The First Official Correspondent

Late last week a UAA fan in Green Bay emailed me that he'd be attending Friday nights game in Houghton. He wondered if I might be interested in a report from someone at the game. I think I said "Hell yeah .." or something like that. This is one of the things I hoped this Blog would generate so I'm thrilled that it was offered. Big thanks to Jeff Boness for his contribution. I'm looking forward to the future as it sounds like he will be on hand in Mankato in a couple of weeks. Take it away Jeff ...

Jeff Boness
October 28th, 2006
UAA Fan Blog Correspondent
Green Bay, Wisconsin

Ok here it goes Donald; because of midterm papers and a project, I was only able to go up to the Friday night game which you have already described as brutal and tough to listen to as a UAA fan. The trip started with skipping 1 class and my freind Andrew skipped 2 classes so we could get there in time to stop at the Subway for dinner.

Andrew, his brother Zach (very questionable road trip music taste) and I piled into the car and started on this grand trip to Houghton. The 3 of us have never been there before and so this was going to be a great adventure... so after having to flag down an old couple on the side of the road (crossing in to Michigain and Wisconsin twice) and nearly getting killed in a head-on collision (with a red jeep liberty giving us the finger) we finaly rolled into Houghton set with high hopes.

Now the game ... well the puck was dropped and from then on out it looked like it would be struggle, UAA missed their checks, they ran into each other and knocked themselves out of the play. They gave up the puck on bad turnovers and some poor mental mistakes were made as well. I think some of the teams youth cought up to them and it being the first conference game I dont belive it is panic time. The Coach said, "Thats why we play on saturdays" as well after the game. The passing looked off and Tech just had their stick in every passing lane. I am going to try to stay as positive as posible; UAA had some chances in the first but could not capitalize and then after the bad turnover that led to the shorthand goal, they started to look flat and even more confused. I am not sure if it was playing in the Eastern time zone but they looked sloppy and did not communicate well. For the first time seeing them play live I was sad for I have watched the games on TV and they'd looked sharp: It was an "off" night. I cant put all the blame on the goalies, for they were left high and dry on many rushes up the ice and just got beat by good shots.

Bright spots ... (that were few and far between); even down 9-0 they did not stop fighting, even with a 1:30 left in the game Jay, Charlie and Bourne were playing their hearts out trying to get one and the other players responed to this and never gave up. I think even though they had very very off night they showed more heart than I have seen in a Seawolf team in a few years. I think they learned something valuable about the team. I must give Tech's goalie credit: he was not forced to work a lot during the game but he was forced to make a few briliant saves. And also ... I would like to thank MeanEgirl from the Tech hockey blog for help that she gave to me when I asked her about going to Houghton (she is going to be at the games in Anchorage so UAA fans be nice .. but give her a hard time as well).

I hope I thanked Jeff for his contribution profously enough that it encourages him to hit some of the other venues down there when UAA visits this season. In his email to me Jeff was a bit overly concerned with quality saying "... so if it sucks ..." ... well it didn't suck. I'd encourage Jeff to rag a bit on "Bad Music" Zach (purely for entertainment purposes) but otherwise I'm thankful for having a set of eyes to convey a perspective from the road. Does this mean I have a "minion"?