Gusdal Thrilled with First Half Success, Confident for New Year

Goalie Curtis Skip blocks a shot on net during a tough home game against the NAIT Ooks at the beginning of the season. At the end of the first half, the Vikings are tied at second in the North Division.
Goalie Curtis Skip blocks a shot on net during a tough home game against the NAIT Ooks at the beginning of the season. At the end of the first half, the Vikings are tied at second in the North Division.
Posted: Dec 21, 2017
Excerpt courtesy of Josh Aldrich, Camrose Canadian
 
 
The University of Alberta-Augustana Vikings men's hockey team have shown a level of resilience that has head coach Blaine Gusdal excited for the second half of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference season. 

That resilience has had to shine through due to some inconsistent play in the first semester, but it is their ability to bounce back from disappointing performances that has them riding a high heading into the Christmas break. 

This includes bouncing back from an uneven weekend against the MacEwan Griffins (9-5-0-0) to sweep the Concordia University Thunder on their final weekend, 7-4 and 5-3, to enter the break tied with Red Deer College for second in the conference. 

"The reason you coach is you want to coach perfect games and get a whole lot of perfect wins, but it's just not going to happen that way," said Gusdal.

"There's always going to be lulls within a game, lulls within a season. This year with how tough the league is and how tough each and every night is, it's all about responding and I like the way that we've done that so far." 

The first semester has been a roller coaster for the Vikings (9-4-1-0). They've had some highs, like a five-game winning streak that included weekend sweeps of both RDC (9-4-1-0) and SAIT (8-4-1-1). But they have also had some pretty big lows, like losing to Portage College in Camrose on Oct. 28. 

Still, they have managed to stay in the hunt for an all-important first-round bye in the ACAC playoffs — the top two seeds get an express pass to the second round. 

 

The rest of the article from the Camrose Canadian can be found here.