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October 5, 2004

WCHA pre-season conference call

Jim Dahl

I had the pleasure of sitting in on the WCHA pre-season conference call. Here are the highlights of official changes to the WCHA and comments from Coach Hakstol. Everything here should be construed as a summary of my interpretation of statements; it certainly contains no direct quotes and is quite likely to contain factual errors.

Official changes

• Video replay will be in trial use at Denver and Colorado College. It will follow NCAA standards (Ice Hockey Rules -- Appendix C) except that only referees can request a review, not coaches.
• All games, including those that aren't televised, will have four official timeouts per period. Each will be 30 seconds in length and will be called as near the 16:00, 12:00, 8:00, and 4:00 marks as possible. Official timeouts will not be called during power plays or overtime.
• Game start times have been shifted from 7:05/7:35 to 7:07/7:37
• The WCHA will be enforcing the NCAA mandated crackdown on obstruction. Though such claims may have been made in the past and then quickly forgotten, the WCHA is committed to carrying this enforcement all the way through to April. In particular, holding along the boards will not be tolerated at all. Hooking, interference, and obstruction will also be penalized more aggressively. This will make college hockey the great skating game it used to be.
• The WCHA is in the process of setting standard criteria for the use of in-arena replay facilities. There will be restrictions on replay for fans of controversial plays such as disputed goals.

Dave Hakstol - UND Head Coach

Opening comments

The team has good conditioning and really good depth. A lot of scoring power returns with 7 returners who had 10+ goals last season. Coach Hakstol expects more scoring from the depth of the team than the Sioux have had in previous years.

The first month of NCAA play for the Sioux will be very challenging. Maine was the national champ runner-up and are really hard to play at home; they lost only one game there last season. UND then begins WCHA play at Mankato, always a tough place for UND to play. Minnesota comes to REA, then the Sioux travel East again to play Boston College and Northeastern. We'll know a lot about this team after the first month.

Q&A

Q. Who's playing on a line with Murray now?
A. Right now it's Chris Porter and Rastislav Spirko, but that will even be changing this week.

Q. I was hoping that question would reveal who you thought the most promising freshmen are. Do any other freshmen have an opportunity to step up?
A. A benefit of the exhibition game was being able to see the possible line combinations. Drew Stafford and Travis Zajac played well together so Zajac could step up and add to offense right away. Rory McMahon and Rylan Kaip also had good chemistry.

Q. Dean Blais had reputation for being intimidating and being very intense. How will you be different?
A. Not only was Dean one of the most successful coaches ever, he was also a great person. He was a great family man. I hope I picked up some of that in both those roles. I don't expect the intensity of our team to change, I think UND will still be an intense team that opponents will always expect to play tough each week.

Q. Are you the type to put your hand through the wall if the game doesn't go right?
A. I don't think those tactics are effective in this day and age. From time a time a good wakeup call can be effective but our team is pretty veteran so should have good leadership from the captains and seniors. I don't think that will be a necessity too often.

Q. Going into Maine, is it interesting to hit a quality opponent while still trying to evaluate your team?
A. It's a weekend where we'll learn a lot about our team. Maine is in the same boat we are, we've all had the same amount of time to prepare. We're not trying to get it all done in one week. Hopefully we'll be better this Friday than we were last Saturday

Q. There's no better High School coaching job than what Cary Eades had at Warroad; was he hard to recruit?
A. That speaks to the level of the program. I think the biggest draw for him was to come back and join the Fighting Sioux program, he's a tremendous addition for us.

Q. A coaching turnover often makes players feel like they have to prove something. What's the players' mood?
A. Our mood is business-like. Brad Berry and I have had a long relationship with these guys, having recruited them and having coached them for 1, 2, or 3 years. You change gears somewhat becoming a head coach, but we all have respect for each other.

Q. You have 2 proven goaltenders and a highly thought-of freshman and a big physical defense. How are things going to be around the net?
A. We'll be solid on the blueline. Goaltending will sort itself out, you just see how the players play. We're returning everyone from the blueline and bringing in one freshman so we can integrate him slowly and still be solid all year long.