Matt Greene with the Cup

Former University of North Dakota defensman Matt Greene brought the Stanley Cup back to Grand Forks, ND. There was a lot of people on hand today to see the Stanley Cup today.

As you can see from the pictures, the Stanley Cup is a very large trophy. It was a classy move by the former Fighting Sioux defenseman to bring the cup to Grand Forks.

Former captain Matt Greene and a special friend chat with @UNDMHockey radio voice Tim Hennessy. pic.twitter.com/ZJTgm0mXcC
— North Dakota MHockey (@UNDMHockey) August 12, 2014

UND Advances to the Frozen Faceoff with Series Win

Grand Forks, ND – Coming into game three of their best-of-three series, the University of North Dakota Hockey team had no room for error. It’s was do-or-die, lose, and they most certainly would miss the NCAA tourney. There’s would be no second chances for the Green and White if they lost game three against the Colorado College Tigers.

After going 3-3-0 over the last three weekends, UND was once again a team sitting on the NCAA Tournament bubble.   With that in the back of their mind, the UND hockey team was exited to play under those terms.  They seemed to embrace it.

“I guess it’s exciting,” senior forward Derek Rodwell said. “It’s one of the games that you want to get up for and play. We knew everyone on this team was going to bring it tonight. Everything was on the line. We were going to put it down and play for each other. We did that tonight.”

Those sentiments were echoed by assistant captain Stephane Pattyn

“We were excited,” Pattyn said. “I think getting to the rink this morning we kind of wanted to keep it light. We didn’t want any nerves going out there. We knew just wanted to play our game and we did. We were excited and anxious to play.”

UND came out of the gates like a team possessed, they were relentless, they pushed the pace and took  a 3-1 lead to the locker room after one period of play.

In a surprise move, UND head coach Dave Hakstol reunited the Stephane Pattyn, Connor Gaarder and Derek Rodwell line and that move would pay immediate dividends. Combined, that line recorded five points in the first period (1g-4a—5pts).

This game would start differently than the previous two.  During the middle part of the first period, the Tigers started to push back and were buzzing the UND net.  UND goalie Zane Gothberg stood his ground, and came up big, making three big saves. And just like that – UND would clear the zone – take the puck down the ice and Troy Stecher would hammer home his second goal of the year. With the goal tonight, Stecher broke a 30-game drought.

The Tigers were only able to get one past Gothberg in the first period and UND would take a 3-1 lead into the first intermission. UND would outshoot C.C. 13-8.

In the second period, UND looked like they were trying to sit on the lead. Tigers forward Michael Morin would cut the lead to 3-2. The Tigers  would outshoot UND 12-9 in the second period.

In the third period the two teams would exchange goals and UND would hang on for the 4-3 win, sending them to the Frozen Faceoff next weekend in Minneapolis.

After the game, head coach Dave Hakstol was asked if the line change had anything to do with the game three rally.

“It has nothing to do with us changing the lines,” Hakstol said. “It’s just those guys making plays. I thought everybody played hard. We got contributions from a lot of guys. You can probably ask anybody on our team, nobody cares who scores. The key is that we scored enough to win tonight and everybody contributed.”

With the loss, the Colorado College Tigers end their season with a (7-24-6) record. UND improved to (22-12-3) on the season. More importantly, UND moved up to 13 in the Pairwise Rankings.

Interesting Statistics

UND will make the postseason conference tourney for a 12th season in a row.

UND has a 13-0-0 record this season when they score four or more goals. Also, UND is 17-1-0 when they have the lead after two periods of play. On the flip side, UND is 1-9-1 when they trail after two periods of play.

UND has killed 28 of 30 opponent power plays (93.3 percent) over the last nine games.

UND goalie, Zane Gothberg has allowed two or fewer goals in 16 of his last 19 starts. He allowed exactly 3 goals in each of the other three, all against Colorado College.

Tigers goalie Josh Thorimbert stopped 26-of-30 shots and wit the loss ends his season with a 7-23-3 record. UND goalie Zane Gothberg stopped 27-of-30 shots he faced and improved to 17-8-3 on the season.

(Box Score)

Related articles

• Colorado College Beats North Dakota in O.T. (insidehockey.com)

Video evidence that UND was on side for Rocco Grimaldi's goal

Rico Blasi was livid after Rocco Grimaldi's goal, apparently he thought the UND was offsides at the blueline. After reviewing the video, you can see it was a good goal.

Related articles

• UND pounds Miami 9-2 in Grand Forks (ndgoon.blogspot.com)

UNO's Ryan Walters predicts UNO Sweep against UND this weekend.

On our way to Grand Forks and Ralph Engelstad Arena to grab 6. Home of the Mavsssssssssss
— Ryan Walters (@ryan_wally17) February 6, 2014

Someone quick post this on the North Dakota hockey team's bulletin board in the locker room. I am sure that Blaiser is going to be happy that one of his players is posting this stuff on social media as well. Don't worry, I have a screen shot as well, so it will be there for all eternity.

(Video) UND 4 DU 2

UND took DU to the proverbial woodshed last night, and dominated DU. In my opinion, it wasn't even close. UND head coach Dave Hakstol talks about playing on their toes.  UND was on their toes all-game long and had DU on their heels for most of the night.  This was the best effort that I have seen from UND this season, bar none. Also, we have to give have to give UND goalie Clarke Saunders credit, he was simply amazing stopping 29-of-31 shots and the defenders in front of him were very good when they had to be. UND game into the game going 1-for-18 on the power play went 2-4 tonight. In the last 12 games against DU, UND is 9-3-1.

UND beats BSU 4-2

Grand Forks, ND – The University of North Dakota entered Saturday’s game riding an eight-game unbeaten streak and looked to push it to nine-games with a win.

Mission accomplished. With the 4-2 win, UND has now won 8-of-9 games and hasn’t given up more than three goals, during that time. UND has been very stingy on defense, giving up an average of 1.77 goals per game.

Goaltending has been good as well. Sophomore goalie Zane Gothberg has started all nine games during UND’s unbeaten streak. Gothberg has been nothing short of amazing, posting an 8-0-1 record, with an impressive 1.76 goals against average and a .923 save percentage.

During the streak, UND has received balanced scoring from their forward lines. Tonight, players not normally known for their scoring chipped in goals for UND.  On the score sheet, forwards Derek Rodwell (4), Connor Gaarder (3), Andrew Panzarella (1) and Michael Parks (6) all scored for UND.

One of  tonight’s highlights was junior forward Andrew Panzarella, who scored the first goal of his UND career.

It feels definitely good,” Panzarella said. “It’s a long time coming. So, I don’t know, it couldn’t have been any easier. I was just driving to the net and Mark (MacMillan) put in on my tape, I don’t think I even moved my stick.”

The Beavers head coach Tom Serratore seemed a bit disappointed with the loss, but took it in stride.

“We just couldn’t get into a rhythm,” Serratore said. “They had a lot of offensive zone play. That was tough because we were down after one. They definitely won the time of possession battle. We just couldn’t get into a rhythm.”

“I think the biggest thing at this time of year is that you want to try to get better every game,” Serratore said. “We got a tie last night and came in here optimistic. You want to come in this building – which is a very, very difficult building to play in, but you want to respond. I thought there were some bright spots, but at the end of the day, we lost.”

UND head coach Dave Hakstol seemed pleased with the win tonight.

“We got a couple that found a hole early,” Hakstol said. “I think that was important. We put a lot of pucks to the net and this time we had something to show for it.”

One of the reoccurring storylines has been the play of forward Derek Rodwell and his linemates. That effort hasn’t gone unnoticed by the UND head coach.

“Derek played extremely well and there was chemistry there,” Hakstol said. “And that’s not just been this weekend. Those guys have been very good together over the last couple of months. Rods is playing very well right now.”

The forward line of Stephane Pattyn, Connor Gaarder and Derek Rodwell has been miserable to play against. It’s also been their calling card. Tonight, their hard work was rewarded with a couple of goals.

“I think it’s kind of starting from baseline things,” Rodwell said. “We’re kind of going out there and doing the same thing every day, going hard to the net, working (hard). They’re starting to go in for us now. We know going to the net the bounces are going to come and they kind of been coming for us lately.”

Now for the good news, UND hasn’t lost in eight-games.  With the tie, UND is (11-7-3, 7-5-0 NCHC). On the other end of the ice, the tie leaves Bemidji State Beavers with a record of (7-11-7, 7-7-4 WCHA). The Beavers now have seven ties on the season

Next weekend, UND travels to Denver, Colorado to play the University of Denver in an important two-game conference series, game time is at 7:37 Mountain Time.

[Box Score]

Related articles

• UND Hockey: Adam Tambellini Leaves UND for the WHL (thehockeywriters.com)
• UND Hockey: Derek Rodwell Making an Impact for North Dakota (thehockeywriters.com)
• North Dakota Comes Back to Beat Colorado College (insidehockey.com)
• North Dakota Slips Past St. Lawrence (insidehockey.com)
• UND Beats C.C. in Grand Forks (insidehockey.com)

UND beats C.C. in Grand Forks 5-3

Grand Forks, ND – After a 27 day layoff, the University of North Dakota took the ice for an important two-game series against the Colorado College Tigers. After traveling to Burnaby, British Columbia, to play two exhibition games in the Great Northwest Show Case, UND was chomping at the bit to get back on home ice.

Tonight, the home team didn’t disappoint, as they jumped out to a 4-1 lead after two periods. The Tigers would push back in the third period, but UND would hang on to beat the pesky Tigers 5-3.

“We built a lead, which was something that we have been struggling with this year,” senior captain Dillon Simpson said. “Obviously, they had a good push back, they’re a good team. But it was nice to kind of respond and hung on.”

With the win tonight, UND earned an important three points in the NCHC standings. The win also improves UND’s record to (10-7-2, 6-5-0 NCHC) and  extends UND’s current winning streak to six games.  This is the longest winning streak for UND since March 2012, when UND won six games in a row.

After the game head coach Dave Hakstol seem pleased with his team’s effort.

“I thought we were ready to play from the onset,” Hakstol said. “Couple of soft areas of the game, I thought we got a little bit sleepy at the end of the first period. Little bit sleepy at the start of the third period. It was a pretty good team win.”

UND got balanced scoring from all four lines, as 11 players would record points on the score sheet. Junior forward Michael Parks had a strong game tonight chipping in (2g-0a—2pts). Dillon Simpson also chipped in (1g-1a—2pts) from the UND blue line.

After suffering a defection of freshman forward Adam Tambellini earlier in the week, another UND player made his return to the UND lineup. Suspended sophomore forward Bryn Chyzyk, who missed a month due to a team imposed suspension, made a big splash in his return to the lineup scoring a (1g-1a—2pts).

After the game, an emotional Bryn Chyzyk had this to say. “It was a really tough month,” Chyzyk said. “I just can’t say enough about the coaching staff, my teammates, and their support meant the absolute world for me and my family. When have something as cool as the Sioux Community taken away from you for a month, you realize how special it really is. I had some time to think about that.”

Coach downplays UND’s six-game winning streak

While UND fans are excited that UND is currently on a six-game winning streak. The head coach downplayed the streak.

It’s one win,” Hakstol said. “You look back to before Christmas and we had a good finish to the first half of the season. This is one win. I think that’s the mentality that our team needs to carry forward. It’s one night at a time. We turn the page this one is done.”

UND will turn the page immediately, and try to extend their winning streak to seven games, tomorrow night when they play game two of the series against the Tigers.  Game time is 7:07 p.m. Central Standard Time.

Points of interest

Sophomore defenseman Jordan Schmaltz is smoking hot right now and currently on a five-game point streak (0g-7a—7pts).

Junior forward Conner Gaarder has at least a point in five straight weekend series (2g-4-6pts).

Boston College and North Dakota currently have the longest winning streaks in the nation at 6-0-0.

According to the UND SID, In 11 NCHC games UND defenseman Dillon Simpson is tied for the NCHC lead in assists with 7, and leads all defensemen in scoring with 10 points.

The C.C. Tigers are winless on the road this season (0-9-1).

From the UND SID, with five points tonight, UND’s defensemen are averaging 2.74 points per game, second-best in the nation behind New Hampshire (2.83).

Related articles

• UND Hockey: Adam Tambellini Leaves UND for the WHL (thehockeywriters.com)
• UND Hockey: The Weekend Ahead (01/10 - 1/11) (insidehockey.com)
• North Dakota beats Northern Michigan (insidehockey.com)

Third period comeback propels North Dakota past Northern Michigan

The front entrance to Ralph Englested Arena in Grand Forks, ND. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Grand Forks, ND – Coming into tonight’s game, the University of North Dakota Hockey team had a 0-5-0 record when the opponent is leading after two periods of play. Make that 1-5-0, with the comeback 3-1 win.

One of themes this season has been the lack of discipline and taking untimely penalties.

Tonight, through two periods of play, the UND hockey team took too many undisciplined penalties. Fortunately for UND, Northern Michigan was able to only able to go one-for-four on the man advantage and the UND defense was able to limit the Wildcats to 14 shots on net.  After the first period, UND game the Wildcats nothing.

Tonight’s game was a good ole fashioned hard fought hockey game, and through 50:35 of hockey the Northern Michigan Wildcats held a 1-0 lead. UND would bear down and play disciplined hockey in the third period.

Finally, at the 10:35 mark of the third period, freshman defenseman Gage Ausmus gave the hometown crowd something to cheer about as he picked up the equalizer off a great pass from Michael Parks.

Gage Ausmus described the game tying goal, “I saw Parks coming down the wall and all five of their guys followed him, and I saw an opening on the back side. Parksy got it to me and I beared down and got the goal.”

Game on!

At the 14:12 mark of the third period, Rocco Grimaldi and Drake Caggiula would bring the crowd to their feet with a beautiful give-and-go goal and that was all UND would need.

Derek Rodwell would ice the game at the 19:25 mark of the third period with an empty-net goal.

“A real tight – hard fought game,” head coach Dave Hakstol said. “I thought the first ten-minutes was kind of like a jump ball. Nobody really wanted to take control of it. We weren’t sharp on the five-minute power play that put us back on our heels. And from there, it was little bit of a street fight through the rest of the game. That’s the best way I could describe it.”

UND also ends the first half on a positive note, with its first series sweep on home ice since January 4-5, 2013. UND (9-7-2, 5-5-0 NCHC) also ends the first half of the season on a five-game winning streak, and has now won back-to-back series. Since November 11, 2013, UND has a 7-3-1 record.

Do you sense where this is going?

“Personally that was my first time (stick salute),” Rocco Grimaldi said. “I wasn’t here for the one last year. I was overseas. It’s exciting feeling, especially our first this year. Obviously, we had kind of a rough start to the year. The last five games we put together a good streak. A couple of sweeps in a row, I think we’re heading in the right direction. So, it’s great for our team.“

UND is off until January 3-4, 2014, when they travel to travel to Burnaby, British Columbia to play in the Great West Showcase. UND will return to conference play on January 10-11, 2014, when they entertain Colorado college at the Ralph Engelstad Arena.

[Box Score]

Stats of Interest

UND goalie Zane Gothberg has a 1.60 GAA and a .938 save percentage during UND’s 5-game winning streak.

Northern Michigan’s 14 shots on goal were the fewest allowed by UND since giving up 14 in a 5-2 win at Bemidji State on Oct. 15, 2010.

Rocco Grimaldi has a five-game scoring streak and has scored  (2g-4a—6pts) during that time.

With the loss, Northern Michigan dropped to 6-10-2.

Related articles

• North Dakota beats Northern Michigan (insidehockey.com)
• UND Hockey: Dynamic Duo Bright Spot for UND (thehockeywriters.com)
• North Dakota Slips Past St. Lawrence (insidehockey.com)
• UND Hockey: Third Line Making an Impact (thehockeywriters.com)

North Dakota beats Northern Michigan 4-1

Grand Forks, ND – Historically, the University of North Dakota hockey team is known for being a second half team. After losing three games in a row, to start the month of November, the UND hockey team has gotten back on track and has gone 5-3-1, since the 3-game losing streak.

With the win tonight, UND has gone 6-3-1 in the last 10 games.

UND would get on the board first at the 04:10 mark of the first period with a goal from forward Mark McMillian. Picking up assists on UND’s first goal were defensemen Troy Stecher and Nick Mattson.

UND would outshoot Northern Michigan 10-5 in the opening period.

North Dakota would break open the game with two power play goals in the second period. UND forward Luke Johnson would score a power play goal at the 09:57 mark of the second period, giving UND a 2-0 lead. Drawing assists on Johnson’s power play goal, forward Rocco Grimaldi and defenseman Jordan Schmaltz.

“I just tried to get it on net,” Luke Johnson said. “I was just lucky that it went in”

UND would strike again, to stretch the lead to 3-0 at the 16:23 mark of the second period. This time, it was a power play goal from the caption Dillon Simpson.  Picking up assists were Rocco Grimaldi and Jordan Schmaltz, again.

Northern Michigan would outshoot UND 11-8 in the second period and trailed 3-0.

“I thought we had a good start,” freshman defenseman Paul LaDue said. “Second period got a little shaky at times. We buried our chances and we have to come out tomorrow with that same mentality.”

Northern Michigan would break the Zane Gothberg’s shutout bid at the 07:40 mark of the third period with a wraparound goal from Daren Nowick.

Northern Michigan appeared to have scored their second goal, on the power play, but the on-ice officials ruled that a Northern Michigan player visually impaired the goaltenders view in the crease. In essence, college hockey has the “Avery Rule” as well.

According to head coach Dave Hakstol, “(Player’s) foot was in the crease, taking away his vision. If he had been on the side of the crease and not in the goaltenders vision it would have been a good goal.”

UND would push the lead to 4-1 with a goal from by Paul LaDue. Assisting on the goal was forward Connor Gaarder. With the win, UND pushed its current winning streak to four games.

“I thought we got off to a good start,” head coach Dave Hakstol said. “We had a good first period. We had our ups and downs. I thought we played a pretty good hockey game.”

UND will go for the series sweep against Northern Michigan at 7:07 p.m. Central at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

[Box Score]

Stats of interest

With the win tonight, UND has a 7-0-1 record when leading after two period.

Tonight, UND went 2-for-4 on the power play. UND is ranked 21st nationally 17/81 (21.1)

Tonight, UND went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill. UND is ranked 18th nationally 74/88 (84.1).

Over the last four games, Zane Gothberg is 4-0-0, 1.75 GAA and has a .939 save percentage.

Over the last three games freshman forward Luke Johnson has scored (3g-2a—5pts).

With the win tonight, UND’s Non-conference record is now 3-2-2

UND football has hit rock bottom

Today's crowd. Smallest ever in alerus. pic.twitter.com/j6fWEhpefp
— Wayne Nelson (@waynenelsongf) November 9, 2013

I think we've hit rock bottom in Grand Forks, ND. In defense of the football team, it's a relatively nice day outside. Also, it's the deer hunting opener and a 2-7 and one win at home.

Related articles

• SCSU bites UND 3-2 (insidehockey.com)
• UND Hockey: Ryan Gropp backs out of his commitment to UND. (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• UND Hockey: Drake Caggiula Makes Speedy Recovery (thehockeywriters.com)
• North Dakota, Wisconsin to renew hockey rivalry (host.madison.com)
• UND and UVM Skate to a Tie (insidehockey.com)

UND Hockey: Team Returning to Grand Forks

Goodbye California. pic.twitter.com/A7jrRSzDPH
— Daniel Senkbeil (@D_Senkbeil) August 24, 2013

Heading back to forks
— Drake Caggiula (@drakecaggiula) August 23, 2013

Just crossed the border back into 'Murica, getting closer to another season of #siouxhockey see you soon forks! #cantwait
— Mark MacMillan (@EasyMac_16) August 24, 2013

En route to Forks for another year #squashmore pic.twitter.com/ZOMT6f4SXA
— Bryn Chyzyk (@chyz21) August 18, 2013

Helping move freshies in today and every single one of them over packed #sweatingbullets
— Dillon Simpson (@Simmer18) August 24, 2013

@raudino10 gonna miss you too bro!!
— Stephane Pattyn (@GeneralPattyn28) August 24, 2013

I love the atmosphere at und today baby #welcome
— Bryn Chyzyk (@chyz21) August 24, 2013

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• Good Bye to an old friend,Old REA Demolished on Monday (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
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• UND Football: Dexter Albrecht explains '30 Minutes or Less' (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• Saturday Pontifications: Let them eat Deep-Fried Twinkies on a Stick (hockeywilderness.com)

The Ralph 7/14/2013

Last one, Ralph Engelstad Arena RIP 1972-2001 demolished summer 2013. Gone but not forgotten. pic.twitter.com/4Gfv2CYqrt
— Eric J. Burton (@goon48) August 15, 2013

A sad deal but oh the memories! "@goon48: The old Ralph is coming down. pic.twitter.com/NWoi5r3gi2"
— TK (@tjksports) August 15, 2013

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Good Bye to an old friend,Old REA Demolished on Monday

Ready to come down. Bitter sweet moment. I can't wait for the IDPF, but I respect the history and tradition. pic.twitter.com/AdJku8PhfO
— Chris Mussman (@UNDMuss) July 27, 2013

As most of you know, the "old Ralph" comes down on Monday at 10:00 a.m. there is a nice article in today's Grand Forks Herald talking about the old barn. I came to Grand Forks, ND and attended UND in September of 1993 and saw many games in the Old Ralph.

It was a loud building, in the late 1990's when UND had returned to the top of college hockey world, during the Dean Blais years. One of my favorite games was against the Gophers on January 23, 1999 and UND was behind going into the third period and scored something like 4 or 5 goals to win 6-5 and complete the weekend sweep. That building was really loud. Feel free to share your favorite memories.

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Derek Forbort to sign with Kings soon

Source says Derek Forbort signing with Kings is imminent. Could happen as soon as today. Three-year deal.
— Schlossman (@SchlossmanGF) April 5, 2013

I don't think this is a big shock to any of us that follow the UND hockey team, first round draft choices don't usually stay more than two to three seasons. As Grand Forks Herald beat writer Brad Schlossman had said in a recent blog post, the Kings don't want to take the risk of losing their first round draft choice.


The Mass exodus continues in Minneapolis.

So far the Gophers have lost Alt, Bjugstad, Schmidt, Budish to the pros and Larson who is transferring out.… Haula is most likely next.
— GPL (@GopherPuckLive) April 5, 2013

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UND 2012-13 hockey season post-mortem

For UND hockey fans, the end of every season is always tough, especially for the last 13 years.  UND hockey fans don’t take losing well and UND hockey is a way of life, much like football is in Nebraska or Texas.

But I digress.

If you would have asked me how I thought this year would have ended, I would have said anything is possible including this ending.  Although, I was thinking that the Green and White’s season would have ended in a trip to Pittsburgh, PA culminating in their eighth NCAA title.

I thought this team had the “potential” to take it all the way to Pittsburgh, but in the last month, those expectations were quietly dampened as they had trouble getting sweeps against the likes of Bemidji State and Michigan Tech.

This year’s team was hard to put a finger on.  They never really clicked defensively or offensively.

The coaching staff was still messing around with line combinations up until the end of the season. Some of that was a result of UND’s incredible depth this season. There was also, for the most part, no major injuries so there were many combinations to play with.

Players that played poorly on the ice found themselves sitting in the stands the next game.

There never seemed to be a lot of great chemistry among the forward lines except for the top line and the energy line.

A great hockey mind told me earlier in the season; that if your team is still screwing around with the forward lines in late January, your season wasn’t going last very long. Hum…those words of wisdom, now proved to be very true. It’s not really rocket science per see, but it’ makes a lot of sense. Just seems like there was no continuity to this hockey team.

This year’s team never really had that killer instinct, they never seemed to have to have ability to put a team away and they had a propensity to let bad teams hang around longer than they should have.

That being said, this team wasn’t a bunch of talentless hacks either.

The 2012-13 version of the UND hockey team was still a pretty decent hockey team that at times looked like they could beat the best teams in the country and played one of the toughest schedules in the country.  They didn’t rack up 22 wins playing the weak sisters of the poor.

On the negative side of things, UND had two league sweeps all season long, UNO and MTU and both of these sweeps were on the road. UND swept one team at home, and that was nonconference foe Holy Cross.

The 2012-13 UND hockey team finished with a 22-13-7 record and also finished one win away from sharing the McNaughton Cup with Minnesota and Saint Cloud State.

Let this one sink in for you, this is the first time in 10 years that the UND hockey team isn’t going to go to the Frozen Four or win a Broadmoor Trophy or McNaughton Cup.  I didn’t even realize this until I read Brad Schlossman’s post game report in the Grand Forks Herald.

There are going to be those that will say that this UND hockey team didn’t meet expectations. There will be others that will say that this team lacked grit and heart.

Secondary scoring was an issue with this team and after Danny Kristo (26-g-26a—52pts), Corban Knight (16g-33a—49pts) and Rocco Grimaldi (13g-23a—36pts), there was a drop off of in scoring after the top line.

Next season, the junior class of Mark MacMillan (13g-12a—25pts) and Michael Parks (7g-1a—8pts) along with Roco Grimaldi are going to be expected to lead the way for UND.  Michael Parks was slowed this season by an injury and he never really seemed to regain his rhythm that he had from the previous season.

Fire Hakstol

As always, expectations are pretty high, especially when your team resides in Grand Forks, North Dakota, almost to a point of fanaticism. When the season ends prematurely without a NCAA title, some in the fan base begin to call for the coach’s head.

I can tell you right now that there is zero chance that head coach Dave Hakstol gets fired, he’s not going anywhere.  Not going to happen, first-off Hakstol just signed a long term deal and you would require a very big buy out.  If I had to guess, a buyout it’s in the $800,000.00 – $1,000,000.00, so no, coach Hakstol is going anywhere, unless someone is going to step forward to write the University of North Dakota a huge check and I don’t see that happening.  Nor am I suggesting that this should it happen.  The next quesition would be, who do you replace him with? Replacing him doesn’t mean the program succeeds either.

Lastly, Dave Hakstol is a very good hockey coach and has done a good job with the UND hockey program.  UND just won 20 plus games for the ninth year in a row and I think it’s just a matter of time before he leads UND to a national title. Then the naysayers will be running to catch up with the Hakstol bandwagon.

Cross-Posted at the Hockey Writers Combine.

UND vs. C.C. lines Final Five

UND Forward Lines

21 Brendan O’Donnell–10 Corban Knight (A) –7 Danny Kristo (A)
19 Rocco Grimaldi–27 Carter Rowney (A)–15 Michael Parks
25 Mitch MacMillan–16 Mark MacMillan–13 Connor Gaarder

Drake Caggiula 9–28 Stephane Pattyn–17 Colten St. Clair

UND Defensive Parings

2 Andrew MacWilliam (C)–18 Dillon Simpson
4 Derek Forbort–24 Jordan Schmaltz
5 Nick Mattson –20 Joe Gleason

UND goalies

33 Clarke Saunders

31 Zane Gothberg
35 Tate Maris

Not In the lineup: 11 Derek Rodwell , Andrew Panzarella (22), Dan Senkbeil (8), Coltyln Sanderson (26),  Bryn Chyzyk (29).

Colorado College’s Tigers forward lines

16 Alexander Krushelnyski–13 Rylan Schwartz (A)–17 Charlie Taft
12 Archie Skalbeck–25 Scott Winkler–27 William Rapuzzin (C) 
11 Hunter Fejes–10 Cody Bradley–15 Andrew Hamburg
22 Peter Maric–21 Jeff Collett–24 Jared Hanson

Colorado College Tigers defense pairings

6 Peter Stoykewych–28 Mike Boivin
5 Aaron Harstad–7 Eamonn McDermott
20 Ian Young–4 Joe Marciano

Colorado College Tiger goalies

31 Joe Howe
39 Josh Thorimbert
29 Courtney Lockwood

Referees: Don Adam, Timm Walsh Linesmen: Nick Bradshaw (94), Sam Shikowsky (81)

UND Hockey: Slugs out win against Tech

Grand Forks, ND –What a difference a year makes, a year ago it was near 65 degrees sunny and devoid of snow.

Fast forward to March 15, 2013, 10,571 fans braved  near white out conditions to attend  tonight’s game and outside it looked more like a January 15 game; than a game being played in the middle of March.

UND is 14-1-2 when scoring four or more goals this season. Make that 15-1-2 with the 5-3 win tonight.  What is even more impressive, UND has also won 14 straight WCHA playoff game with the win tonight.

That being said, it wasn’t UND best effort tonight.  The win didn’t come easy.

“It was a tough hockey game to find any flow,” UND head coach Dave Hakstol said. “We need to play better and return our focus to doing that tomorrow night.”

UND was outshot 43-24 by the upstart Huskies and they gave the UND forwards fits by getting in the shooting lanes and taking away UND’s time and space.

At the 12:30 mark of the first period UND defenseman Andrew MacWilliam was assessed a five minute major and a game misconduct for contact to the head of Michigan Tech forward David Johnstone.  After further review of the play, it was apparent that the on ice official Marco Hunt had made the wrong call.  Johnston suffered a broken collar bone on the hit.

The five minute major to MacWilliam threw UND off of their rhythm and it took a while for the Green and White to regain the upper hand. UND coach Dave Hakstol expounded on it a little more after the game.

Michael Parks
Eric Classen, UND Sports

“The five minute major knocked us back,” Hakstol said. “We survived it and recovered. I guess it was the story of the night. We hit a few bumps in the road, but we found a way to win.”

The Tech Huskies took the game to UND until the 15:45 mark of the middle frame when fourth line forward junior forward Derek Rodwell scored his second goal of the year unassisted.

“The Rodwell goal was a big one for us,” Hakstol said.  When the head coach was asked where that goal came from? Hakstol continued, “Derek does that really well. He took the puck wide, drove wide little bit. Pulled it to the middle and snapped it hard at the net. It was well out from, 40-feet out – he put it bar down – it was good timing to get his second (goal) of the year.

Junior forward Derek Rodwell had this to say about his goal. “It was a just kind of a broke play down the center-ice,” Rodwell said. “I saw a little bit room and tried to shoot through the screen, just happened to get a good bounce that happened to go in.”

Senior forward Danny Kristo had a monstrous night on the ice for UND tonight recording (2g-1a—3pts) pushing his season point total to (23g-25a—48pts) three points off of the national leaders Ryan Walters and Greg Carey.

Dillon Simpson
Eric Classen, UND Sports

Danny Kristo was there to answer bell every time the Tech Huskies would score to tighten the game up.  The Senior forward didn’t seemed all that pleased with his team’s effort tonight.

“Friday night is the biggest game of the series,” Kristo said. “I think that we played very average tonight, we didn’t do the things we need to do to keep playing this time of year, but we’re going to move on, and forget this one. We’ll take the win and get ready for tomorrow, it’s going to be tough to end a team’s season, because Tech is playing good hockey – proud of the win – but we got to be better tomorrow.”

Kristo is right, UND is going to have to be better if UND wants to end Tech’s season tomorrow night. Game 2 is set for tomorrow night at the Ralph Engelstad Arena at 7:07 p.m. central.

Cross-posted at the Hockey Writers Combine.