The Squirrel Told Me... (RW77)

NUTS!

Well, here's my OPINION:

The End of the Road

Well, our season is at an end.  We did pretty well for 2/3rds of the game before it came crashing down.  I wonder what was ailing Gothberg?  Sadly, I was unable to watch the game so I wonder if it is the D that let us down or goaltending or what?

I know, I know.  There is a silver lining to the loss:  The Haters will have something to do this offseason while the fans that support UND truly lick their wounds and pine about things that could've been.  So, I'll sum it all up.

We gave up a costly 3 on 1 goal.  We didn't clear the front of our net.  We broke down in areas.  We didn't pot our chances or capitolize on Yale's mistakes.  Sure, these infractions came down to simple factors but I'll sum it all up:  FIRE HAKSTOL.

You know that 3 on 1?  It wouldn't have happened if Blais was head coach.  In fact, we'd be the first team with double digit National Championships.  Hell... I don't know if we'd've spent a single season without the NC at the Ralph under Blais with the talent Hak has recruited.

You can't blame execution or bad play on the ice because they are just kids.  Yale is from the ECACHL, dang it!  Since when is it possible for ANY team out east to even be HALF decent?  No, Yale wasn't better than us on this one day (silly facts), it was all Hakstol.

So, yeah.  Fire him.  It'll be gratifying to watch Hak flounder in unemployment for all of 72 hours max.  But hey, at least we'll get Blais back....well, ok, at least that's what the UND fans in Colorado and Washington State are claiming in between bags of Doritos and through a fine blue smoky haze.

Reality Check

We lost.  It SUCKS.  The truth is, I thought last year's team or the year prior had the tools to go far.  This year seemed more of a transitional year.  We never had the consistency we've had in previous years.  I guess that falls partly on Hakstol.  I won't deny that Hak and Co. deserve some of the blame.  But I won't join the haters doing what they love to do.  I love my team and those who truly love their team don't ENDLESSLY bag on them and aren't stuck in the past.

We'll be back.  Gothberg will mature and he'll firmly take over.  Grimaldi will turn into a stud once he gains some consistency.  We will miss Kristo and Knight.  We'll miss the lockerroom presence of Tate.  Andrew MacWilliam?  Well...  I love his style, but... the heavy hitters are being drummed out of hockey so in the coming years UND won't have to worry about the penalties he brings to the table.  Joe?  He's a fan favorite so I won't say anything but what a stud.

I will always trust in Hakstol and always have faith in the knowledge that some day we will make it all the way and win it all.  And I will recognize that, until that happens, Hakstol will be hated upon unreasonably by all these "traditionalist" idiots who pervade fanbases nowadays.  Yeah, flame away.  I don't care.

I'm wrong.  Big whoop.  I'm an idiot.  Doesn't bother me.  I got you to read my opinion and some of you so revved up that you had to respond.  I win. 

Day two reflections from the WCHA Final Five

SAINT PAUL, Minnesota – After winning three consecutive Broadmoor Trophies in a row, UND saw their hopes of winning a fourth come crashing down when they lost in 4-3 overtime yesterday to the upstart Colorado College Tigers.

This isn’t how the UND hockey team had planned it, according to senior forward Danny Kristo.

“I have never felt like this before,” Kristo said. “Obviously we won the last three [Final Fives]. That was our goal coming in this year. Obviously, we wanted to four peat, or what not. You just go day-by-day. I thought we took about 20 minutes off there, between the second and third period and kind of got lulled to sleep, maybe we deserved to win the game, but we didn’t play to our potential, so at this time of the year you’re not going to win games. You can’t leave the game to a bounce of the puck.”

In college hockey, much like other sports, you have to have a short memory. UND Coach Dave Hakstol agreed, “Tough ending tonight, that’s our fate, we’ll regroup and get back to Grand Forks and work on our next project.”

No matter how you slice it, UND had a good season, however, UND is going to have to tighten it up defensively a little bit if they want to advance in the NCAA tourney. There have been times when UND’s been a bit shaky on defense, but most of their miscues appear to be ones that are easy to fix.

One area that I think they’re are lacking in; they need to have forwards that are going hard to the net and getting to the blue paint. More greasy goals and forwards getting to the greasy areas.

“We kind wanted to wear out their D; we found out that they weren’t the fastest, Tiger forwardRylan Schwartz said.

I found these comments by Tiger forward Rylan Schwartz to be interesting, but not shocking. The Tigers have given UND fits this season. UND has a record of 2-3 in five games against the Tigers this season.

Second half surge?

UND is a team that is traditionally known for its second half surges, this year has been a little different. This season, UND’s record before Christmas was 10-5-3 (.639) and so far, after Christmas UND’s record has been 11-7-4 (.590). UND has somewhere between 1-4 more games.

Badgers advance to the Championship game

Wisconsin wins 4-1, advances to the WCHA Final Five Championship game. What’s even more remarkable is that the Badger “were” averaging 2.55 goals per game coming into the tourney and have scored 11 goals in two games.

That’s not a typo.

In the last 10 games, the Badgers have scored 40 goals for an average of 4 goals per game. During the same time period, the Badgers have a 8-2-0 record.

Surging Badgers

After starting out the season 1-7-3 (.227), the Badgers have gone 20-5-4 (.758). That’s an impressive run in anyone’s book. The weird part is that it might not be enough for the Badgers to make the NCAA tourney. They might have to win the NCAA tourney to get in.

SCSU Huskies are not in the NCAA tourney yet

The SCSU Huskies are in dire straits and could end up missing the NCAA tourney, this goes back to their non-conference record. The Huskies are an NCAA bubble team and they don’t need there to be any more surprises this weekend in the other conference tourneys. The Huskies are going to be at home watching the results of the other conference tourneys that are taking place this weekend, and holding their breath.

When asked about his teams prospects for making the NCAA tourney, “Bubble Trouble, Saint Cloud State head coach Bob Motzko said.

Cross-posted at the Hockey Writers Combine

Tate Maris takes the ice

That was one of my favorite moments of the season, it was a classy move by the UND coaching staff, to give Tate Maris a few moments between the pipes, it was nice to see. The post game press conference was pretty cool as well. Last night on Twitter, the #TateMarisWatch picked up some serious momentum.

What was more impressive, coach Hakstol pulled Clarke Saunders, who at the time, had a 27 shot shutout going and put in Tate Maris, that to me was cool because, it showed a commitment to a team player and not just individual's numbers. The team worked hard to preserved the shutout and I thought Tate looked good in net.

UND Hockey makes the Final Five for a 11th year in a row with win over Tech

Seal of the University of North Dakota (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Grand Forks, ND – With the win tonight, the University of North Dakota (21-11-7) hockey team has made the WCHA Final Five in each of Dave Hakstol’s nine seasons.

What’s even more impressive with UND’s 6-0 win over Michigan Tech, UND has made the Final Five for the 11th-straight year in a row, that’s the longest current streak in the WCHA.

Since coach Hakstol took over the reins in 2004-05, the University of North Dakota hockey team has never lost a first round WCHA playoff series and currently holds 18-4 (.818) record.

Hakstol also holds an impressive 32-9 record in the WCHA playoff games.

After last night’s 2-1 loss to the Michigan Tech Huskies, that streak appeared to be in jeopardy.  In last night’s game, the Michigan Tech Huskies were a miserable team to play against; they clogged up the neutral zone up and gave North Dakota little time and space. Huskies also beat UND to the puck all night long.

Tonight was a different story, the Green and White left little doubt as they were the better team all night long and beat the Huskies to the puck all night long and the Huskies defenders had no answer for UND team speed as they entered the neutral zone with speed and when the Huskies got a chance on Clarke Saunders the UND defense was there to clear the puck.

In the end, UND blew out the Michigan Tech Huskies (13-20-4) and actually ended up pulling the  starting goalie Clarke Saunders with 4:02 left and inserted the backup goalie Tate Maris who’s a very popular third string goalie with his teammates and with the fans as well.

Think about this, Clarke Saunders had a 27 save shutout, when the ever popular Tate Maris entered the game to a standing ovation. That happened. It was a very classy move by the head coach Dave Hakstol.

“I thought the level of play was our most complete of the year, without a question,” Head coach Dave Hakstol said of his team’s 6-0 win over the Michigan Tech Huskies. “We played at a playoff level for three periods tonight and it started right from the drop of the puck.”

An emotional Tate Maris explained what it was like to finally get a taste of game action in the last home game of his college hockey career. “it’s kind of indescribable I guess,” Maris said. I don’t know. I guess I am kind of at a loss for words for it. It’s kind of four years pushed into one night in four minutes there at the end. Pretty surreal, to say the least, it’s just amazing to be out there with your fellow teammates. To be surrounded by those fans, it’s kind of indescribable, just amazing to say the least.”

According to senior forward Corban Knight, tonight was a statement game for the UND hockey team and the head coach challenged the team to be better for 60 minutes tonight.

“We set the bar pretty high tonight with the way we played,” senior forward Corban Knight said. “In order for us to be successful like you said, we need to keep that bar high and make sure we’re working hard to get to that every night, because we’re only going to be playing better teams from here on in.”

Up next for UND is Colorado College who beat DU 4-3. That game will be next Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. central time. UND and Colorado College split the season series 2-2.

Cross-posted at the Hockey Writers Combine.

UND Women’s Hockey; Lamoureux twins leave UND program in good hands

Eric Classen / UND Athletics

On February 27, 2011, with about just over four minutes left in the first overtime,  taking the puck from goaltender Fighting Sioux goalie Stephanie Ney,  sophomore forward Monique Lamouruex calmly starts the rush up ice, literally skating through the Beaver defenders like they were standing still. It was like a scene straight out of a Hollywood movie. There was a faked shot at the blue line; then the patented toe drag around two Bemidji State defenders, before Monique deposited the puck behind the Beaver’s all-world goalieZuzana Tomcikova.

Game over!!! The UND womens hockey team flew off of the bench and mobbed Monique.
With the 3-2 win in overtime, the UND women were heading to the Final Face-Off for the first time in their program’s short history.

Even though their season would end the next weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Ridder Arena with a 3-0 loss to Wisconsin Badgers, the UND women had made great progress that season.

Actually, the Women set seasons records in wins in each of the last three seasons; winning 20, 22 and 23 respectively.

Eric Classen / UND Athletics

It’s no mystery that during the last three seasons, Jocelyn and Monique Lamoureux have been the corner stones of the UND women’s hockey team, and this year’s senior class.

Both players have also been the face of UND head coach Brian Idahlski’s (91-102-21 UND, 198-122-32 career) team and where they’re trying to move the UND’s woman’s program.

The Lamoureux twins are world class players and 2010 Olympians Jocelyne Lamoureux (123g-154a—277pts) and Monique Lamoureux (108g-152a—260pts). Both players rank one and two and UND’s all-time scoring list. With each game, Jocelyne extends the all-time record at UND.

For the second year in a row, Jocelyne Lamoureux was named a top-10 finalist for the Patty Kaz award.

After a game earlier this season, UND woman’s head coach Brian Idalski said, “We talked about what our vision is here and being the pinnacle of woman’s hockey and making this our woman’s NHL.”

I do think coach Idalski is onto something. College hockey for women is basically their NHL outside of playing in international competition; there aren’t a lot of options for them. Women’s college hockey is stacked with world class athletes and Olympians.

Eric Classen / UND Athletics

That’s what’s been happening at UND, the Lamoureux twins have set a very high bar for future UND woman’s players that are starting to emerge at UND. Michelle Karvinen is an example of the type of player you will probably see in the future, world class talent that plays for their country during the winter Olympics and international competitions.

Freshman forward Meghan Dufault is one of the new up and coming stars for UND and this is what she had to say about playing for with the Lamouruex twins.

“It’s definitely an honor to play with them,” Dufault said. “You learn so much from them every day, just their mentality and their skills you can take everything from what they do in practice and try make yourself more like them and learn of them. It’s a really good experience playing with them.”

So as the Lamoureux twins’ time at UND comes to an end, a few of the younger players will take on bigger roles for UND in the future. One them is all-world junior forward Michelle Karvinen, who helped team Finland win the bronze medal at the 2011 IIHF World Championship. This is what Megan Dufauflt has this to say on playing with the crafty junior forward.

“I think Karvinen is awesome to play with,” Dufauflt said. “She’s such a dynamic player and obviously she was in the Olympics too, so she highly skilled and you learn so much from her as well, she’s just like playing with the twins [Lamoureux’s]. I think they’re all great players that bring so much to the team that everyone can build off.

North Dakota isn’t ready to send this year’s senior class off just yet. There is still work to be done. With the win against the Minnesota State Mavericks (24-11-0, 18-10-0 WCHA), UND will try for the sweep tomorrow night at 2:07 pm against the Mavericks at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

I don’t really know if people will fully appreciate what Jocelyne and Monique Lamoureux have brought to the UND woman’s team until after they’re gone, they have set the bar very high and have given young women role models that they can be proud of.

Players of this caliber don’t come along every day and it’s hard to quantify or put into words what they did for the UND women’s team. Maybe we can just appreciate the memories they left us with and be thankful that we had an opportunity to watch them play.

- See more at: http://insidehockey.com 

DU game 1: Time for RW77 to Ruffle Some Feathers

Western Collegiate Hockey Association logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It's time for me to ruffle some more feathers.  So, here's MY take on the game last night:

The Game Itself

I hate to say it, but the game was entertaining.  I hate to say it because my team lost.  Dave Hakstol said that the team's effort wasn't good and that it was sloppy.  I agree...for the most part.  For the first part of the first period, the first part of the second period, and the last part of the third period, however, I thought they played very very well.

The trouble with hockey games is that momentum RARELY stays pegged to one side for the entire game.  When the momentum shifted to DU's side, UND got really sloppy and some downright baffling things started to occur.

For example, Larazza's goal.  It deflected SOMEWHERE right?  It had to!  It changed direction.  Did it go off of a UND player?  Off of Ostrow's stick?  Who knows, but that hurt.

Zane Gothberg.... Oy.  I think I may have cursed him back after the UNO series.  He starts the game giving up 2 goals that weren't his fault and then suddenly he quits playing hockey.  It was seriously a Jekyl/Hyde moment.  How can someone who had been so solid positionally the last 4 games and so many minutes suddenly forget how to play the game?  I STILL believe Gothberg is a stellar talent, but his mindset still may not be there yet.

Another Jekyl/Hyde example?  Our Defense.  In the offensive zone, they were STELLAR last night.  In the defensive zone?  At times so unbelievably sloppy it's not funny.  DU's Powerplay looked like it should have been hitting at closer to 60% thanks to our inability to close off the center of the ice sheet.  They were cross ice passing at will.  They did a much better job for much of the game to force us to the outside.  We struggled at it at times.  On the 5th goal, Corbin Knight seemed to lose track of Nick Shore for a split second which allowed Shore to get a step on Knight so as to beat Knight to the rebound.  Costly.

O'Donnell's waved off goal:  McMillan was off sides by a good foot.  There is even question as to whether or not O'Donnell himself may have put himself off sides as well.  Imagine what would have happened though had O'Donnell had taken one more stride before winding up and shooting....

In the end, though, any team that gives up more than 3 goals in a victory can hardly be called dominant.  I would not put Okinuora as a player of the game.  

The officiating and stupid penalties

Yeah, I had to put this in here because it is expected.  However, in all things considered, I don't think the officiating was that bad.  It certainly didn't bring question to results of the game like some of our previous games.  And the officials kept control of the game, which is VITAL in a heated rivalry series such as this.

Goon didn't like my text about this last night but I have to say it:  Parks' penalty was one of the stupidest penalties in hockey.  The other would be too many men on the ice.  Why?  Because it's downright avoidable.  Sure, the goalie stick posed a tripping hazard and could clog up a small portion of the passing lane but that's how it is.  Okinuora would have been stickless on the penalty kill.  How advantageous for UND, right?  It ends up being turned into DU's fourth goal. That's frustrating to the Nth degree.  DU's powerplay is FAR FAR too good to say "No worries, our PK will take care of it."  They are the highest penalized team in the WCHA.  We should have allowed them to continue the
trend on their own.

The Media Coverage

I've already covered this but... could the NBC Sports commentators have been less prepared?  So many of our names were wrong, but that's besides the point.  It was 1 to 1 and they said there were 3 goals scored.  WHAT?  UND went up 2 to 1 and finally they were correct, but it didn't stop them in the first period.  UND was out penalized at one point 4 to 3 but it was evened up according to the NBC Sports casters.

Look, we get it.  UND and even DU is small fish compared to the horrible news coming out of the NHL:  Evgeni Malkin left with an injury!  To hell with college hockey!  We got to set up our cameras outside the Penguin's training room!

Tonight, the local network (Root?) has the game and so at least they'll care about the game even if it is biased to DU.


Doom and Gloom?

This marked the fourth loss in the last 18 games for UND.  There is now only 4 points separating first place and seventh place in the WCHA.  UND remains at #6 in the Pairwise.  So is it doom and gloom?

Losing to a rival is always doom-bringing, but it isn't as bad as it looks.  Tonight's important for only, really, two reasons:  1.  Home ice.  We could drop as low as 6th place if we get swept.  2.  Head to Head comparisons.  DU would win the head to head comparison with a victory tonight.  As it stands right now it is tied 1-1-1. 

If we get swept tonight we'll still be in line for the NCAAs.  We are STILL a dangerous team to play against.  And the last time we snuck into the NCAAs we did quite well. 

I hope we do get the Split tonight.  I think we are capable of doing it.

Related articles

• The Outdoor Games (RW77) (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• UND vs. Denver; College Hockey's Hatfield-McCoy feud (thehockeywriters.com)

The Weekend Ahead: (2/22-2/23)

Seal of the University of North Dakota (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This weekend, the University of North Dakota travels to Denver, Colorado to play the Denver Pioneers in an important two game WCHA series at Magness Arena February 22-23, 2013.

Matchup: North Dakota (16-8-6, 11-5-6 WCHA) #6 versus #10 Denver Pioneers (15-9-5, 10-7-5 WCHA).

Dates: February 22-23, 2013

Times: February 22: 9:10 p.m. (CT); February 23: 8:07 p.m. (CT)

Radio:  UND 96.1 (KQHT-FM) – The Fox.

TV Friday: NBC Sports Network, channel 220 DirecTV

TV Saturday: Root Sports, channel 683 DirecTV

Webcast: (NONE)

SERIES HISTORY: UND leads the All-time series 136-116-9 (.538). UND leads the series 81-42-6 (.651) in Grand Forks. UND trails the series 50-67-3 (.429) in Denver. Neutral sites, UND trails 5-7-0 (.417). In the last 10 games against DU, UND leads 7-2-1 (.750).

Players to Watch:

North Dakota: Forwards: Corbin Knight (13g-27a—40pts), Danny Kristo (18g-21a—39pts), Rocco Grimaldi (10g-14a—24pts), Mark MacMillan (9g-9a—18pts), Carter Rowney (6g-12a—18pts), Drake Caggiula (6g-6a—12pts).  Defense:  Dillon Simpson (2g-15a—17pts), Derek Forbort (4g-8a—12pts), Joe Gleason (4g-9a—13pts) Jordan Schmaltz (2g-7a—9pts) Andrew MacWilliam (1g-7a—8pts). Goaltenders: Clarke Saunders 10-5-4, 2.34 GAA, .914 save percentage, Zane Gothberg 6-3-2, 2.42 GAA, .918 save percentage.

Denver Pioneers: Nick Shore (11g-15a—26pts), Chris Knowlton (12g-12a—24pts), Shawn Ostrow (10g-10a—20pts), Daniel Doremus (8g-9a—17pts), Defense: Joey LaLeggia (10g-14a—24pts) David Makowski (6g-16a—22pts) Nolan Zajac (5g-16a—21pts). Goalies: Juho Olkinuora 9-3-5, 2.11 GAA, .935 save percentage, Adam Murray 2-1-0, 3.00 GAA, .902 save percentage, Sam Brittain 4-5-0 3.03 GAA, .902 save percentage.

UND Officials Web Page

Denver Pioneers Official Web Page

Cross posted at the Hockey Writers Combine... 

UND: what could have been

New Jersey Devils (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Now that the NHL is back in full swing, a few young players are starting to make their NHL debut with their clubs. Some of the names are kind of familiar. There are two that might stick out for North Dakota Hockey fans.

During the last two seasons, the University of North Dakota Hockey team had two highly coveted recruits (J.T. Miller and Stefan Matteau) decommit from the team and decide to go a different route.

Obviously, UND fans were a little miffed at these two young men for changing their mind and going a different route.

While I was disappointed at first, that neither of these two kids honored their commitment, I am not longer upset about it. Here’s why. Neither of these kids would’ve been here that long anyways, and in the long run it ended up working out for the best anyways.

In August, right before the 2011-12 season, J.T. Miller decommitted from UND, and signed a signed with the Plymouth Whalers of the Ontario Hockey League. Miller’s decommit put UND in a precarious situation. Without Miller, UND immediately became a different type of team.

Because Miller changed his mind at the last minute, UND wasn’t able to just go get another player of Miller’s skill set. Players like that aren’t just a dime a dozen.

In response to the last minute defection, UND picked up a walk-on recruit named Connor Gaarder from the Coulee region Chill of the NAHL.

In 61 games with the Plymouth Whalers, Miller scored (25g-37a—62) and after his season with the Whalers was over, Miller played in eight games during the Calder Cup playoffs for the Connecticut Whale of the AHL.

This past week, Miller was called up to the New York Rangers and scored during last night’s game against the New York Islanders. Miller scored the first two goals of his NHL career leading the Rangers to a 4-1 victory.

In retrospect, Miller would have been at UND for a single season, while losing him last summer was as setback and he would have been a great addition to UND’s depleted lineup. UND found a way to win without him.

Last January, USDT U18 recruit Stefan Matteau, who had originally committed to play at the University of North Dakota, decommitted from UND, and decided to play for the Blainville-Boisbraind Armada of theQuebec Major Junior Hockey League.

This was the second high profile player in as many years to decomitt from UND and go to the Canadian Hockey League.

Of course the UND fan base was upset. But UND nation was not alone; these defections have also happened to the University of Michigan and Miami University as well.

Matteau had a strong start to the season with the Armada (18g-10a—28pts) in 35 games and was invited to the New Jersey Devils camp once the NHL lockout was settled and has started the season.

Matteau ended up playing in the Devils first five games of the season before being a healthy scratch for the next four games in a row.

The New Jersey Devils could have sent Matteau back to Blainville-Boisbraind, but instead he remained with the New Jersey Devils and last night he was skating on a line with former Fighting Sioux forward Travis Zajac and Ilya Kovalchuk to start the game.

Looking back, I think it’s safe to say that Matteau is another player that wouldn’t have been here very long, in the end his decommitment to UND might not be such a bad thing.

During a recent UND hockey media day, I had a conversation with someone about the makeup of the current North Dakota hockey roster and how it could have looked if these two players had actually made it to North Dakota. It’s something to think about.

Cross Posted at the Hockey Writers Combine... 

North Dakota stomps Wisconsin 4-1

Grand Forks, ND – The Wisconsin Badgers came into tonight’s game smoking hot, the Badgers had one loss (Miami) since November 24, 2012. During that same time frame, the Badgers had an impressive record of 10-1-4 (.800).

Coming into the game, North Dakota was a team going the other direction. The Green and White hadn’t won in five games (0-2-3), and they were looking for their first win since January 12, 2012.

Historically, North Dakota is known for their impressive second half records after the first of the year.  So far during the second half of this season, UND’s record is a mediocre 3-3-2.

With the win tonight, that streak would improve to 4-3-3. Also, with the win, UND was also able to stop a five game winless streak (0-2-3).

Tonight, North Dakota wasted no time getting on the board as freshman forward Rocco Grimaldi drew a penalty 30 second into the game.

UND would cash in on the power-play with a goal from Mark MacMillan 15 seconds later. That was MacMillan’s ninth goal of the season.  Assisting on MacMillan’s goal was Rocco Grimaldi and Jordan Schmaltz.

Twelve minutes later, North Dakota would push the lead to 2-0 with another power-play goal by Joe Gleason. Drawing the assists on Gleason’s goal were Danny Kristo and Corban Knight.  With the assist, Kristo scored his 144^th point of his career tying him with former fighting Sioux forward Jay Panzer, Jim Archibald and Jeff McLean.

After the game, UND Head coach Dave Hakstol talked about the importance of getting those two power play goals early in the game.

“I thought the first power play goal was key,” Hakstol said. “The second one was nice to get at as well. But bigger than that for me was the penalty kill that we had right back-to-back with our first power play goal.”

UND would push the score to 4-0, with two even strength goals, eight minutes apart from Sophomore Michael Parks.

After the game, Michael Parks’ line mate Carter Rowney, who assisted on both of Park’s goals, was excited to see him bury a few goals.

“I was really excited for Parks to get a couple few goals tonight,” Rowney said.  “Since we have been playing with each other we’ve been a little snake bitten. We’ve had our opportunities, but it wasn’t coming, but I think we tried to stick with it and tried to stay loose around the net. It was lucky enough to come in today.”

One Michael Parks’ goals came on a wraparound goal. This is what the sophomore forward had to say about his highlight goal.

“Oh finally,” Parks said. “A bit of a relief I think if anything – good play by Rowney – put it off the pad and it was really easy with the goalie being on the other side of the net.”

UW would great the shutout with a goal from Wisconsin junior forward Mark Zengerle at the 13:30 mark of the third period.

That was all of the scoring the rest of the way.

UND was strong defensively all weekend long, as the UND back end only give up two goals all weekend long. UND has only give up

“I would give us defensively, I would give us a B-plus,” Hakstol said. “I thought we were pretty responsible. Last night we created some of our own problems. On two or three occasions in a tight game like that, two or three opportunities against is a big deal. I thought we did little things well. I thought it was a weekend where we blocked shots well, which is something that we have been working to be better at. I liked that area of our game. I liked our over-all commitment to the defensive side“

Cross Posted at the Hockey Writers - Combine... 

UND: The Weekend Ahead (2/1-2/2)

This weekend, the University of North Dakota entertains the University of Wisconsin Badgers in a crucial two game WCHA series at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

Matchup: North Dakota (13-8-5, 8-5-5 WCHA) #7 versus #19 Wisconsin (11-8-5, 8-5-5 WCHA).

Dates: February 1-2, 2013

Times: February 1: 7:37p.m. (CT); February 2: 7:07 p.m. (CT)

Radio:  UND 96.1 (KQHT-FM) – The Fox.

TV: Midco Sports Network, FOX College Sports Central, DirecTV

Webcast: UNDSports.com

SERIES HISTORY: All-Time: UND trails the Wisconsin Badgers 64-86-11 (.432)
In Grand Forks, UND trails the Badgers 32-36-8 (.474), In Madison, UND trails 27-46-3 (.375), At Neutral sites, UND leads the series 5-4-0 (.556). UND holds a 4-5-1 (.450) in the last 10 games and a 4-2 record the last six games (.666) against the Wisconsin Badgers.
UND is 7-3-4 in the last 15 games it’s played at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

Players to Watch:

North Dakota: Forwards: Danny Kristo (15g-18a—33pts), Rocco Grimaldi (9g-11a—20pts), Mark MacMillan (8g-9a—17pts), Corbin Knight (12g-23a—35pts), Carter Rowney (6g-8a—14pts), Drake Caggiula (6g-6a—12pts). Defense:  Dillon Simpson (2g-12a—14pts), Derek Forbort (4g-8a—12pts), Joe Gleason (3g-8a—11pts) Jordan Schmaltz (1g-6a—7pts) Andrew MacWilliam (1g-5a—6pts). Goaltenders: Clarke Saunders 10-5-4, 2.34 GAA, .914 save percentage, Zane Gothberg 3-3-1, 3.11 GAA, .897 save percentage.

Wisconsin Badgers: Forwards: Michael Mersch (15g-6a—21pts), Derek Lee (3g-16a—19pts), Tyler Barnes (6g-7a—21pts), Joseph Labate (4g-6a—10pts), Nic Kerdiles (3g-7a—10pts), Defense:  Jake McCabe (2g-8a—10pts) John Ramage (4g-3a—7pts). Goalies: Landon Peterson 5—2-2, 1.83 GAA, .934 save percentage, Joel Rumpel 6-6-3, 1.85 GAA, .930 save percentage.

UND Official Web Page

Wisconsin Official Web Page

Cross Posted at the Hockey Writers - Combine...

Monday Afternoon pontifications

My impression on the weekend … On Friday, UND came out flat against a very good team and they got beat, there is no other way to sugar coat this.  I don’t think that anybody in UND’s locker room was happy with the results. Neither were the fans.

After the game the head coach was physically upset and didn’t say much in the postgame press conference. You can see his comments here if you haven’t seen them yet.

I think on Saturday that the guys in green and white did a very good job flushing Friday’s subpar effort and they were the better of the two teams on the ice all game long. North Dakota doubled up the Huskies in shots, but they were still unable to get anything past Ryan Faragher, who was rock solid all weekend long.

On Saturday night after the game, I told Mick Hatten beat writer from the Saint Cloud Times that I think SCSU is one of the better teams that I have seen in person this season. I truly believe that, the Huskies are pretty solid defensively and through the forward lines. They Huskies also have a good fore check and generate a lot of opportunities off of their opponent’s turnovers.

Perusing the messages boards and twitter, I see fans post that say that that losing to SCSU is unacceptable and that the Huskies are not a very good hockey team. Personally, I think those comments are short sighted, and I am going to disagree with that opinion. The Huskies are the first team since the 2008 season to sweep the Denver Pioneers in a weekend series.

While I don’t like watching UND lose to the Huskies, I do think we need to give credit where credit is due, the Huskies are not a bunch of talentless hacks and will be a force at the end of the season, baring injuries to key players.

 If UND doesn’t play the Huskies again this season, I won’t be disappointed.

While this isn’t earth shattering news, I do think that SCSU is probably going to win the WCHA this year, unless they have a total collapse, and baring a bunch of serious injuries. I am also admit, that it pains me to say that.  At the beginning of the season, I had UND winning the league in the Blogger Poll run by A Tradition of Excellence.

Saint Cloud State is a very good hockey team and if you don’t come and play well against them, they will bury you. You can’t take a shift off against a good team like the Huskies. During the game on Friday, UND took all but six minutes off.

The Huskies also have a pretty good freshman class that has paid dividends on the ice for the Huskies.

On the freshman that stuck out last weekend was freshman forward Jonny Brodzinski. The Huskies rookie Brodzinski scored (2g-1a—3pts) on the weekend and was the difference in Friday’s game. SCSU head coach Bob Motzko thinks very highly of his young forward and even compared him to former Sioux power forward Matt Frattin.

What is really interesting is that Brodzinski scored (11g-13a—24pts) in 64 games with the Fargo Force last year now is now tied for third with UND  forward  Rocco Grimaldi (9g-11a—20pts) for 20^th overall in WCHA rookie scoring for all games with (11g-9a—20pts).

Fire Hakstol!!!

I have seen a few people that are dissatisfied with the status of the UND coaching staff. Last season, people were unhappy with Carey Eades, and wanted Brad Berry Back. Now that assistant coach Brad barry is back, I see fans that want coach Eades back.

I do get the anger, no one in the UND fan base likes seeing what transpired over the past two weekends,  but that’s hockey, even the Boston Bruins that won the Stanley Cup, had a short period where they lost  a couple of untimely games and had losing streaks.

Even the 2010-11 team, that went to the Frozen Four, and finished third over-all had a rough stretch where they lost three out of four games during the month of October. The Fighting Sioux also went 5-3 during the month of January as well during the 2010-11 season.

I also think that we need to put thing in perspective. UND isn’t going to fire Dave Hakstol, that’s a fact.  Last spring, coach Hakstol signed an extension for six years and he currently has five years left on his deal.

I will also, predict that UND isn’t going to buy coach Hakstol out at $300,000.00 a year. Honestly, I can’t imagine that UND has 1.5 million dollars just laying around to buy him out. Let’s just say that UND fired him, who would they replace him with. That would also set the program back 2-4 seasons; they would also lose a fair number of the recruits that are already committed to UND.  

Like it or not, Hakstol isn’t going anywhere, I can assure you that.

Personally, I am a fan of Dave Hakstol and I think that sooner rather than later UND is going to win another title. Just a gut feeling.

UND scratches out tie again Huskies

Seal of the University of North Dakota (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Grand Forks, ND – Last night, the University of North Dakota came out flat and stood around and watched the Saint Cloud State University Huskies make plays and were on the short end of a 3-1 game. Through two periods of hockey they had an unimpressive 8 shots on net.

Tonight, it was a different game as UND would outshoot the Huskies 36-18, but they were still only able to garner a single point in the standing with a 2-2 tie.

After last night’s game, North Dakota head coach Dave Hakstol was not pleased with his teams play, and he let it be known in his post game comments.

“We didn’t play very well tonight,” Hakstol said. “We got our tails kicked in our own building.

Tonight, while his team played better, the head coach still didn’t seem all that pleased with the end results.

“Disappointed to come out of the weekend with one point,” Hakstol said. “Yet in terms of our team, and our team play, the performance and effort that we put out tonight, I think we feel good about that. But to come with one point it’s hard to feel good about anything.”

After last night’s game, you had to figure that there would be changes to the lineup, and there was.

Tonight, the North Dakota hockey team came out with more energy and were able to put 15 shot net, and take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission with goals by senior forwards Danny Kristo and Corban Knight.

UND would relinquish that lead at the 01:59 mark of the second period with a goal by Husky senior forward Ben Hanowski on the delayed penaly. That goal was Hanowski’s 11th of the year for the senior forward from Little Falls, MN. UND would again out-shoot the Huskies during the second period 9-4.

That would be all of the scoring for the rest of the evening as neither team was able to dent the twine again. UND would get the better of the opportunities, but they were unable to put the puck past sophomore goalie Ryan Faragher who was tough in net all weekend long.

The Huskies head coach Bob Motzko seemed pleased with his team’s effort this weekend

“We will be pleased,” Motzko said. They came out hard tonight, and fought like mad. We made some critical mistakes early, and they capitalized on them. Bad penalties again, which is uncharacteristic, and we let the heat of the moment get to us again. But then Ben Hanowski there’s one of our captains taking over again. Got the first one – got the second one – it was all determination to start the second period there. Then we lost for about six minutes and then I thought we hunkered down. Our goalie had to make a couple of big saves. Their guy had to make a couple [saves]. We got the one off of the pipe from Brodzinski there. It was just a classic WCHA battles.”

While a tie is better than a loss in the WCHA standings, it would appear that the tie left a bad taste in the mouths of the UND players. A subdued senior forward Danny Kristo shared his feeling after the games.

“Definitely stings,” Kristo said. “I thought we deserved a better outcome. I thought we outplayed them for all three periods. That’s just the way it goes sometimes.”

Senior forward Corban Knight seemed to echo Kristo’s sentiments.

“Right now, it’s still pretty fresh,” Knight said. Obviously we left a point out there on a Saturday night at home – important game – I don’t think anyone is satisfied in that room right now. So, it’s defiantly something that is frustrating right now.”

While the tie leaves UND 3-3-2 in eight games to start the year, the team still controls its own destiny. Because of the strength of their schedule, and who they have left on the schedule these types of games will prepare UND for the playoffs.

UND head coach Dave Hakstol expounded on that fact.

“The reality of this stretch is we play good team’s week in and week out,” Hakstol said. “Our schedule is very difficult. That’s going to make us better. That’s going to stress us, and its going make going to make points harder to come by, but it’s going to make us better. We became a better team this weekend, but we didn’t walk away with the number of points that we wanted.”

Next weekend, UND plays another good team that is coming into Ralph Engelstad Arena having won seven of the last eight games, and 10-1-2 in their last 13 games.

Cross posted at the Hockey Writers - Combine...

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