Fox 9 Sports Now: Catching up with Team USA, MSU-Mankato coach Mike Hastings

MINNEAPOLIS - The 2022 Winter Olympics have wrapped up in Beijing, which means coach Mike Hastings is back with the Minnesota State University-Mankato hockey team.

Hastings coached the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team, and the Americans came home disappointed, without a medal for the third straight Olympic games. The team consisted of mostly college, junior and minor hockey league players after the NHL opted out of the Olympics for the second straight time.

Optimism was high for Team USA after finishing pool play 3-0-0. But Team USA was sent home early after losing 3-2 in a shootout in the quarterfinals to Slovakia. The Americans had a 2-1 lead until Slovakia tied it in the final minute of regulation, then stunned Team USA in the shootout.

"They came together rather quickly. I think we played a very entertaining style of hockey," Hastings said. "When you have an opportunity, and we had some good looks. We had some really good opportunities in the overtime and the 3-on-3 to end it, and to lose it on a shootout was difficult."

Before leaving for the Olympics, Hastings had the Mavericks playing at a high level. MSU-Mankato is 29-5 on the season, has won nine straight games and is 16-1 at home this season. The Mavericks are currently No. 2 in the PairWise Rankings behind Michigan, No. 1 in the U.S. College Hockey Online rankings and won the McNaughton Cup as the regular season champions of the CCHA for the fifth straight year.

Sunday night on Fox 9 Sports Now, Jim Rich caught up with Hastings to talk about his experience at the Olympics and look ahead to the rest of the season with MSU-Mankato. Watch the video for the full interview.