Hakstol points finger at Gophers' Hansen, rips U radio play-by-play guy

North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol on Wednesday added fuel to the Ben Blood media firestorm.

On the UND Coaches Show, Hakstol said Blood was in the wrong, but he was provoked.

"Go back and watch the videotape," Hakstol said. "At the 0:00 mark of the game, No. 21 for Minnesota [assistant captain Jake Hansen] comes off the bench as a sixth skater, from behind, two-hands Ben Blood. In other words, off the bench, enters an altercation."

There is a video out there that does indeed show Hansen coming behind Blood, who is being pushed backward by an official who is trying to separate him from Seth Ambroz of the Gophers.

Hansen swings his stick at the back of Blood's legs. It does not look like a vicious swing, but it was hard enough to send Blood to the ice and he gets up very animated and tries to get at Ambroz again.

But Hakstol does not stop there. He takes a verbal shot at Wally Shaver, who was doing the play-by-play of Saturday's game -- a 6-2 Gophers victory -- on 1500ESPN.

Shaver got quite upset by Blood's antics in the handshake line; the senior defenseman threw a right jab or forearm against Gophers freshman Kyle Rau.

"Nothing is mentioned about [Hansen] -- that begins the whole thing -- from Wally's standpoint. Wally attacks our player and our program and that's political crap."

Shaver's comments on Blood and UND are here.

Asked about Hakstol's remarks on Friday before the Gophers-CC game, Shaver said he has not seen the UND Coaches Show and only recently heard something about Hakstol criticizing him.

"Back it up four seconds and see what happens," Shaver said.