Minnesota State coach Mike Hastings won the American Hockey Coaches Association's Spencer Penrose Award as national coach of the year, the group announced on Tuesday. It was the second time Hastings has received the honor, having first won in 2015.
Hastings has the Mavericks in the Frozen Four for the first time ever in a season in which the team is 22-4-1 and captured its fourth straight WCHA regular-season championship.
While it's hard to say if this season has been Hastings' best coaching job, it has been impressive, considering the significant turnover from last year's team (two All-Americans, 3 of their top 4 scorers, half their D-corps, eight seniors who had played no fewer than 121 games each, etc.) and the severe disappointment that loaded team suffered when COVID-19 shut down the season and canceled the NCAA Tournament.
Granted, another All-American, Dryden McKay returned in goal, and there remained plenty more experience — from Riese Zmolek and Jack McNeely on the back end to Julian Napravnik and Nathan Smith and seniors Jake Jaremko, Reggie Lutz and Dallas Gerads up front (to name a few) — on the roster. But who would have guessed this would be the team to break the NCAA curse and take this program into April? Quite a story.
Entering the Frozen Four, Hastings has a career college record of 236-89-24 for a .711 winning percentage, best among active Division I men's coaches.
No comments:
Post a Comment