Raboin rejoins Vikings, team prepares to face Arizona State

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Head Coach Garrett Raboin has been away from the Augustana Hockey team for about a month now, as he’s been with Team USA in Sweden, helping them win gold in the World Junior Championships. The Vikings have had a tough go since the Christmas break, and it’s about to get even tougher with a two game series against Arizona State.

The No.16 ranked Sun Devils are another hurdle for the Vikings, who since the break lost both games to Notre Dame, and lost one and tied one against Minnesota State.

Raboin said the results show that the Vikings are close, but not close enough to where they want to be as a program. He said they’ve struggled to close out games, especially when their opponents make late pushes and capitalize on their mistakes.

“Notre Dame and Mankato, the last two series I think just shows we’re close, but we’re not there yet. Competitive yes, but we’ve said it so many times. The moral victories are not what we’re here for, and there’s room for us to grow to play more consistent throughout the game, and then to close out games,” Raboin said.

The Vikings face the Sun Devils this Friday and Saturday down in Tempe, Arizona. Both of those games start at 8:00 p.m. Central.

The NFL draft is a little over three months away, but it’ll be here before you know it. The pre-draft process is going to heat up in a couple weeks with events like the Senior Bowl and Shrine Bowl, and the always-important scouting combine will get going in late February.

The Vikings hold the 11th overall pick in this year’s draft. There’s been plenty of understandable speculation about GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah taking a quarterback — and perhaps even trading up to do so — but let’s hold off on that for now. In a world where the Vikings bring back Kirk Cousins or figure something else out at the QB position, they’ll have an opportunity to take a blue-chip defensive prospect who can hopefully become a foundational piece for them on that side of the ball.