College Hockey:
UPDATE: North Dakota’s Kristo sidelined indefinitely by frostbite on toes

USCHO Staff Report • Feb. 4, 2011

North Dakota forward Danny Kristo is out indefinitely after suffering frostbite on the toes of his right foot Sunday, the school announced Tuesday.

In an update released by the school Thursday, Kristo remains in fair condition at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn, and maintains full use of all of his extremities and is in the early stages of recovery.

“I’m doing fine (and) I’m planning on recovering as safely and as quickly as possible,” Kristo said in a statement. “I’m just trying to get better day by day. I’m doing better today than I was yesterday and I was doing better yesterday than I was the day before. I’m feeling a lot better than I was the first two days.

”I definitely feel fortunate, I definitely feel lucky. I want to say thanks to the fans and friends and family members who have prayed for me.”

Kristo, a sophomore who is seventh on the Fighting Sioux roster with 22 points, was being treated at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn.

“We have been in close contact with Danny’s family,” North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol said in a statement. “My concern is with Danny’s health and his full recovery.”

The school said Kristo suffered frostbite due to exposure to extreme cold while walking near campus Sunday evening. The National Weather Service reported a temperature of minus-11 in Grand Forks, N.D., around that time.

North Dakota, which does not play again until Feb. 11 against Alaska-Anchorage, also lost captain Chay Genoway to a leg injury in last Friday’s game at Colorado College. The defenseman, who is tied for third on the team in scoring, did not play Saturday and no information on when he’ll be able to return has been released.

Kristo was a second-round pick by Montreal (No. 56 overall) in the 2008 NHL entry draft. He was the WCHA’s rookie of the year last season after 15 goals and 36 points in 41 games.

The following is a self-policing forum for discussing views on this story. Comments that are derogatory, make personal attacks, are abusive, or contain profanity or racism will be removed at our discretion. USCHO.com is not responsible for comments posted by users. Please report any inappropriate or offensive comments by clicking the “Flag” link next to that comment in order to alert the moderator.

Please also keep “woofing,” taunting, and otherwise unsportsmanlike behavior to a minimum. Your posts will more than likely be deleted, and worse yet, you reflect badly on yourself, your favorite team and your conference.

Gustehuut
Socks!
- Dpmc75
  He has a problem? Needs help? That’s jumping the gun a bit. Maybe he’s a college kid who gets drunk occassionally and this time screwed up? Sounds more likely.
  - B.D.
    Please provide proof he was even drinking.
    - dmoney
      He goes to COLLEGE…..and he plays HOCKEY. two stereotypical drinking cultures, your ignorant to deny it. I don’t have a problem with him drinking, its getting too drunk to put shoes on before leaving the party that grinds my gears
      - B.D.
        So the mere fact he is in college indicates he drinks and was therefore drunk?
        Interesting…..
      - Chris M.
        your ignorance floors me
      - B.D.
        Just analyzing the logic of the statement. And it does not flow.
        Logic like “He is a college student, thus he drinks, and ergo is drunk” is falascious.
      - guest
        you need to stop being ignorant to the fact that he does drink (as you can see, he has already gotten in trouble for drinking) and realize that drunk people do dumb things, such as this.
      - B.D.
        Facts not in evidence.
Chris M.
yeah frost bite from “walking around campus” …wonder how smashed he was!
- B.D.
  Please provide proof he was even drinking.
  - Anonymous
    I didn’t see where it said he was drunk eather.
  - je
    kid’s a sophomore in college. what college sophomore doesn’t?
    the fact the kristo has already been suspended once for underage drinking, and NoDak’s rep for this crap the last few years….
    [green arrested for DUI, bina arrested for DUI, toews for minor consumption, toews oshie and bina arrested again drinking at bar, finley arrested for party, oshie arrested again, finley again arrested along with frattin for disorderly conduct, frattin again (for DUI), kristo cited for underage drinking]
    ….will obviously raise suspicions. you can’t blame people for suspecting what is the most likely culprit.
    that’s the rep he’s earned. those are the shakes. deal with it.
  - guest
    he was outside my apt in a snowbank in flipflops and shorts when it was -36
bufan25
Walking around campus in what? Sandals?
- ts
  you ever been to grand forks in the winter???
  - B.D.
    Yeah, I grew up 1/4 mile from the UND campus and got frostbite on various occasions on: Hands, face, nose, and ears. I froze my feet on several occasions.
    Couple that with Windchills even lower than that and you have a recipe for problems even when well dressed.
    That happens in -30 degree weather one encounters in Grand Forks in January. What is the lowest temp ever recorded in Boston?
    It takes Cojones to survive North Dakota in winter.
    - justt sayin
      All the more reason not to be outside unless it’s absolutely necessary. If he wasn’t drunk then he’s a moron. And how did he get frostbite on his feet without getting it anywhere else? There’s a good chance there is more to this story. Like Backman of Yale who had a season ending injury before the playoffs last year. First, he was injured. Then it was said he was injured in a non-hockey related “incident”. Then it turned out certain members of the team were partying in the gym pool after hours and “horse play” was responsible. No word if alcohol was involved.
      - B.D.
        As a kid I froze my freet a few times, mostly because hockey practice was held outdoors at University Park until the weather hits -30F. Park Board rules. North Dakotans are tough like that.
        I also froze my feet in college a couple times walking to class in Nike running shoes.
        Come live in Grand Forks for a few weeks, it will toughen you up.
      - justt sayin
        You didn’t address my point at all. Your stories, while interesting, have nothing to do with this incident. Flesh will freeze when the temperature is low enough. It’s that simple. “Toughness” won’t save you. It will help you tolerate the discomfort. And I’m not surprised your toes froze in -30F. The rest of your body was probably ok because you were skating around and generating body heat. Presumably you covered your face and ears.
      - b.d.
        Toughness does not prtect the flesh, but in order to survive there for long you develop the ability to carry on thorugh life in conditions people on the balmy east coast would not be able to fathom.
        Thus I am demonstrating he would not have to be intoxicated in order to suffer from this condition as had been postulated earlier.
      - E.A
        Dude, get over it: North Dakota is cold. Is it a pissing contest over whose life is worse. I’ve lived in SoCal, Boston, and now in New Mexico. In New Mexico it was -12 this morning. Plenty of the 9 and 10 year olds I teach have substandard housing and actually deal with the cold in or out of their house. It doesn’t take “cajones” to live through a North Dakota winter or any winter, it takes unfortunate geographic placement and either stubbornness or inability to relocate. Newsflash: humans are capable of adapting to the circumstances that confront them.
      - B.D.
        You familiar with what is called “A second day?” It was an air force term from my childhood denoting how long the guards patrolling nuclear equipped B-52′s on the flightline could safely remain outdoors. The shortest I ever saw was an 8 second day.
        What I am saying is that it would not take intoxication to suffer from Frostbite as has been postulated by others.
        My posting saying it takes cojones is simply a statement of fact. You can couch it as stubborness, but that would miss it.
        I live over in Arizona now and we just had record cold, and it does not carry a candle compared to the stultifying cold of North Dakota. I have also lived in the Boston area and it does not come close.
    - bufan25
      Haha. I’m not saying it isn’t cold in ND in the winter, but -11 degrees isn’t that bad if you wear the right stuff. And you know it.
      - B.D.
        So you always looked like Ralphies little brother Randy from “A Christmas Story?”
        And -11F is not the worst of it, add some windchill to that number. What is the coldest you have encountered in Southy?
      - http://ndgoon.blogspot.com Goon
        If I am not mistaken it was a lot colder that night somewhere in the 30-40 below zero range with the wind chill, so yeah it was cold. I live here in Grand Forks, ND and today the weather is the same with the wind chill.
je
and his blood alcohol content was… ?
Mia, Hypother
Poor guy, but that is relatively pathetic for soembody who came from a northern state.
Sycamore
I’m sure there are many individuals reading this that can look back at something stupid they and did and wonder ‘that could have been me, that could have been my kid brother, etc. etc.” This is so sad. Let’s just pray that Danny has a complete recovery and can return to an awesome career!
Jljbam
Why do stuff like this happen to kids like this?? Because he has a problem. He needs help. Lucky he didn’t pass out and someone found him dead.
Pingback: North Dakota's Kristo sidelined indefinitely by frostbite on toes … | North Dakota News
Dufan14
Danny was a key part of the USA winning the gold in last years world junior tourney and is part of the future of USA hockey. Get well soon Danny, you have some more medals to win.
DU Fan
Notinmybackyard
leaving your kid in Coach Hak’s hands is like sending your kid to junior to be coached by Graham James. Too many kids there end up like this.
- nyqi
  Are you kidding? You are comparing Hakstol to a guy that was sent to prison for sexually abusing kids? Stop talking, you’re making a fool of yourself. Tell the truth, you rode the short bus to school didn’t you.
- guest
  College kids drinking and doing stupid things is something that ONLY happens under the fine tootlidge of coach Hakstol. Nowhere else in the world do college kids get drunk, except in the hockey program at UND. I don’t even think anyone else in the world drinks except under the watchful eye of on Dave Hakstol. Alcohol is the only thing that UND hockey players can manage to do there, in fact, the players aren’t really playing, those are stunt doubles. The reak players are at coach hak’s house getting smashed. ‘
  You are a complete tool!
  The coach cannot possibly be blamed for this, how about mom and dad teaching young Danny that drinking at all has nothing good to offer. No alcohol, maybe no frostbit toes. No way coaches can be blamed for the kids stupid choices.
kt
maybe it should be a wake up call to the coaches–maybe its time they demand a little respect and discipline. would the great Blais put up with these activities??
- Anonymous
  Coaches can’t be your mother, but they should at least provide better guidance and set proper boundaries. But enough with the W.W.B.D. He is in Omaha and everybody at N.D. and Mn. should acknowledge that.
hahahahahaha
UND fans have another excuse come tournament time! We had to travel east! We played 6 games in 10 days! We dominated Yale if you don’t count that first period! We have seven titles, we should be number 1!!!!!
- helmet
  SEVEN NATIONAL TITLES SOMEONE SOUNDS JEALOUS
  - hahahahahaha
    You’re obviously late to the party. I’m making fun of how over the last two months the UND fans have kept touting the seven titles in their argument about why Yale shouldn’t have been number one in the poll. But thanks for playing.
    - Puckfan
      remind everyone of who yale has played so far this season? yale’s schedule is weak
      - B.D.
        Ooooooh, they started with “BROWN.”
        Then they played that dynamo of the north Dartmouth.
        Princeton (God love em, at least they have the cojones to allow ROTC) followed so we give Princton credit for that.
        Wuinnipiac? Gunnipiac? Kwinnipikack? Something like that.
        A real team followed from Colorado College.
        But then it was back to Air Force.
        yada-yada ….Cornell, Colgate, Sacred Heart, Renselaer, Union, Vermont, Dartmouth again, Harvard, Brown twice more, Union, and St Laurance, Clarkson.
      - hahahahahaha
        Nice try to change the subject. Point is you guys couldn’t put together a coherent argument against Yale so you kept screaming about how many titles you have, as if that means you’re number one right now. If one of you had actually commented on Yale’s hockey playing ability you might not have been mocked so thoroughly.
        On the subject of “who have they played” it might interest you to know that Yale’s Strength of Schedule is 28th right now according to the KRACH page on USCHO. BC’s is 22. Why aren’t you going nuts over that? BC is closer to Yale than it is to ND’s SOS rank of 2. Could it be you’re just stewing over last year’s NCAA loss? No, it couldn’t be that, right? Right?
      - B.D.
        So, you will stack Brown up against Minnesota?
        Dartmouth against Wisconsin?
        Air Force against ANYBODY?
        Commmmmme ONNNNNNNNNN….
      - nyqi
        So you are still trying to say that Yale is a top team in the country? They play nobody and lose back to back and you still want to make that argument? I never said that UND was the best team in the country. I graduated from there and they are a top team but the best overall team that I have seen play (and I have seen Yale play twice) is UMD. No one in ND cares that Yale beat us last year because we all know that the sun shines on ever dogs a** from time to time. Let’s just hope they end up playing again this year and then we will know who the better team is.
      - hahahahahaha
        First and foremost, I never said Yale was the best team right now. In fact, if you were reading carefully you would have noticed I never said they were number one over the last two months. What I said was your arguments didn’t say they weren’t. Logic and reading comprehension apparently aren’t your strong suits. Let’s take this to the extreme. If all of the North Dakota and Yale players swapped places i.e. ND played Yale’s schedule – following your “logic” they would under no circumstances be a “top team”, whatever that means (No. 1?, Top 4?, Top 10?). If you really want to convince us of anything you need to lay out specific criteria that you feel makes a team worthy of being number one. Saying “They don’t play anybody” doesn’t cut it. Tell us what their SOS needs to be. I noticed you ducked my point about BC’s SOS.
        No one in ND cares that Yale beat us last year because we all know that the sun shines on ever dogs a** from time to time.
        Not buying it. And learn to lose with class and stop making excuses. Funny how some of you were gleefully asking what Yale’s excuse was for losing to RPI and Union. You guys know all about excuses. “We had to travel. We had a bad first period. We lost to Cornell because their goalie had a good game. The ref screwed us.” Yeah, I’ve heard them all.
      - Goalie Fan
        Your really are taking this to the extreme here huh…… Lets see um top five teams in the country. Three of which are WCHA members and you wonder why people talk down on the EZAC conference! And Nodak has no class huh? Some people just rant and forget their manners but I can tell you that we are the most friendly but die hard college hockey fans around so if you want to read on a UND hockey blog, do remind yourself of who you are talking to. BC’s schedule is decent at most… BU and couple others make for some tough comp i agree. As you already know Im sure, anyone can win on any nite in college hockey. Just look at Alabama stealing one from UNO last weekend. Im excited to see what happpens this weekend in the hockey world so we will have to talk more on that later!~
      - Trey
        Goalie Fan wrote: “Some people just rant and forget their manners but I can tell you that we are the most friendly but die hard college hockey fans around so if you want to read on a UND hockey blog, do remind yourself of who you are talking to.”
        USCHO is a UND hockey blog????
      - Goalie Fan
        I was only saying that UND articles always draw haters and it is not suprising that people come a criticize the hockey team and our attentivness to detail…
      - Trey
        What I see is UND fans who swoop in on every article, disparaging other teams and other leagues and then crying if anyone DARES say anything even slightly in opposition to them. North Dakota articles don’t draw haters — their hating fans draw hate in response.
      - nyqi
        I don’t care what you are or aren’t buying guy. NOBODY in NoDak cares about you or Yale or any other team in the EZAC because all you are is a tiny speed bump on our way to the next title. You don’t count. I can’t help that but please stop trying to tell me what I know and don’t know. I have been watching the Sioux play for more than 30 years and have known a good number of the players and some of them very well as I played against them in high school and pick up games when they wanted guys to beat up on in the summer time. They don’t care about your program and neither do the fans because we know that year in and year out you have no chance of competing with us. Sorry that’s just the way it is. Good luck to your team this year. I hope they draw the Sioux in the tourney because you obviously feel like they are a better team than we are. Best of luck with that.
      - nyqi
        By the way, I never made any excuses for losing to Yale. We didn’t play well and they did it happens on any given night in any sport. That’s the way it goes and some fans from UND probably do make a few too many excesses from time to time but thats what you do when you love the team the way most of us do. You don’t get to call us classless. I have been to a number of road games around the country and always proudly wear my green and white and have almost with out exception (or cause for that matter) had expletives thrown at me, beer thrown on my or at least tried too and a couple of time actually gotten guys that wanted to fight (thanks Wisconsin for that memory) but in all the games that I have been to at UND I have never seen much more than a few harsh words for the likes of the Minnesota fans that dare to show up. We have class. Period.
      - hahahahahaha
        Do ever read the posts before replying to them? I mean really read them and understand them? Nothing you said has anything to do with the original premise: That none of you could come up with a valid reason that Yale wasn’t the number one team for a few weeks. Here you are going on about long you have been a fan, that you know the players, blah, blah, blah. What does that have to do with anything? Countless times people have said you guys should comment on the hockey being played on the ice. Instead you go on and on about the past. If you knew as much about college hockey as you think you do it wouldn’t be so hard for you to discuss the relative merits of various teams. So are you stupid or just lazy?
        Good luck to your team this year. I hope they draw the Sioux in the tourney because you obviously feel like they are a better team than we are. Best of luck with that.
        Further proof that you aren’t bothering to read. I am not a Yale fan. I never said Yale was better than UND. I never even said they were the best team in hockey. All I have ever been trying to get out of you guys is a discussion about the actual quality of the teams this year. I’m not the one that made Yale number one in the polls. The voters did.
        And getting crap thrown at you doesn’t mean you have class. It means the other guys don’t have class. Constantly denigrating an entire league with your EZAC line is proof you don’t have class. Saying the other team didn’t deserve to win because they got lucky is just poor sportsmanship.
      - hahahahahaha
        Obviously, I didn’t close the italic tag. Try to read around that.
        And I’m going to add one more time for emphasis. Last year’s game was brought up as a possible reason for why some of you are so mad that Yale was number one in the polls. You have been given ample opportunity to refute that. You can claim that nobody in ND cares about that game but you should answer the question as to why you care so much about this years polls. It’s been demonstrated that BC’s Strength of Schedule is not so good this year but you guys don’t seem to care about that. So here’s the question again, lobbed in nice and slow like a softball, why do you care so much?
      - hahahahahaha
        By the way, I was willing to accept Duluth as a top team. But then I checked their non-conference opponents and I wasn’t impressed. Lake Superior, Northern Michigan and Providence? All under .500. They beat just over .500 Clarkson twice but since they’re in the ECAC they don’t count, right? And they lost to North Dakota. 5-1-1 against weak competition (other than UND). But their SOS is high. I wonder how that could be. The intra-conference record of the WCHA has to be .500 by definition so it must have something to do with the OOC games of the other WCHA teams. I better check. If only there was a system that could take into account the other teams records and that of their opponents.
        /end sarcasm
      - ECAC needs a job
        you cant honestly think your arguments are any good. youre just a mindless drone that goes on and on and on and on about how yale beat und last year. that result has nothing to do with this year and makes you sound like an idiot. facts are facts and you cant deny that. 3 of the top 5 are wcha and most of the top 10 sos are wcha. its a lie to say the ecac is better than or even comparable to the wcha and you have to know that. any argument against is unnecessary
      - hahahahahaha
        yale beat und last year. that result has nothing to do with this year
        But listening to UND fans talk about their 7 titles is relevant? Because that’s what I was making fun of.
        3 of the top 5 are wcha and most of the top 10 sos are wcha. its a lie to say the ecac is better
        Nobody said the ECAC was better than the WCHA. You’re making up an argument nobody ever made and then arguing against it. Isn’t that called a straw man?
        Your argument seems to now rest on the idea that the best team must come from the best conference. That simply isn’t logical.
      - Do_they_teach_reading_in_ND?
        You really aren’t that bright, are you? He brought up last year’s game as an explanation as to why UND fans are so mad about Yale having been ranked number 1. He didn’t say it made them number 1 this year. Learn to read.
    - helmet
      ha ha ha union rpi need i say more hahahaha please
redwing
I walked from the library to my dorm close to midnight on sunday and I didn’t get frostbite on my feet, all I was wearing was tennis shoes and socks(cotton not wool). I made sure I was bundled up. But I would not be surprised if he was drunk. he is known for that around here. Besides what was he doing walking around late at night when most of the campus is dead. He’s definitely not some bookworm hitting up the library and few people are walking around campus late at night. I buy don’t this stoy one bit. A lot of people up here are talking about what really happened and its stupid and embarrassing.
- UNDalumCHITOWN
  Agreed. Very stupid. One of my friends lives in the building he lives in and knows the actual story. Said friend was approached by “some people” the next day that, in short, told him to keep his mouth shut. I will forever be a proud UND alum, but these kind of things need to stop. Sure, stupidity in college will happen, but when health is involved, it takes the issue to a whole different level.
  - Anonymous
    Ply the friend with whatever is necessary for the truth. The truth should be a wake up call for everybody!
Pingback: New faces at 2011 powwow : Body Building Blog | Free Fitness Tips & Body Building…
Siouxperman
What red blooded college boy, didn’t wake up at some during his college stint, roll over and look at what he ended up in the rack with after one too many schooners at Bonzers. Funny thing is, I don’t recall too many guys doing the walk of shame down frat row in G Forks.
Kristo
we are lucky kristo wasn’t driving in his condition. he would of ended up like frattin and have to take a semester off to make sure he learned his lesson only to be brought back by hak because the team was crap the first half. haha. tough punishment. keeping everything quiet is just a joke too. i think it makes the whole situation look worse. lets have another round und
http://twitter.com/mnsotapop D Mac
Everyone knows he was drunk, it’s not a big mystery!
Urshley22
yep frattin did screw up on several occasions, however I don’t think ANYBODY can make a claim against him that he hasn’t gotten his [deleted] back on track. most goals in the WCHA, points leader for the sioux & a hobey candidate…common open your eyes. you can rag on hak all you want, but I’m sure almost any school in the country wouldn’t mind him behind their bench. & you’re lying to yourself if you think differently.
Pingback: World Spinner
Pingback: UPDATE: North Dakota's Kristo sidelined indefinitely by frostbite … | North Dakota News
Pingback: India Journal: Have Mobile Phone Number, Will Travel – India Real … | Free Mobilephone reviews Blogs
Pingback: Travel Not Advise in Southern Third of State until Winds Subside and Roads are Cleared
Scsavre
The kid is from MN, obviously he knows how to take care of himself in cold weather. Anyone who thinks Alcohol wasnt a factor is just being foolish. What time of day did this happen.
Honestly, -11 isnt bad at all. I could easily do it in a light jacket.
In northern MN it was -46 actual temp a few weeks back, not windchill. Now that can takes moments to get frost bite. -11 and you are used to this weather. Come on, a solber person is not going to get frost bite. Sounds like the idiot was stumbling home drunk and lost his shoe. Who cares. It is typical for kids in college to get in trouble, however ND does take it to the extreme. Thugs.
Scavre
How many programs do you think would have taken Frattin back. Not many.
Oh and you guys from the east, get real your conferences are not even close to the WCHA, not even the CCHA. You might have a decent team here and there. But come on. I am stuck watching your games on Fox and it is like basketball. Your teams could have great records in the East, but you would have no where near the numbers in the grind of the WCHA. Come playoffs the east team always seem well rested, maybe it is their cake schedules. Unfortunately I think WCHA teams care more about our playoff tourny then the Frozen 4.
By the way WCHA teams have been in 54 of 58 frozen 4s.
North Dakota can tought their 7 titles all they want. I dont know any other team that got caught cheating for having ineligible 27 yr old canadians.
- Goalie Fan
  Just curious? Which team and who was the 27 year old~
Pcno17
No, of course he wasn’t drunk. Anyone with a decent pair of boots on, who keeps walking and moving to their destination–and who wouldn’t be walking and moving when it’s 11 below?–will be very unlikely to get frostbite. He was probably passed out in a snowbank, and lucky he’s not dead. Maybe Bochenski can teach him how to use a photocopier to make it easier to pay his medical bills. I’m sure the Canadiens are thrilled with their second round draft pick being so careful with his health and well-being.
- Pccu
  don’t think Bochenski knows how since using a copier was part of his senior year studies towards his major in working at Kinko’s.
UNDDrinker
so the fact that he came back and played good hockey is what matters? Not the character? Tells me everything we need to know about UND and the fans.
HillandLuciasittinginatree
The Ground Carp let Tyler Hirsch come back and your saying Fratting should not have been allowed back, lol! There isn’t a GM in the NHL that wants one of their kids playing for the Gophers. Listening to John Hill talk about how the big bad Sioux shouldn’t be allowed to pick on his players is great entertainment. He was an incredible failure even by Alaska’s low standards. And as long as Lucia is in place the exodus of players will continue.
Scsavre
They had ineligable players in the Late 50′s they were kicked out of the WIHL and the 3 Mich schools and MN refused to play against them.
Tommy
Hilarious how an article about Danny Kristo developed into an article about Yale’s legitimacy.
Tommy
Sorry meant argument about Yale’s legitimacy.
Pingback: I wouldn’t want Fairbanks in my team name either « tnlfinalcall
Pingback: Wuinnipiac university | TurkonKoloji
Pingback: Mana Orzell
Pingback: Hai Fuentas

Possibly related: