Jutting to the Red Mavericks - it appears so

According to Shane Frederick beat writer for the Minnesota State University Mankato Mavericks – the rumors are true – former Maverick’s head coach Troy Jutting is indeed heading to Nebraska Omaha to be an assistant coach with the UNO Mavericks under Dean Blais.

Shane Frederick (@puckato) After communicating with a couple of sources, it looks like Jutting to Omaha is indeed happening.

Apparently, UNO Mavericks fans are not a fan of the move and have voiced their displeasure with the personnel move by head coach Dean Blais.

I have always been on record as saying that I think that Dean Blais is a great hockey mind and if he wants to hire Troy Jutting to be his assistant hockey coach, I am personally not going to question it. I am sure that Troy knows a lot of about hockey and has been in the business a long time.

Granted, there are going to be college hockey fans that aren’t crazy with the idea. Also, I have always thought that Jutting was a good coach as well – I mean really – he didn’t have a lot to work with while he was the head coach in Mankato. It was easy for the fans to throw Jutting under the bus.

During his 12 seasons as head coach at MSU-M, Troy Jutting had a record of 184-224-55 (.463) coaching the Mavericks. Jutting was also an assistant coach for 10 seasons at Mankato as well.

Blais not ready to retire just yet...

Sounds like Dean Blais’ comments that he made at the UND booster’s luncheon, when the UNO Mavericks were here back in December, migh have sent up a big red warning flag to the fans back in Omaha, NE.

Blais who spoke at the UND luncheon during the UND vs. UNO series, was asked how long he was going to be the coach of the UNO Mavericks. Blais said that he had three years left on his contract w/UNO.

Apparently, some where along the line,  some people interpreted Dean Blais as saying that he only going to coach three more seasons at UNO and then retire from coaching. This is according to the Omaha World Herald Newspaper.

Blais isn't going anywhere. Not anytime soon.

That's my take. Blais won't be pinned down to anything. But he disputed a report out of Grand Forks, N.D., last month that he had told a North Dakota booster crowd that he likely would retire when his UNO contract ends in three years.

"That was at the booster luncheon," Blais said. "The guy says, 'how many years do you have on your contract, and are you going to retire?' I said I have three years. And that's when they said I'll retire."

So you're not going to retire at the end of your contract?

"Hell, I might retire next year if we don't win," Blais said with a laugh.

So you could go past three years?

"Oh, yeah," Blais said. "I'm 60. I know one thing. I won't be 70 and coaching in this business. It's too tough. [Tom Shatel,WORLD-HERALD]

I wasn’t there at the luncheon, I read the comments in a newspaper article or a blog post, so this “could” be a written off as misunderstanding. I guess you never know with Dean Blais, he is kind of a Maverick and dances to the beat of a different drummer and sometimes there is a little thing called coach speak as well. So who knows?

UNO's Alex Hudson Kicked Off the Mavericks

The UNO Mavericks have kicked Alex Hudson off of the team for his second violation of team rules. As most UND Fighting Sioux fans know, head coach Dean Blais will not pull any punches and if there is a star player screwing up and not abiding by the rules he will not hesitate to suspend them and or kick them off the team. Coach Blais once sat former Fighting Sioux forward Jason Blake for a game when he was in the running for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award.

OMAHA, Neb. — Nebraska-Omaha coach Dean Blais has dismissed senior forward Alex Hudson from the team for his second violation of team rules this season.

UNO did not say what the incident was, and said in a statement that it would have "no further comment on the matter."

Hudson, 24, started the season as the captain, but had that stripped for a first violation of team rules. The 6-foot native of Corona, Calif., missed four games at the start of the season because of the resultant team-imposed suspension. Since his return, he had 4 goals and 10 points in 16 games.

In his four years with the Mavericks, Hudson had 37 goals and 82 points, with a career-high 31 points last season. His best goal-scoring year was his sophomore season when he had 14.

Shot charts from Fridays game between UNO and UND

If you don’t believe me take a look at Mavericks hulk Tony Turgeon who is listed at 6’4” and 232 pounds. But Turgeon isn’t the only one that is big on the Mavericks blue line; in fact the Mavericks only had one guy in their line up last night on the blue line that wasn’t 200 pounds. Kyle Ensign is 6’0” and 189.

Also, looking at the shot charts you will see that both goalies played pretty well and stopped many grade “A” opportunities inside the slot. I also think that this team is very close to putting all of the pieces together. The freshman line of Parks, MacMillan and Brendan O'Donnell is very close to breaking out.

As I mentioned earlier, there was a lot of physical play in last night's game and both teams lined up at the blue line making it more difficult to get across the blue line. Last night I couldn’t believe my eyes, when I saw a team led by Dean Blais use “neutral zone trap.” In the past Blais’ teams have been known for playing a wide open style of hockey, some have deemed it race horse hockey.

Related articles

• Mavericks tip Sioux 2-1 in Overtime (insidehockey.com)
• WCHA Power Rankings - December 5 (insidehockey.com)
• WCHA Power Rankings - November 28 (insidehockey.com)
• UND and UNO Series Preview (insidehockey.com)

Some highlights from Saturday's UNO and BSU game

I found this video over on the BSU hockey beat writers blog. Play by play by Scott Williams and Eric Monsrud from Lakeland Public Television. I think it's only fitting that UNO who won a game against UND with no time left on the clock got scored on with no time left in the second period against the BSU Beavers. Here is some highlights from last Saturday's game between the BSU Beavers and UNO Mavericks.

UNO 1 Sioux 0

This is the goal in question from tonight's game, if you look at the puck carrier bringing the puck across the line his feet are over the blue line before the puck. The correct call in my opinion should be offsides. MattC over on Sioux sports has a still shot of the play. [Click to view the picture]

I am no sure I can be upset with this game, just the way the puck bounces sometimes. What can you do? The Fighting Sioux were all over UNO for 59 minutes and let their guard down for one minute, and they lost the game. Hockey is a team game, you can win a hockey game if the forwards don't put the puck in the net, the Fighting Sioux had many grade "A" chances in the slot and didn't seal the deal, that's not acceptable either.

The goalie gave the Sioux a chance to win the game, forwards have to put the pucks in the net and defensemen have to pick up the forwards with the puck slot. Other than that I think UND has played well during the first half of the season and they have played the toughest schedule to date in college hockey. The Fighting Sioux has a very favorable schedule down the stretch.

Sioux 6 UNO 5

If you had a heart condition you might not want to watch tomorrow night’s game. Tonight’s game was up and down the ice, classic race horse hockey. Personally, I would much rather watch a game like this than a trap feast any day.

As far as the Sioux goaltending goes, I don’t know what happened to junior goalie Brad Eidsness over the summer but he appears to have a serious confidence problem right now, at times it looks like he can't stop a beach ball. I would say that Brad Eidsness would probably like to have the first goal, second goal and third goals back, because those weren't good goals and an Brad Eidsness on his game would have probably would have saved two out of three of those shots. The fourth Maverick goal was a case of the trailing forward picking up the loose change with the defender all over him, it's crashing the net. What do you do? I suppose the goaltender could control the rebound better; I don't know it looks easier from the couch than it does on the ice.

I am sure that Aaron Dell would like to have the fifth Maverick goal back as well as it went through the five hole but it didn't cost the Sioux the game because Dell came up big during the third period.

Road Warriors

The Sioux have won three straight games on the road. The Sioux have a 5-2-1 record on the road and a 2-2 record at home. Of those five wins on the road the Sioux have given up 2 or less goals. During the two losses on the road the Sioux have given four or more goals. This is only the fourth time that UND had given up four or more goals and they have a 1-2-1 record in those games.

Goon's three stars of the game
1.) Matt Frattin 2-1-3
2.) Chay Genoway 1-1-2
3.) Derek Forbort 0-2-2


[Official Box Score]
Period 1
UNO 0 - 1 Rich Purslow Eric Olimb / Joey Martin 02:37 EV
UNO 0 - 2 Joey Martin Matt White / Michael Young 14:43 EV
Period 2
UND 1 - 2 Matt Frattin Evan Trupp / Chay Genoway 01:38 SH
UND 2 - 2 Jake Marto Evan Trupp / Matt Frattin 06:50 EV
UNO 2 - 3 Brock Montpetit 11:24 EV
UND 3 - 3 Mike Cichy Brad Malone / Derek Forbort 17:18 PP
UNO 3 - 4 Terry Broadhurst Alex Hudson / Eric Olimb 18:32 EV
Period 3
UND 4 - 4 Matt Frattin Derek Forbort 07:10 EV
UND 5 - 4 Chay Genoway Brad Malone 13:52 EV
UND 6 - 4 Danny Kristo Derek Rodwell / Brad Malone 14:26 EV
UNO 6 - 5 Alex Hudson Terry Broadhurst / Matt Ambroz 16:56 EV

UND and UNO lines (MacWilliam back tonight)

The lines have been posted for the gameby Brad. First it looks like no additional discipline for Hextall and or Joe Gleason. Brad Eidsness is back in net for the Sioux. Sophomore defenseman Andrew MacWilliam is back after missing 4 games with a illness that was believed to be mono.

Sioux lines

17 Jason Gregoire (4g-6a-10pts)10 Corban Knight (7g-6a-13pts) 26 Brett Hextall (2g-4a-6pts)
11 Derek Rodwell(3g–0a-3pts) 22 Brad Malone(2g-3a-5tps) 7 Danny Kristo (0g-3a-3pts)
19 Evan Trupp (3g-6a-9pts)29 Brock Nelson (1g-3a-4pts) 21 Matt Frattin (10g-2a-12pts)
8 Mike Cichy (1g-1a-2pts)9 Mario Lamoureux (0g-3a-3pts) 20 Joe Gleason (0g-0a-0pts)

Defense

24 Ben Blood (1-0-1) 5 Chay Genoway (1g-8a-9pts)
3 Derrick LaPoint (0g-3a-3pts) 25 Jake Marto (1g-1a-2pts)
2 Andrew MacWilliam (0g-0a-0tps) 4 Derek Forbort (0g-5a-5tps)

Goalies

Brad Eidsness
32 Aaron Dell
[Sioux Stats]

Omaha’s lines

9 Rich Purslow(4g-10a-14pts)14 Joey Martin (2g-9a-11pts) 21 Matt White (6g-5a-11pts)
17 Terry Broad Hurst(4g-7a-11pts)26 Alex Hudson (4g-7a-11pts) 27 Matt Ambroz (7g-4a-11pts)
19 Ryan Walters (4g-3a-7pts)12 Brock Montpetit (2g-4a-6pts)13Zahn Raubenheimer (4g-3a-7pts)
16 Johnnie Searfoss (4g-1a-5pts) 20 Brandon Richardson(0g-1a-1pts)–25 Brent Gwidt (1g-2a-3pts)

Defense

6 Pasko Skarica (0g-3a-3pts) 3 Andrej Sustr (1g-4a-5pts)
7 Mike Young (0-g3a-3pts) 23 Eric Olimbn 0g-8a-8pts)
2 Matt Smith (0g-1a-2pts) 24 Bryce Aneloski (1g-4a-5pts)

Goalies

30 John Faulkner
34 Mike Taffe
35 Fredrik Bergman
[Mavericks' Stats]

A couple of things.

This weekends Fighting Sioux hockey games are not FCS/FSSN. The only way you will be able to watch the games is to purchase the web cast from B2tv.com. [Click link to purchase]

For the life of me I can’t understand why these games can't be picked up by FSSN? All they would have to do is broadcast the B2 broadcast over the FSSN. That being said, not all is lost though, just log on to the link provided above and you can hook up an s-video cord from computer to your TV. During October, I watched the Maine Black Bears slaughter/debacle game that way and it worked out pretty well.

Blais not going to Minnesota

Those who like to speculate that Dean Blais is going to be the next coach of the Golden Rodents when Lucia gets fired, you might want to re-think that assessment. Brad Schlossman had this little nugget in his Wednesday update.

Blais again said he plans to coach at Omaha for five years. Then, he said he wants to retire and spend more time with his grandchildren.

“I pretty much have had the best college job in the country already,” he said.

What about an NCC Cup?

With the talk of the Big Ten Hockey Conference I thought I would add some satire of my own. Since there are now five former members of the now defunct North Central Conference in the WCHA, I think these five WCHA teams (UMD, SCSU, UND, UNO and Mankato)should have a NCC cup like the now defunctDQ Cup.

Maybe we can poach/pursue a team like BSU and start our own hockey league that would be known as the NCC hockey league. Probably not, however, maybe when the almighty BTHC comes into fruition we could divide the WCHA into two division we could have the NCC schools together in one division and the other schools in another division. It would look like this...

NCC Division

UMD
UND
MSUM
UNO
SCSU

Others

C.C.
DU
UAA
MTU
BSU

UNO Mavericks sport all freshman line.

This weekend when the Fighting Sioux play the University Nebraska Omaha Mavericks the Sioux will have to contend with the UNO Mavericks all freshman line of Ryan Walters (4g-3a-7pts), Brock Montpetit (2g-4a-6pts)and Zahn Raubenheimer (4g-3a-7pts). Examining the numbers they are pretty good numbers for an all freshman line.

Chad Purcell World-Herald Staff Writer --- Dean Blais is pretty sure that UNO boasts the best all-freshman line in college hockey.

That's because Blais likes to joke that he's the only coach crazy enough to keep three freshman forwards together game after game.

All self-deprecation aside, the decision to put rookies Ryan Walters, Brock Montpetit and Zahn Raubenheimer on the same line is making Blais look crazy like a fox.

Heading into a key WCHA series against eighth-ranked North Dakota, the University of Nebraska at Omaha has climbed to No. 4, the highest ranking in school history. The Mavs are off to a program-best 8-1-1 overall start. At 5-0-1 in its new league, UNO remains the only WCHA team without a conference loss.

Without question, UNO's hard-nosed rookie trio has played a big part in the squad's early success. From the time Walters, Montpetit and Raubenheimer began working together, they displayed a knack for cycling the puck in the corners and wearing down opposing forwards along the boards.

Lately, their mission to pester and tire out the other team has been accompanied by an offensive explosion. The Walters-Montpetit-Raubenheimer combination has buried six goals in UNO's past four games, helping the Mavs sweep Minnesota State-Mankato and take three of four points from St. Cloud State.

The forward line of Terry Broad Hurst(4g-7a-11pts), Alex Hudson (4g-7a-11pts) and Matt Ambroz (7g-4a-11pts)is impressive as well.From reading the box scores it appears that this line has been in tact for the last four games so I think it would be safe to assume that the Sioux will see this combination again this weekend. This was one of the lines that ran roughshod over the Gophers in their first WCHA series. I was impressed with their speed in all three zones of the ice.

Moving forward; Fighting Sioux vs Mavericks

This weekend’s WCHA series will feature the once beaten University of Omaha Nebraska Mavericks aka “The Red Cows” versus the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux. This match up will be special to Sioux fans because it will be former Fighting Sioux head hockey coach Dean Blais’ first match up against his former team.

Sioux fans will probably always have strong feeling of affection for Dean Blais because of what he accomplished while he was the head coach at UND. Dean Blais led the Fighting Sioux to five MacNaughton Cups, two Broadmoor Trophys, two (2X) national titles in 1997 and 2000 and a runners up finish in 2001 before moving on to coach in the NHL after the 2004 season.

Can I quote you on that one?

Blais is also famous for interesting quotes and zingers. One of Blais’ more famous quotes was, ‘if a players isn’t playing well, he will be sitting on the bench next to the coach or in the stands in a suit.’ Last week Blais made this comment after he was asked by the Omaha media if the Mavericks were adjusting to the teams in the WCHA?

World-Herald --- On Saturday night, following No. 6 UNO’s wild 4-4 tie at St. Cloud State, Blais was asked whether the game was an example of his Mavs learning and adjusting to life in the WCHA.

Blais agreed, then broke out a sly smile.

“These other teams,” he said, “they’re going to have to learn and adjust to us, too.”

I think no matter how the four games go between the Fighting Sioux and the University of Omaha Mavericks, Sioux fans will have found memories and an affection for Dean Blais, because he was one of us.

Chad PurcellWorld-Herald Staff Writer --- Blais knows that UND's coaches, players and fans will want to sweep this series, too. But there's an interesting dynamic that still exists between Blais and those who live and die for Sioux hockey. And that's not likely to change, even if the Mavs enjoy big success this weekend.

“He's a major, major celebrity up there,” said Nick Fohr, UNO's director of hockey operations who grew up in Grand Forks rooting for UND. “Sioux hockey is just as big up there as Husker football is down here, and Dean is obviously a very big part of that program.”

Virg Foss can verify that fact.

Foss, a columnist for the Grand Forks Herald, formerly served as the newspaper's UND hockey beat writer. He covered the program for 35 seasons, longer than any other WCHA writer, including all 19 years of Blais' tenure.

“I think Dean will always have a warm place in everybody's heart here in North Dakota,” Foss said.

Blais grew up along the Canadian border in International Falls, Minn., and he played college hockey at the University of Minnesota. But his hockey identity in large part is defined by what he did at North Dakota.

He worked as an assistant under former UND coach Gino Gasparini in the 1980s. During that nine-year stint, Blais was one of the key recruiters and tacticians as the Sioux went 239-130-11 and won NCAA titles in 1982 and 1987.

Controversial icing rule shelved

I keep seeing various newspaper articles and blog posts that state, "NCAA coaches were unanimously opposed to the icing proposal." Fair enough Karr let’s put a name and a face to the coaches that are in favor of this ridiculous rule. I think that Forrest Karr was embarrassed and is looking to save some face. The 35-0 from three conferences (AHA, CCHA, WCHA) looks pretty unanimous to me and I have yet to see anyone quoted from the coaching ranks that’s in favor of this moronic rule. It’s time to put up or shut up, who are the coachs in favor of this icing rule.

College hockey coaches kept throwing punches, and the NCAA rules committee finally tapped out.

The NCAA announced Thursday that a proposed rules change, one that would forbid college hockey teams from legally icing the puck while shorthanded, has been pulled off the table.

The rules committee instead will allow for further experimentation with the change during exhibition games in 2010-11 and 2011-12.

If adopted, the rule would have altered a critical and long-standing tactic in killing penalties, and it could have made it almost impossible for shorthanded teams to change lines.

When the proposed change was moved forward in June, coaches across the country bashed the amendment. The University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Dean Blais, as well as most of his colleagues in the WCHA, came out strongly against the proposal.

Forrest Karr, outgoing chair of the rules committee and athletic director at the University of Alaska, said in a statement that the committee valued the feedback it received from coaches.

“Responses indicate that, while several coaches like the concept, there are concerns about the potential for unintended consequences,” Karr said in the release.

Karr has strongly refuted the assertion that NCAA coaches were unanimously opposed to the icing proposal.

But coaches certainly were not shy about going on the record with their outrage over the idea. WCHA coaches had voted 12-0 against the proposal when it was discussed during the league’s annual meetings in April.

“It’s ridiculous,” Blais told The World-Herald on June 25. “What more do you want? You’re already on the power play, but then the other team gets the puck — what are they supposed to do with it? It sounds like whoever was involved with that rule and pushed it through, I don’t think they understand the game very well.” [Mavericks Today]

Blais not impressed with new icing rule

If you haven't seen this yet, former UND and current UNO Maverick coach Dean Blais is spot on when asked about the proposed icing rule where the penalized team can't ice the puck during the penalty kill.

Among changes moved forward by the NCAA Ice Hockey Rules Committee is an amendment to the way officials enforce icing. The proposal calls for icing to be whistled, and play stopped, whenever a team dumps the puck the length of the ice out of its own zone — even when that team is on a penalty kill. If adopted, the rule would alter a critical tactic in killing penalties, and it could make it almost impossible for short-handed teams to change lines.

The idea aims to increase the time that a team on the power play spends in its opponent’s zone. That would likely lead to more scoring, which is a strong point of emphasis in most hockey rule changes. It’s also anticipated that the amendment might dissuade teams from taking penalties in the first place — thus cutting down on the obstruction infractions that prevent even-strength scoring chances.

At some levels, hockey already has flirted with this change. There are even rumblings that the NHL might eventually adopt the rule.

But Blais says the idea simply doesn’t merit a place in the NCAA rule book, and he can’t imagine the radical icing rule ever sticking in the NHL.

“It’s ridiculous,” Blais said. “What more do you want? You’re already on the power play, but then the other team gets the puck — what are they supposed to do with it? It sounds like whoever was involved with that rule and pushed it through, I don’t think they understand the game very well.”

Before it takes effect, the proposal would have to be approved by the NCAA’s Playing Rules Oversight Panel in July.

Blais doesn’t believe the icing change will pass that final test, and there have been reports indicating that the rules committee is considering removing the item before it goes up for final approval.

The outcry among coaches has been loud and clear, and many of them have raised concerns about player safety. With penalty killing being such a physically demanding part of the game, many fear that the icing ban would put tired skaters at greater risk when they can’t dump the puck and make a line change on the fly.

Here’s hoping Blais is right and the change never comes about.
[Mavericks today]