that we will stop trying to eventually reclaim that full national footprint. We are hopeful it will prove to be a shining example of one step backward to take two steps forward. As with anything, these things take time.

This athletics department is certainly never beyond reproach, and it is the fans who serve as our checks and balances. That is a good thing.

But I would hope that the bullet points above serve as evidence that this department is anything but ignorant when it comes to matters of exposure.

Related articles

• UND Hockey: Remembering the 'Old Ralph' Engelstad Arena (thehockeywriters.com)
• College Hockey: Tallying up the College Hockey Outdoor Games (thehockeywriters.com)
• NCHC Hockey: Top Stories Surrounding New League (thehockeywriters.com)
• New Hockey Conference NCHC Approves Use Of Shootouts (denver.cbslocal.com)

Sunday Evening Post: Interesting comment on Hakstol

I found this comment on Brad's blog tonight. I think it's an interesting comment, but it also brings up a topic for debate. Of course, there's nothing else to talk about right now, during the off-season.

Recently, back in June I was on 1310 with Jarrod Thomas and we were discussing Dave Hakstol's tenure at UND and how some are getting restless and with the head coach and how you see quips like this every once in a while on the various blogs around the internet.

As most of you know, I am a fan of Hak and I think that he's worth that they're paying him, but I do think It’s fair to question his salary. He’s a public figure.

In the last year or so, there seems to be more and more angst and antipathy popping on the internet message boards and blogs. Often I get comments on blog and I see a few on other places as well. Frankly, if UND didn't pay him, he'd get snatched up by someone else, top-flight coaches don't come cheap.

Related articles

• Calgary Flames Acquire Smilin' Corban Knight (thehockeywriters.com)