Saturday, September 30, 2006

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.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!! Isn't so funny how the guy from uaf campus was ragging and the westernblog about how UAA might be the US teams first loss looked a little different tonight. Man we just controlled that game! Hopefully the chemistry that was there and just the whole having fun out there attitude that the team had can carry through the year. If they can play at that level most of the year we will surprise and upset some teams in the WCHA!!! Is to much to already mention the cup coming home?

Anonymous said...

Great recap Donald. I don't want to take too much from this game either, but it sure was nice to see the players haveing FUN out there. They deserve that.

I gave it back to the anonymous poster - but I think UAF will be just fine this year. But having watched both teams play this weekend, the edge goes to the Seawolves for sure.

DC said...

I WANT BULLDOGS HOCKEY!!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH.

Way to go though.

Anonymous said...

Face WCHA teams, we'll see how "competative" your crappy team really is.
Enjoy the basement as usual losers

Anonymous said...

you know this guy is a pain in the ass. If you dont like the wolves get off the blog and I dont know were you are but if you are in anchorage get the hell out and move to squarebanks. The guy from UMD he is cool he thinks his team is the best but at lest he can give props were props are due.

Anonymous said...

How "CompetAtive" are we junior?
We are UAA fans that like to talk about UAA hockey, good bad or indifferent. Don't you have a pre-algebra test to study for or something more constructive to do with your time?
Mike

Anonymous said...

Just cannot believe that UAA got outshot against the U-18 team. Josh Unice is terrible in the net. But if you get outshot in that game how are you going to score against Zaba, Mannino, Elliot and Briggs when you only muster 23 shots on net. Even Donald can't back that up.

Anonymous said...

mmm as i recall in the past we beat Briggs when the gophers out shot us I Beleave John Decaro and Nate the great saved 50 plus shots to post wins. last season we beat dakota when they out shoot uaa its not the number of shots taking it is where the shot is taken hell CC out shot and out controlled the game last night agents calgery but lost why because they took shots from up high on the point with zero traffic in front and they bearly capitalized on there power play. Calgery scored 4 goals on power play. The golden shits can shoot all they want from up high on the point and maybe get one or two past the goaltender. The badgers will not be out shooting anybody this but very few ppl will get shots on the badgers either they have lost a lot of O but man there D is still amazing. THe wolves took shots that were from good scoring areas and I was happy to hear them fighting for rebounds. I really dont see any negitive in the preseason so far.

Anonymous said...

I have question were was mr. Lyle Woods on saturday night the PA announcer at the sully was not MR. woods for years I have always thought woods has bee on of the best PA guys in most of college hockey if any one knows if he will be back for the ragular season or if he retired please tell.

dggoddard said...

Nice start to the season for the team and the UAA Blog. Glad to see UAA scoring goals again. Good luck this season.

dggoddard said...

BTW, nice job of changing colors on the background. Big improvement.

Donald Dunlop said...

LOL. Anon@4:21 is not from Anch. There is a little icon at the bottom of the page. It not only count's visits it tells me all sorts of lovely information about the post.

So thanks for posting Anon@4:21 and welcome to "This Is Your Life"

City: Fargo, North Dakota
Hgt: 5' 7"
Wgt: 139 - (dude-eat a burger. really ... or 3)
Occupation: Gofer to someone more important...
Age:25
Favorite Color: Prairie Blonde ...
Favorite Saying: "Yes sir. I'll get that done right away:" ...
Turn ons: Trolling (he calls it "cruising") ...
Turn offs: Guys with beer bellies ...
Favorite Band: William Hung ...
Favorite Food: Spinach Salad ...
Personal Motto: Humiliation is a "doddle" ...
Life Goal: Finding a hockey team that can win an NCAA playoff game ...
Favorite Saying: Tie between "Mommy!!!" and "Daddy!!!!"

Donald Dunlop said...

dg:
Thanks. Nice comeback to DU!

DC said...

Ummm...

Am I "The Guy From UMD Giving Props Where Props Are Due?"

Ugh, why even bother correcting?

Anonymous said...

anon @ 8:45, Unice and Phillips have been taking turns playing for the U-18 team. Unice had a save % of 0.965 before UAA, and you say he isn't that good? Right.

Donald Dunlop said...

RWD:
Let me apologize for the UAA fan base which is of course generally the most progressive when it comes to gender neutrality but may have (in this isolated instance) err'd by using "guy" in the same way as Neil Armstrong used "Man"kind.

DC said...

Oh come on, not only was I called a guy, but the "he" pronoun was used.

I need to be more of a bitch. Then there would be no question.

OR MAYBE PEOPLE SHOULD READ MY BLOG BECAUSE IT'S BRILLIANT and my picture is in my profile.

Donald Dunlop said...

Hey,
I linked ya earlier this week. I can (and do) lead horses to water all the time ... I'd complete that cliche' but then my cliche' allottment would be dangerously thin heading into the season.

You must have a couple of regular anchorage readers by now? Or am I the only one in Anchorage riveted by the LaP "milieux"?

Anonymous said...

Competitive and UAA are not words that go well together.

DC said...

You are, as always, my #1 favorite reader, and isn't that what matters?

And I saw La P in person tonight.

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