The Seawolves aren't playing the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks this weekend. They're playing the UAF's "Alaska Nanooks". I gave my thoughts about the name change back when it happened. I'd heard that they wanted to change the name to University of Alaska-Alaska for best the emphasis of their whole "we represent the state milieux". Until someone pointed out that the University of Alaska-Alaska would leave them with the initials UAA and that might present a problem for vendors and shippers. Good thing they didn't go with that or who knows ... some team equipment they'd ordered might not have gotten there in time for the season. The University of Alaska-Fairbanks Alaska Nanooks ... not redundant at all. Yes. I'm rolling my eyes.
I believe there are a number of keys for UAA to come back from Fairbanks leading the race for the Governor's Cup. Obviously scoring more goals than UAF would be a good start. The 'nooks have scored 11 in their first two games. UAA just 8. Both squads have given up 4 goals. We all know that the teams swapped results with common exhibition opponents. That sure doesn't help give us any idea which team might be stronger this year. They're pretty happy with rookie Dion Knelsenchuk up there. His 2 goals and 3 assists are tied for the team lead and I'd expect from what I hear that he'll be placed there most of the season. Kyle Greentreechuk, Adam Naglichchuk and Curtis Fraserchuk are UAF's other main scoring threats but as often is the case in this rivalry, anyone might step up and bite ya in the ass.
For UAA to win they'll need to take advantage of their power play oppotunities and continue to limit their opponents chances by taking fewer penalties (not possible this weekend ... as there'll be PLENTY of penalties) and continue with the good penalty killing (as detailed in this ADN article). It's just that simple this weekend. Special teams will be the key. The team that combines the best effort on the PP with the best PKing will come out ahead. Recent history tells us that ... in the last three seasons the two teams have combined for an average of 35 penalty minutes per game. That's a good eight or nine penalties per team per game. Anticipating something similar this weekend would be prudent.
I see the Seawolves as being a fast team (overall it's perhaps the fastest team I've ever seen at UAA) and I'm curious if UAF's team speed matches up. These two games will somewhat be watershed events for both squads. It will be the most intense competition either has seen so far. If one team comes away with 2 wins this weekend I'd look for them to possibly do some damage in their early conference schedules. If one of these two teams loses both games it could give them some confidence issues. So while these games are important in terms of getting an edge on winning the Governor's Cup; they are equally important early season games that have the potential to effect either team in a big positive or negative manner.
Anyhow; here's UAA's weekly release. I don't see any evidence that UAF does a weekly release but here's a link to their "News" page.
___________________________________________________________I believe there are a number of keys for UAA to come back from Fairbanks leading the race for the Governor's Cup. Obviously scoring more goals than UAF would be a good start. The 'nooks have scored 11 in their first two games. UAA just 8. Both squads have given up 4 goals. We all know that the teams swapped results with common exhibition opponents. That sure doesn't help give us any idea which team might be stronger this year. They're pretty happy with rookie Dion Knelsenchuk up there. His 2 goals and 3 assists are tied for the team lead and I'd expect from what I hear that he'll be placed there most of the season. Kyle Greentreechuk, Adam Naglichchuk and Curtis Fraserchuk are UAF's other main scoring threats but as often is the case in this rivalry, anyone might step up and bite ya in the ass.
For UAA to win they'll need to take advantage of their power play oppotunities and continue to limit their opponents chances by taking fewer penalties (not possible this weekend ... as there'll be PLENTY of penalties) and continue with the good penalty killing (as detailed in this ADN article). It's just that simple this weekend. Special teams will be the key. The team that combines the best effort on the PP with the best PKing will come out ahead. Recent history tells us that ... in the last three seasons the two teams have combined for an average of 35 penalty minutes per game. That's a good eight or nine penalties per team per game. Anticipating something similar this weekend would be prudent.
I see the Seawolves as being a fast team (overall it's perhaps the fastest team I've ever seen at UAA) and I'm curious if UAF's team speed matches up. These two games will somewhat be watershed events for both squads. It will be the most intense competition either has seen so far. If one team comes away with 2 wins this weekend I'd look for them to possibly do some damage in their early conference schedules. If one of these two teams loses both games it could give them some confidence issues. So while these games are important in terms of getting an edge on winning the Governor's Cup; they are equally important early season games that have the potential to effect either team in a big positive or negative manner.
Anyhow; here's UAA's weekly release. I don't see any evidence that UAF does a weekly release but here's a link to their "News" page.
Other Semi-Interesting WCHA Notes:
Can you believe that Denver's Glenn Fisher was "nominated" for Defensive Player of the Week in the WCHA last weekend? The kid had a good night on Friday only to turn around and give up 4 goals on the first 11 shots he faced on Saturday. The Pios won on Friday and lost by a 3 goal margin on Saturday. I guess someone thought he kept DU from going 0-2 and that was worth DPOW? I wonder if Peter Mannino "nominated" him.
Did you know that CC would have been the champion of the Nye Tournament if UAA had lost the shootout? I guess nobody told them. It appeared that the team left. They just weren't interested enough to stick around? Merrimack stayed. I hope they never invite CC again. Hey Ron Jeremy ... you're a class act. Not.
Mankato is 1-1 thanks to WCHA referee Brad Albers who obviously isn't from South Bend. His OT call to give Mankato a power play with about 2 minutes left was even criticized by Mankato fans.
Finally, there's not much interesting happening in St. Bob. So click this link (stolen from jimjamesak) for something 10 times better than bobbing.
11 comments:
so if i remember right, the "ak" nookies are a heavier team than our beloved wolves according to the CHN almanac which seems to make it a reasonable conjecture to assume that they would be slower but you never know how fast someone will be on the ice.
How would CC have won if UNO had won the shootout??? If my memory serves me correctly UNO had lost the shootout against CC 4-2. I guess maybe if it went by goal differential, which maybe CC didn't recognize. But anyways the whole tournament set up is pretty whack. We should have winner against winner and that would be a much better decision.
oh yeah sorry to add another post but yeah i noticed the fisher thing too and was like what??????
CC would have won on goal differential. Ron Jeremy is a putz of a coach.
UAA scored more goals than CC did, so I still don't understand how CC would have won?
anon @ 5:21, the tournament was winner against winner.
Did you read the whole article? Albers gave Notre Dame like 6 straight minutes of 5-on-3 time until Notre Dame finally scored in the second period.
suze it was only luck that the turnament woked out winner v. winner. If CC had beat UNO it would have been a diffrent situation. A 5:21 is corect the set up is wack
Suze:
CC scored 7 goals and gave up 2 for a +5 differential
UAA scored 8 goals but gave up 4 for a +4 differential
Chris:
If it wasn't a penalty it wasn't a penalty. Making a call to make up for crappy earlier calls is BS.
Hey alright spreading the word of Red Vs Blue.
JJ:
Certainly far more interesting and entertaining than ANYTHING about St. Bob would have been.
I was just pointing out that his incompetence evened out. You made it sound like it benefitted Mankato, when it was the exact opposite for about 63 minutes.
Post a Comment