This coming weekend in Fairbanks there's gonna be a fight. It's a New Year's weekend in a semi-rugged midsize Alaskan frontier town. It has bars. There'll be lots of people in the bars. They'll be drinking lots of adult beverages and as will happen in such places someone will cross the line and someone else won't like it and you've got a bar fight. Fairbanks is progressive enough to have bouncers though so even though it is a rugged frontier town such things rarely (if ever) rise to the "good old fashioned" bar fight stage. Ahhh ... Civilization has replaced chaos and I suppose we're all better off for it. Besides ... there is still hockey. In Fairbanks this weekend the Carlson Center is the place to experience a taste of the old fashioned. It's always a barn-burning in-your-face toe-to-toe fight.
This weekend is the end of this season's fight for the Governor's Cup. I've never seen the actual Governor's Cup. I don't know if it is bowl shaped or chalice-like. I don't know if its brass, bronze, silver or gold. Is it big or could you drink a cuppa joe out of it? It doesn't matter to me. It's a symbol of hockey dominance in the state. Most importantly to me: have any UAA players seen it? Ya know ...the owner has all the bragging rights. If UAA fans and UAF fans were locked in a room together to argue about which team is better; the UAF fans don't have to say a word. They just have to point to the cup (whatever it looks like). That's easier than saying 10-5-1 (UAF's record vs. UAA over the last four years). That fine record is a result of some brutal hockey games. 5 games won by a single goal. 5 games won by two goals. 5 games won by 3 or more goals. Virtually every contest has been a bitter fight regardless of the score. UAA and UAF players have much notorious hatred for each other. The Governor's Cup series defines the word bitter in "bitter rivalry". Anyone even vaguely familiar with this series has a sense of the bitterness. It is in fact the only thing you can predict about this series with any measure of accuracy. It'll be bitterly fought. And No; the answer to the important question is ZERO UAA players have "seen" the cup from anywhere except across the ice.
Will UAA "see" it this weekend? Unpredictable. It isn't out of the realm of possibility but in order to do so, many things will have to come together for the UAA hockey team. They'll have to get good goaltending. They'll have to play their best defensively (both 5 on 5 and shorthanded). They'll have to find ways to put the puck into the net. Over the last 7 games UAA has been doing mostly all those things. Nathan Lawson has played 5 and 2/3rds of those 7 games and UAA is 3-4, which is substantially better than the previous 7 games where UAA posted 1-6-1 record. Nathan is healthy and seems to be back on top of his game. Defensively UAA has been steadily improving throughout the season. Coach Shyiak no doubt has harped on the team about being responsible in thier own end. They're all pretty much giving it up for the cause by blocking shots. They're closing off passing and shooting lanes well. The penalty kill has become quite respectable when compared to the sieve it was last year. The offense? ... um well lets just say it hasn't turned anyone's head. That could be a problem this weekend.
If UAA players can score 3 or 4 goals each night this weekend they have a damn good chance to "see" the Governor's Cup for the first time. If not then I hope they packed the opera glasses because that's the only way they'll get a close up.
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