This week, when the University of North Dakota travels to Nebraska-Omaha for an important two-game conference series, there’s a good chance the Fighting Hawks will have both of their top players back. That’s very good news for UND.
Sophomore All-American forward Brock Boeser is back practicing with the team and made the trip to Omaha. Head coach Brad Berry said that Boeser will be a game-time decision. Also, Tyson Jost will fly to Omaha on Friday and meet up with the team. Coach Berry said that it’s to be decided how they will use Jost this weekend. The Hawks are just happy to have those two guys back.
“We’re very thankful that they’ll both be back in our group’” coach Berry said. “It’s just a matter of making sure that we do the right thing for them.”
Message to Players via Press Conference
Sometimes you have to wade through coach speak to figure out what they’re trying to say. First, looking at the standing, UND needs points if they want to get home ice for the NCHC playoffs. Currently, they’re sitting in sixth place. Based on what I heard, I would say that there’s a very good chance that these two will play at some point this weekend. Stay tuned.
Second, coaches use post-game press conferences and midweek press conference to speak to their team and the media. Last week, we say Union College head coach Rick Bennett called out his team for being soft in front of the net.
“We addressed it,” Bennett said. We practiced it. If you don’t want to get to the net against a good team (you won’t finish). That team was excellent and they were heavy. That team was the first team that we saw in our time that was really heavy – and we didn’t like it.”
On Wednesday, coach Berry had a message for his team. The coaching staff has some lineup decisions. Someone is going to sit.
“We will have some decisions,” Berry said. “The biggest thing that I want to mention is, we won a game in Union with two of our prominent players out of the lineup playing the right way – playing a team first mentality. We’re going to make sure that we do things the right way and put up a lineup together that gives us the best chance to do that. We’re thankful and blessed that these two guys are coming back in our group. We’ve got to remember the guys that were in our group that got us a win, too. We’re going to do the right thing as far as our group when we do put a lineup together.”
Finally, there might be a message to a player or two. What do you think?
Next Man Up
UND uses the next man up mentality. While it sounds cliche’, no one player is bigger than the program. All the UND players buy into this. When a player goes down or comes out of the lineup, that gives the next player on the roster an opportunity to play.
“Obviously, we have a team first mentality and kind of the next man up,” sophomore defenseman Hayden Shaw said. “As soon as we lose those guys, it the next guy up and it keeps building,” We have so much depth. We missed those guys… they’re really high-skilled but the guys that we have coming in, it’s no difference. We’ve got to play hard, that’s our mentality.”
Shaw continued, “No matter who we have in the lineup that night, we play hard. Everyone buys into our system. They’re really committed to that. Obviously, they’re (Boeser and Jost) fun to watch. No matter who we have playing, they’re going to do a good job.”
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