1st Exhibition: UAA 9 - USNDT 2

Great to see the team tonight finally on the ice in a competitive game. Oops. I'd written the opening sentence a week ago for this post. Unfortunately, tonight's game was really not that competitive. UAA finished it's chances. U-18's (unlike last night versus UAF) didn't. I expected to be writing about things that the Seawolves needed to work on but based on tonights game that's very difficult to do. Most importantly though to me was confirmation that UAA's freshman class should have some impact this season. Kevin Clark was outstanding all night. Josh Lunden scored an absolutely beautiful goal late in the game. Paul Crowder showed great vision with his passing. Trevor Hunt and Nils Backstrom both looked like veterans.

Charlie Kronschnabel opened up the scoring for UAA with goals at 8:41 from Clark and Backstrom (on a 5min PP as a result of a somewhat soft CFB that earned last nights player of the game Jimmy Hayes a trip to the showers) and then at 14:31 from Cartwright. At 16:47 Merit Waldrop put UAA up 3-0 on Kevin Clark's second assist of the evening. The U-18's answered at 17:07 on a clean breakaway with Ryan Hayes splitting the D and beating Lawson low on the stick side. A minute later Shane Lovdahl scored his 1st of 2 goals on the night with assists from Bourne and Smith. 4-1 at the end of the first.

Josh Lunden scored his first goal as a Seawolf at 4:50 of the second period on a beautiful pass from Paul Crowder and a second assist to Clark. 5-1 at the end of the 2nd period.

In the 3rd period UAA ran up the score against what a Fairbanks fan called the "glorified AAA Midget team" on goals from Justin Bourne at 10:56, Merit Waldrop lasered a shot from deep and wide in the zone at 12:29, Josh Lunden beat two U-18 defensemen to the puck along the boards skated deep into the zone past them along the goal line and stepped out front to easily bury the puck on the prettiest goal of the night at 17:04 and Shane Lovdahl added his 2nd goal of the night at 17:30 with a high wrist shot from the slot. The second U-18 goal was a carbon copy of the first with CJ Severyn splitting the defense at the blueline and breaking in alone to beat Olthuis.

Goaltending for UAA was solid with Lawson facing 18 shots in a just over 31 minutes and Olthuis facing 10 in the remaing 29 minutes. UAA's shot total was a bit low with only 25 shots on goal. In a 9-2 win you'd think all the credit would go to the offense but tonight the defense lived up to it's early billing with a very solid effort. 4 of UAA's goals came on the PP but they didn't give up a PP goal. UAA comitted 9 penalties and the U-18's had 6 total.

It's a decent start and was fun to watch but I don't think it is necessarily indicative of what we'll see this year. It was after all an exhibition game against a bunch of 17 year olds; right? Results next week won't mean a whole lot either as UAA entertains Western Ontario down the road in Soldotna.

The Waldrop, Clark and Beagle line was dominant tonight. Justin Bourne looked like a different player than last year. Merit Waldrop is hopefully taking a step forward to become a feared goal scorer. I tried to notice everyone but it's hard to notice what every player does on every shift. I wasn't disappointed with Jared Tuton but will have to watch him more. Ken Selby's wheels are absolutely as advertised. Nick Lowe was more involved offensively than I've seen since his freshman year. And Cap'n Kronch showed intensity and good finishing skills by picking a rebound out of midair to score. There were UAA players in the slot all night long. They controlled and possessed the puck for long periods 5x5 with crisp passing and smart play. The defense broke up rushes consistently at the blueline both 5x5 and on the PK. Adam Corrin had as good a game as he had all last year both as a penalty killer and at even strength. Mat Robinson was paired with Luke Beaverson on defense and I think I really like that combination. The team never looked tentative. The passing was crisp. The attitude on the bench looked great.

All in all a pretty satisfying start.