2021 Stanley Cup Final Starts Tonight

The 2021 Stanley Cup Final begins tonight. Both teams feature former NCAA players, some of whom will be seeking their first NHL championship ring, while others will be looking to add to their collections.

Montreal Canadiens: Jeff Petry (Michigan State), Jake Evans (Notre Dame), Cole Caufield (Wisconsin), Cayden Primeau (Northeastern), Jon Merrill (Michigan).

Tampa Bay Lightning: Alex Killorn (Harvard), Blake Coleman (Miami), Ross Colton (Vermont), Ryan McDonagh (Wisconsin), Curtis McElhinney (Colorado College).

Montreal is in its first Stanley Cup final since winning the 1993 title, while Tampa Bay is the defending champion.

UND's Hakstol to Coach NHL Seattle

 

The National Hockey League's new Seattle franchise has already gotten Kraken with the naming of former NCAA player and coach Dave Hakstol (North Dakota) as its first-ever head coach.

Hakstol, 52, spent the past two seasons as an NHL assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He served as head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers from 2015 to 2018, with whom he fashioned a regular-season record of 134-101-42 while also earning two Stanley Cup Playoff berths.

Hakstol took the Flyers job immediately following 15 seasons coaching at his alma mater, all but four of those as head coach. He led North Dakota to 11 NCAA tournament appearances and seven Frozen Four berths, while also winning six regular-season or playoff championships in the old Western College Hockey Association, and one such crown in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. His career record at UND as head coach from 2004 to 2015, while claiming those aforementioned laurels, was 289-143-43 (.654).

Hakstol, who hails from Warburg, Alberta, skated on defense for UND from 1989 to 1992. In three seasons with the then-Fighting Sioux, the last two as team captain, he tallied 10 goals and 36 assists for 46 points to go with 191 penalty minutes. 

He played five seasons in the old International Hockey League before getting into coaching with Sioux City (USHL), serving four seasons (1996-2000) with the Musketeers before returning to UND. He also helped Team Canada to silver-medal finishes as an assistant coach at both the 2017 and 2019 World Championships.

The Seattle Kraken will begin play this fall as the 32nd and newest NHL club.

Former Bulldog, NHLer Kurvers Gone at Age 58

Former Hobey Baker Memorial Award winner Tom Kurvers (Minnesota-Duluth) has passed away at age 58 due to lung cancer.

Kurvers, a Minneapolis native, was a defenseman at Minnesota-Duluth from 1980 to 1984 after a stellar schoolboy career at Bloomington Jefferson High School. As a senior at UMD in 1983-84, he recorded 18 goals and 58 assists for 76 points while leading the Bulldogs to both the WCHA title and the NCAA championship game that season. He also earned First Team All-America honors that year, while winning the Hobey Baker Award as the nation's best college player. In 164 career games at UMD, he scored 43 goals and added 149 assists for 192 points.

Drafted 145th overall by Montreal in 1981, Kurvers turned pro with the Canadiens in 1984-85 and registered 10 goals and 45 points in 75 NHL regular-season games as a rookie. The following year, he had seven goals and 30 points in 62 games and helped Montreal to a Stanley Cup championship. 

After one season with the Buffalo Sabres, Kurvers became a mainstay on New Jersey's blueline for two seasons. In 1987-88, he helped the Devils to within one win of the Stanley Cup final by recording career highs of 6-9—15 points over 19 playoff outings. The following year, he recorded career regular-season highs of 16-50—66 points in 76 contests.

Kurvers also played with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks and New York Islanders over the next four seasons, before ending his NHL career in 1993-94 with the expansion Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. In 659 career NHL regular-season appearances, he collected 93-328—421 points to go along with 352 penalty minutes. He then skated one year in Japan, winning a championship, before retiring as a player. 

From 1998 to 2008, Kurvers served in the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes organization, first as a pro scout, then as director of player personnel, before becoming assistant general manager. He then moved on to the Tampa Bay Lightning for nine seasons, where he served as assistant GM, interim GM, and senior advisor. He spent the last three seasons as assistant GM with the Minnesota Wild, with whom he also served as general manager of the AHL's Iowa Wild.

Curley Steps Down at UAA

Matt Curley has stepped down as the men's ice hockey head coach at the University of Alaska Anchorage. 

The Seawolves did not play last season due to COVID-19, and will also  not play in 2021-22 as the program continues its fundraising efforts.

UAA is also seeking a new conference, and has returned to Division I independent status with the dissolution of the men's Western Collegiate Hockey Association after the 2020-21 season. 

Curley, 38, took over in Anchorage for the 2018-19 campaign, after three consecutive years of coaching junior hockey in Austria. A native of Madrid, N.Y., he played collegiately at Clarkson University and was later an assistant coach at fellow NCAA member Bentley College.

In Curley's two seasons helming the Seawolves, UAA went 7-53-10 overall. Those victories came against Alabama-Huntsville, Alaska (Fairbanks), Bemidji State and Lake Superior State, all WCHA opponents.

UAA is now seeking the sixth head coach in program history. Since joining the WCHA as a full member in 1993-94, the Seawolves have gone 259-599-114 overall.

ADDENDUM: On Wednesday, Curley was announced as the new head coach of the USHL's Des Moines Buccaneers.

MSU's Hildebrand Named ECHL Goaltender of the Year

 

Jake Hildebrand (Michigan State) has claimed the 2020-21 ECHL Goaltender of the Year Award, as voted upon by league personnel.

Hildebrand, 28, from Butler, Pa., finished with a 23-10-5 record in 40 regular-season appearances with the Florida Everblades. He also recorded a 2.40 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage to go with two shutouts. 

It was his sixth season in the ECHL, in a career that has also included stops in Texas, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Michigan, plus a 2016 Kelly Cup championship with the Allen (TX) Americans. In 222 career ECHL regular-season outings, he has gone 99-86-23 (3.30, .901) with eight shutouts.

Hildebrand backstopped Michigan State from 2012 to 2016. In 133 career NCAA contests with the Spartans, he finished 45-70-14 (2.54, .921) with 13 shutouts, and was also a First Team All-America selection in 2014-15 after a 17-win, six-shutout campaign.

Nelson, Islanders Advance to 2021 NHL Semifinals

 

Brock Nelson (North Dakota) scored two goals, including the game-winner, as the New York Islanders ousted the visiting Boston Bruins from the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Wednesday night. New York triumphed by a 6-2 count at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum to win the best-of-seven second round series in six games, while also winning the last three games of the series.

Travis Zajac (North Dakota) and Kyle Palmieri (Notre Dame) also scored goals in the clincher for the Islanders, who advanced to league semifinals/conference finals for the second straight season. It's the first time they have done so since 1983 and 1984.

The Islanders, who have won all three playoff series they have ever contested against Boston (1980, 1983, 2021), will now meet the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning, who topped Carolina in five games to reach this year's semifinals. Tampa Bay eliminated New York in the Eastern Conference final in six games last season, in one of the NHL "bubbles" in Canada necessitated by COVID-19. 

The winner of this year's Islanders-Lightning match-up will face the victor of Montreal-Vegas for the Stanley Cup. 

USA Takes Bronze at 2021 World Championship

The United States garnered the bronze medal at the 2021 IIHF World Championship in Riga, Latvia. After falling to eventual gold medalist Canada by a 4-2 count in the semifinals, the Americans defeated Germany by a 6-1 score on Sunday to finish in third place.

Cal Petersen (Notre Dame) of the NHL's Los Angeles Kings led all USA goaltenders in Riga with five wins and two shutouts during the Worlds, and also recorded a 1.29 goals-against average. Jake Oettinger (Boston University) was second with three victories and a 1.37 GAA for the Americans.

Trevor Moore (Denver) of the Kings was among Team USA's leaders in Latvia with five goals and nine points, while fellow forward Colin Blackwell (Harvard) of the New York Rangers notched four goals. Christian Wolanin (North Dakota) of the Kings paced all USA blueliners with five assists and six points, while Adam Clendening (Boston University) of Cleveland (AHL) registered two goals and three assists for five points. Brian Boyle (Boston College) took over as Team USA captain after original captain Justin Abdelkader (Michigan State) was injured earlier in the tournament,

The U.S. has now medaled in two of the last three Worlds, and four of the last eight, all bronze. The 2020 tournament was canceled by COVID-19, while the 2022 competition is slated to be held in Finland, which finished as runner-up to Canada this year after winning gold in 2019.

Montreal's Evans Severely Injured in Win

 

Jake Evans (Notre Dame) scored his first career Stanley Cup Playoff goal on Wednesday night. Hopefully he'll have an opportunity to add more after suffering a devastating injury in the same game.

Evans, 25, a Toronto native who is in his second NHL campaign with the Montreal Canadiens, sustained a concussion after he was hit by Winnipeg Jets forward Mark Scheifele in Montreal's 5-3 victory in Game One of the second-round playoff series between the two teams.

Evans had just wrapped the puck around and into an empty Winnipeg net with 57 seconds remaining in regulation for a goal, when he was hit high by Scheifele, who had skated back hard from the other end of the rink. Evans struck his head on the ice after being upended and had to be stretchered off, while Scheifele was ejected after being issued a major penalty for charging along with a misconduct. He underwent a hearing today with the NHL and has been suspended for the next four games. 

Evans skated at Notre Dame from 2014 to 2018. He tallied 41 goals and 97 assists for 138 points in 158 career outings, and also led the Fighting Irish to the 2018 NCAA championship game. Drafted 207th overall by Montreal in 2014 after he played three junior seasons with St. Michael's (OJHL), he played two seasons with Laval (AHL) after turning pro before joining the Canadiens last season. His timetable for a return to the Montreal lineup is not yet known.

Game Two of the series between the last two Canadian clubs left in this year's playoffs is slated for Friday night at the Bell MTS Place in Winnipeg.