Post Game Interviews vs Minnesota State 2-11

A really short interview from Coach Shyiak as your idiot blogger forgot to charge his camera and the battery died in the middle of the interview. Oops.

Another close game where a single mistake did the Seawolves in. It is often a broken record that seems to be going on this season. I will defend to the point that it is, for the most part, not Coach's fault. Some onus needs to be taken by the players on their own play. They are after all, adults and should be held responsible for their own faults and successes. A coach is only responsible for so much.

Post Game Interviews vs Minnesota State

Back to the old ways it seems. Just when things seem to get going good the Seawolves come out and lay one out. Yes, the Seawolves scored the first goal on the PP but a bad second period lead to the Seawolves being 2-1 down. Another PP goal tied things but some bad play in front of the net gave the Mavericks the winner.

Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes. Mistakes will be punished. It is a hard lesson that needs to be learned once and for all.

"Not In Our Barn" Week

Welcome to the 1st unofficial UAA Seawolves and the official UAA Hockey Fan Blog "Not In Our Barn" week.  The second half of the season and the convenient six-game homestand haven't exactly gone the way the team and fans would have liked.  So I think it's an excellent short-term goal to not let Mankato think for a minute that they can come into the Sully and take any points.

Winning Saturday is the Better End of a Split

Never doubt that your favorite Seawolves blogger knows how to have a good time.  A win or a loss certainly doesn't dictate that eventuality.  That said (yes it's an overused phrase), enjoying yourself after a nice win certainly has it's advantages over enjoying yourself after a loss.  And let's be honest here ... I should have said "another" loss.  Anyway, I'm currently in the first referenced state of mind.

Post Game Interviews vs Duluth 2-4

The Seawolves win tonight 3-2 over #1 Minnesota-Duluth. It was game that was polar opposite of what had been happening for UAA. The Seawolves were giving up the first goal, often early in the game. Tonight they scored first, very early on. They'd fall further behind and end up chasing the game. Tonight, the got the second goal and made UMD chase. They weren't getting stellar goaltending. Tonight Rob Gunderson gave his best game of the season (and despite Matt Bailey's two goals, Gundy was my #1 star vote). The defense was mistake prone and giving up goals. Tonight, the defense was solid in preventing easy shots and giving Gundy a clear look at the puck.

This is a win that can go a long way. Time will tell if the Seawolves can carry this foward to the rest of the season...

Interviews tonight with Coach Shyiak and Rob Gunderson.

Post Game Interviews vs Duluth 2-3

Interview tonight with Coach Shyiak. No thoughts from me, I don't feel like repeating myself...

Seawolves vs Ugly Dogs

The Seawolves record versus the incoming and defending national champion UMD Bulldogs in the last twelve contests is 5-5-2.  Past records of course don't really mean anything on the ice this coming weekend.  What might matter a wee bit more is that UMD is 17-5-4 and UAA is 6-16-2 so far this season.  They come to town after getting only one point on their home rink versus MTU last weekend.  The Seawolves lost a pair to them back in November; 5-0 and 3-1.

Pictures From The Weekend

Post Game Interviews vs Denver 1-28

The Seawolves lose tonight to Denver 6-3. The Seawolves suffered what is becoming an all too familiar start giving up 4 goals in the first period and one in the second to go down 5-0. The Seawolves came back and made a game of it by scoring three straight goals to make it 5-3 with Naslund, Sproule, and Gellert scoring. But a late 5 minute major by Brad Gorham knocked off any chance of a comeback and DU added a PP empty netter.

7 straight losses will not do anything positive to the psyche. The Seawolves are a desperate, young team in dire of a win but, wins do not come easy at this level. The team is not playing terribly overall but, like I said last night, momentary lapses can kill you. The question remaining is whether the players can step up and gut out some points.

Post Game Interviews vs Denver 1-27

The Seawolves are, as Coach Shyiak puts it, in a "tough spell". 6 losses in a row can generally put a damper on things and it seems UAA may just be playing for not finishing in 12th. The Seawolves are not playing terribly. It is a matter of defensive lapses costing goals and not enough scoring punch. The mistakes seem small but in the unforgiving WCHA even small mistakes will be punished. UAA is young team that, to a certain extent, needs to find itself and do some growing. But in this league, it's not easy for team that needs to do it.

Interview tonight with Coach Shyiak.

54 Days, 21 Hours and 34 Minutes

Such is the number representing the amount of time between the end of the last home game on December 3rd, 2011 versus UND and this coming Friday night's game versus DU.  That's 4,742,440 seconds.  Four-million, seven-hundred forty-two thousand, four-hundred and forty seconds.  

Or seven weeks if you prefer simplicity.

That's a long time since we've been at the Sully.  And now of course there's three home series in a row.  That feast or famine cliche seems obvious but nevertheless appropriate.

Wisconsin 4 - Seawolves 0

Being outscored four to nothing doesn't necessarily mean you were outplayed by that much.  I thought tonight's game was closer than the score would indicate.  The difference to me was that once the Badgers got up by 2 goals they really played well in the neutral zone and in their own end.  The Seawolves were hard pressed to manufacture scoring chances.  

Not Time To Scream

Just a quick review of the this past weekend at MTU and a short look forward to this coming weekend at Wisconsin.  Obviously, Friday night was pretty brutal.  Sounded like there was some good play by the team but the breakdowns were too much to overcome.  Giving up quick multiple goals is always a killer.  Good on Dusan Sidor for his play on Friday which was good enough to get him the Saturday game.

Game Day: Seawolves @ MTU

There is no TV.  You can purchase a video stream at Michigan Tech's website.  Gametime is 3:07 Alaska time.  

I have confirmation that Rob Gunderson's absence from this trip has nothing to do with academics.  He was one of the players who missed practice on Dec 28th coming back late from break.  

Feel free to pop into the Chatango Room ... that chat box on the right column... over there ----> .. ya know?  I should be in there and listening to Kurt's call on the radio.

I'm Back ... But Everyone Else Isn't

Blog vacation over.  Bummer sorta for me.  But hockey this weekend against MTU should get me back into the required mode.  There is more to touch on than I hoped there would be.  Mickey Spencer is no longer on the team.  Everyone always wants to know the background when one of these departures occurs.  I'm not privy to any details.  Nor should I be.  Here's a fact about college hockey; players leave their teams sometimes.  And it's for a variety of reasons.  

WCHA Offensive POTW: Mitch Bruijsten

Junior Mitch Bruijsten's Friday night hat-trick in Colorado Springs to lead the Seawolves to a 6-3 win earned him WCHA co-Offensive Player of the Week honors.  Congratulations to Mitch on receiving the award.  Here's most of the text from the league's announcement:

Bruijsten, a 6-4, 205-pound junior right winger from Nijmegen, Netherlands, posted his first collegiate three-goal hat trick (on just three shots) to help the Seawolves to a 6-3 WCHA road victory over No. 6-ranked Colorado College last Friday (Dec. 9) at Colorado Springs World Arena. With his team trailing 2-0, Bruijsten netted an unassisted shorthanded goal at 17:37 of the first period to close the gap to one and then tied the game at 2-2 with a power-play tally at 3:00 of the second. After CC regained the lead at 3-2, Alaska Anchorage rattled off four straight goals to secure their first win over a top 10-ranked team, with Bruijsten completing his hat trick with a man-advantage goal at 3:00 of the third period to earn No. 1 star of the game honors.

Seawolves 6 - Cutthroat Trout 3

There is a difference between not scoring and not being able to score.  The Seawolves showed tonight that they are able to score.  And doing it should help erase the idea from their minds that they are not able to score.  

They've shown excellent offensive tendencies in the first four games of the season scoring 4+ goals a game.  Had tough streak for the next 8 games scoring only 7 goals during that stretch.  And now in the last 5 games they've come close again to the 4 goals per game mark with 19 goals.

This team CAN score.  Nuff said.  Hopefully tonight's result builds some confidence amongst our boys.  From Kurt's always excellent call it seemed that CC imploded and the Seawolves took advantage.  Congrats to Mitch Bruijsten on his hat-trick with the first coming shorthanded.  Nice.

Don't expect CC to piss down their leg again tomorrow night.

Here's the boxscore.  

Note: I'm mired deep in a cold right now folks.  I haven't had a cold like this for quite a few years so I'm keeping this short.  I'll have a post on new recruit Austin Sevalrud as soon as I can get to it.

CC Cutthroat Trout? Better Than Tigers

In the past I've asserted that the CC Tigers had the absolutely stupidest nickname in the WCHA.  That's saying quite a bit with as much as I hate UND.  Of course, Mavericks and Bulldogs are pretty close contenders for the stupidity crown.  College sports team's nicknames should reflect some geographic attribute or regional cultural or something with some sort of local interest.  With Tigers being no closer than about 8000 miles to Colorado Springs it gets the retard crown.

Perspective: Have Some Please

It appears that some of us fans are frustrated with our team's performance this season.  Well, as head Internet cheerleader for the Seawolves it's incumbent on me to say a few things.  Let's take a look at reality shall we?

Post Game Interviews vs North Dakota 12-3

There is a malaise of sorts hanging over the UAA hockey program. The team is losing and not playing well, the players seem frustrated, and the fans seem either uninterested or frustrated themselves. It's tough to be young team finding it's legs in the WCHA as mercy is non-existent. Once again a small time frame with a lapse in play was the doing in for the Seawolves, this time North Dakota used the second period to build a 4-1 lead and never look back.

Interviews tonight with Tyler Currier (the best player this weekend in my opinion) and Coach Shyiak.

A trip to the Springs and CC beckons before the holiday break and then a 10 day road trip to kick off the new year.

Post Game Interviews vs North Dakota 12-2

Tough loss for UAA tonight as NoDak scored 3 goals in the first ten minutes that they made hold up in a 5-2 loss for the Seawolves. Interviews tonight from Curtis Leinweber and Brad Gorham.

... And The Horse You Rode In On

You other fans have no need for me to discuss exactly what being a fan of a team means.  It's a bit different for everyone.  One aspect of being a fan of a particular team often might mean that you hate another team.  The word hate scares a lot of people.  Not me.  What follows is a description of my hatred of UND's Fighting Sioux hockey program.  Don't even click the read more below if full use of language offends you.  

The Only Good Indian Is A Dead Indian

A comment in the last post gives rise to today's preview of the upcoming series against UND.  An anonymous person hoped "for more red meat stuff".  Okie doke ... there is tons of "red meat" stuff that I read every week.  It comes from the ever adroit UAA Sports Information Department put together by the polished and professional Dallas Baldwin.

Scalp The Squaws!!!

I didn't have much to say Saturday about how the guys played since the overwhelming sense I got from that night's game about the refereeing overrode everything.  But there were some nice performances from some guys that should be highlighted.

First Thoughts On A 3 Point Weekend

Points was what I said this weekend would need to be all about.  Regardless of referees Matt Ulwelling and Craig Welker doing everything they possibly could to insert themselves into the result ... the Seawolves held on tonight for the 5-5 tie after winning 5-4 on Friday night.  A three-point road weekend in the WCHA is always real nice.  They led tonight at one point by a 5-1 margin and just thereafter lies the biggest part of the story of an overwhelmingly queer game.   The referees.

Designated Rivalry Weekend Preview Extravaganza

It's a big "WCHA Designated Rivalry" week for the Seawolves as they head down to Mankato to face the purple Mavericks.  Of course, that really means nothing other than it's the one team that UAA faces 4 times year in and year out.  It's hard to say if that familiarity has bred any dislike between the squads over the years.  I have no sense of such a thing for whatever that's worth.

UAA/MTU: Saturday Thoughts

I was gonna use my game notes to write a recap and pretend that sitting in the press box had some usefulness.  Watching the team lose a game 5-0 that really wasn't a five to nothing game is tough on a fan.  I saw a certain couple of fans that I know never leave early getting up and heading to the car with about 4 minutes left.  So let's talk eh?

Post Game Interviews vs Michigan Tech 11/19

In the grand scheme of things, your team will occasionally play like the best team in the world, others they play like Nanooks in disguise. Tonight UAA played like Nanooks in disguise. Outworked, out hustled, outscored (but not outcoached as some dunderhead spoke, how anything that happened in that game was because of coaching is on another plane of existence) the Seawolves endured another frustrating night of poor effort and missed chances.

Interview tonight from Coach Shyiak only, players were unavailable by the time I needed to get out and get out home, apologies there.

UAA/MTU: Friday Night Photos and Recap

During the game last night I was proud of myself for making sure that I wrote down thoughts and observations as they occurred to me.  I've tried making such notes in the past and rarely used much of it in my final posts.  But last night I put gold onto the page.  Pure genius.  Unfortunately for you guys ... the browser window on the graciously loaned Windoze netbook I've been using wasn't actually on the interwebs ... and so all that hockey blogging gold went for naught.  It was frustrating so I went to bed and put this off til this morning.

Post Game Interviews vs Michigan Tech 11/18

Seawolves win tonight 3-1 over Michigan Tech, breaking a 6 game losing streak and picking up their first win in WCHA play. Interviews tonight with Mark... errr Eric Scheid (sorry about that Eric), Corbin Karl, and Coach Shyiak.

A win tomorrow night would bring UAA out of 12th (and move North Dakota to 12th).