On Sunday night, after a 20-day hiatus, the University of North Dakota men’s hockey team played an actual hockey game and looked pretty good. Now, after a 20-day layoff, one had to expect a little bit of rust. However, there wasn’t a lot.
How did we get here?
After missing the last two weekends of play due to the Omaha Mavericks suffering a COVID-19 outbreak, the Hawks traveled to Colorado Springs to take on the Colorado College Tigers at World Arena. Incidentally, the Tiger’s opponent, the Denver Pioneers were also in quarantine after suffering their own COVID-19 outbreak.
On to Sunday’s game.
Sunday marked the return of Jake Sanderson and Tyler Kleven. It was their first game back. They’d missed the past seven games playing with Team USA in Edmonton, Alberta after winning gold with Team USA.
Through two periods of play, there was visual evidence of a hockey game. After the second period, the NCHC.TV broadcast got choppy. Eventually, the broadcast would go dark leaving thousands of seething hockey fans looking at the black screen of death. More on that later.
Switching to the radio broadcast, the game would end in a 3-0 shutout win. Junior goalie Adam Scheel was flawless in a 27-save performance. UND has now won five games in a row. Outscoring their opponents 21-9. Senior forward Jordan Kawaguchi would extend his scoring streak to 11 games after drawing an assist on Grant Mismash’s goal.
At the 9:30 mark of the first period, Tyler Kleven would score the Fighting Hawks first goal. His second goal in four games. For those keeping track at home, Kleven now has a two-game scoring streak. That’s all UND would need.
In the second period, Colin Adams and Grant Mismash would score their fifth goal of the season, pushing UND’s lead to 3-0. Everything was looking good.
NCHC.TV
Obviously, fans aren’t very happy about missing the third period. This season, for a full season of NCHC.TV, the cost is $112.00. That price is pretty reasonable if the service works. With that said, when people pay that kind of money they expect the service to work. Below is the explanation of what happened to the NCHC.TV broadcast.
Tony, the issue tonight was due to the internet at the arena going down during the third period. The IT folks at the arena were not able to get it back up before the game ended and are still working on it presently to get things ready for the next game.
— SIDEARM Sports (@SIDEARMSports) January 11, 2021
There needs to be a minimum standard for NCHC.TV. This is year eight of the NCHC and some schools still can’t produce what I would classify as an acceptable broadcast. I am pointing the finger at C.C. their NCHC TV broadcasts are the worst in the conference. They need to up their game. Fans are paying a lot of money to watch a season of hockey and it’s not unreasonable to expect a product that is up to standard and watchable. I would be embarrassed if I was running the CC athletic department. Be Better!
There needs to be a minimum standard for https://t.co/15mjAYWMi3. This is year 8 and some schools still can’t produce an acceptable broadcast.
— Eric J. Burton (@goon48) January 11, 2021
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