Shawsy's Thoughts
Senior defenseman Hayden Shaw will give us an inside look at the University of North Dakota hockey team as it aims to make a second-half push. Shaw will be blogging from the road with the Fighting Hawks making trips to Omaha, Denver, Kalamazoo, Colorado Springs and then on to St. Paul, Fargo and hopefully another crack in Buffalo down the line. Follow the team's progress here.

THURSDAY at OMAHA 
Hello Folks! I get the honor this second half of the season to take you all along and put my communications degree to the test as we embark on this journey to hanging another banner! I'm excited for this opportunity to be the predecessor to blogging great Troy Stecher of Etch-A-Stech during my freshman year. Follow along and see a road trip through my eyes as I put pen to paper and show the pressing news of a college hockey road trip. 
 
9:30 am:
Arrival for Rhett Gardner and myself as we leave our apartment, "The Compound" to get our gear packed up at the rink as we head to Omaha today for a weekend of NCHC battle. 
 
Freshman Goaltender Adam "Tim" Scheel packs his bags with a smile while he waits to load our bus and send our gear to the plane. 
 
1:15 pm:
The boys touch down in Omaha, Neb., and will head to the rink and hotel to drop our gear and fill our internal tanks with foods from what the locals call "Aksarben". 
 
As we await our freshmen to pack the bus, I thought I'd take this time in my warm bus seat to tell you all a little bit about myself. Originally, I was born in a small town about an hour outside of Missoula called Hamilton, Mont. Our family still has a spot there where we visit in the summer to fly fish and enjoy a little downtime. I spent my middle and high school days in Woodbury, Minn., where I consider home although I am now a North Dakota resident. 
 
4:00 pm:
Boys had a traditional Thursday skate ending with a shootout won by Jackson Keane. Fun fact about Jackson: is he has absolutely no arches on his feet, giving him the nickname Bilbo Baggins.
 
6:45 pm:
We're headed to dinner and, boy, are Thursday night meals a treat. We aren't superstitious, but we're a little stitious (The Office reference for you fans out there) meaning we all sit with the same guys. I sit with my senior class… never a dull moment. 

Tonight's meal includes a 12-ounce filet mignon paired beautifully with a thirst quenching Shirley Temple. I'm not sure why that's the drink of choice, but all the older guys got them when I was a freshman, so it was just something that stuck with us. 
 
8:30 pm:
My road roomie Gabe Bast and I are belly up back at our hotel, getting prepared for the match ahead. Basty and I have a great combination of laughs as well as snacks in our room. A night before a game we'll usually lay low and find a movie to watch, Rhett Gardner likes to pop over and join us because his roommate Jasper Weatherby goes AirPods in at 9:00 pm and lights out by 9:30. 
 
Time for me to shutter for the day with blog one in the books. Thanks for following along and we'll see you Friday for game day!


FRIDAY at OMAHA
8:00 am:
Early wake up call for the fellas as we head down to breakfast and bus to the rink. Breakfast for us is a time to get morale up and in this case, pick on freshman Jasper Weatherby after the story we heard of his nightly routine. Jasper's night consists of a 30-minute bath to loosen the mind, body and soul, followed by a very intricate band-stretching routine performed on a BYO yoga mat, AirPods in. Stretch your muscles stretch your career, kids. 
 
12:00 pm:
After pregame skate, we get some time to ourselves as we wait for our power play meeting as well as lunch. This gives roommate Gabe Bast and I time to get our feet up and watch an installment of our favorite television program, The Office. I have stuck with the same pregame meal all of my years here, a plethora of pasta with white sauce and a small amount of red, along with salmon and sweet potato. 
 
2:00 pm
About to head down for a nap, the squad is feeling rested and focused for tonight as we treat every game like a playoff game for the rest of the way. I usually sleep for about an hour but all guys are different, an old roommate of mine Shane Gersich would hibernate for 3-4 hours a day before each game. 
 
4:00 pm
Nap is done and the boys are looking crisp in our suits. This is the classic calm before the storm moment where there isn't too much talking, but a lot of headphones in and thinking about what each player has to do to be at their best for the night. Once we get to the rink we have a brief penalty kill meeting with coach Dane Jackson. Jax never fails to give the boys a little spark before we warm up. For me, I like to warm up and keep things light with a little soccer and stretch. Quick rundown of the skill level in the sewer circle which is the game we play, I'd put Ludvig Hoff, Cole Smith and myself in the top 3 most skilled, with a 5-way tie for worst with Adam Scheel, Peter Thome, Nick Jones, Jacob Bernard-Docker and Casey Johnson. Time for me to unplug and get dialed. 
 
10:15pm
What a game for the fellas, with some late heroics by Jackson Keane "Bilbo" scoring late in the third to put the boys up, 4-3. I am fired up after that tenacious team win. Also shout out to the best fans in college hockey... half the rink was green, you guys are something else. Thank you! In the heat of the game, there are few things that really give the boys a good laugh on the bench. Tonight's hilarious play of the game brought to you by Gabe "the fridge" Bast. Basty is known for being a very wide body, with a very, very low center of gravity. In the first period, a puck was chipped up the boards on the glass to Gabe at the point, the Fridge goes airborne in a pencil-like manner, flipping himself over the boards and into Omaha's bench. The silver lining of the play was the catch was good, ball security is job security as they say in football. 

11:00 pm:
Basty and I are back in our room decompressing and recovering from tonight's action. It's time for me to sign off and get ready for tomorrow game, thanks for reading the blog and bear with me here, I'm new to this! If you have any requests please feel free to tweet at me @hayden_shaw28 or my boss Mitch Wigness @Mitchwigness. Also if anyone has an idea for a good blog name, maybe we could work out some sort of accolades for the winner. 
 
SATURDAY at OMAHA
10:00 am:
 The fellas had the opportunity to sleep in and feel well rested this morning. Pays to be a winner! I walked down to breakfast and was greeted by a couple laughs but also some extreme heat coming from Jasper Weatherby and Nick Jones. Shrugging off their jealously, I power through giving the people what they want... my hard hitting blog. 
 
11:00 am:
Bus is leaving to the rink, we will not be taking the ice this morning as we conserve all energy for tonight's match. Instead we have a team stretch and time for the guys to do whatever they need to do individually to prepare for tonight. I like to get a little bit of a sweat in with a run or bike and tape my sticks so when I get to the rink later I am focused for the game. Although an off morning for us, equipment manager extraordinaire Dan Johansson is up early sharpening skates and preparing the locker room for our arrival. It's crazy how much behind the scenes work goes in by our coaches and staff making our lives as student athletes so much easier. 
 
1:00 pm: 
Pre game meal and a power play meeting ran by a life long familiar face, coach Shaw. This meeting is a lot more upbeat after a good night on the power play. We've instilled in our team that there is no relaxing with a man advantage, and we continue to have 5 on 5 principles which is what gives us success. It's an unwritten rule that only four guys can be getting their food at a time. After we eat Coach Berry goes over keys to the game which help us get our mind around what we need to do as we head back to our rooms for a nap. Time for the fridge and I to shutter down for a bit. 
 
4:00 pm:
Ohhhhhh finally it's game time, get me in there! We suit up and head down to the bus dialed for the task at hand. With an opportunity to have a weekend sweep, we know Omaha is going to be more urgent. We've been on the other side of this as well, a team that loses the Friday night game is a wounded animal. We know we have to ramp up our level of play and execution starting at puck drop. This also gives an opportunity to those bottom 5 sewer players to prove I did not make a mistake on where I placed them in my rankings. 
 
11:00 pm:
Unfortunately, we came out on the wrong side of an exciting college hockey game. Give Omaha credit, they set the pace at puck drop and capitalized on a few mental lapses from our team. Regardless of the result, there is not panic in our room. This team is as tight as ever as we head back to the drawing board for next weekends NCHC matchup against St. Cloud. 
The plane is about to take off as we'll be greeted by our little slice of paradise... -20 degree Grand Forks, can't wait! Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you guys in two weeks as we are back on the road to Denver. 
 

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