Saturday, November 04, 2006

A Brief Review of the 3-2 Loss

I was too disappointed to write anything last night. I watched a game that I thought UAA was more than capable of winning. I wasn't enamored. There were enough minor execution errors that even just a 50% reduction could have resulted in a win. Obviously, credit has to be given to the Badgers who pulled out a victory. No doubt there was a big sigh of relief on their part. They made substantially fewer mistakes with the puck and I think more than anything else that was their key to victory. I didn't think the Seawolves played their best game in the "collective" sense.

Paul Crowder was solid all night and it was nice to see Coach Shyiak say some of the same things I'd been saying about his strength on the puck. Josh Lunden showed more physical play that I think I'd seen so far this year. He had a huge hit in the first period deep in the Wisconsin end that was impressive. Jared Tuton played all night on the #1 line with Beagle and Waldrop and while his play was impactful in a physical way (lotsa good hits) I didn't think the line was particularly dynamic. It looked more like three guys playing hard individually since there's no way I could characterize Waldrop or Beagle's play as poor. Justin Bourne got to a lot of pucks with his hustle and certainly led the team in # of shots attempted. I thought Chris Tarkir played a good game. I'd thought he'd been less than visible in a couple of games this year but last night his play was impactful. Matt Robinson was noticably the best player in the defensive end. And that's not taking anything away from the rest of the defensemen who all did a solid job in their own end. Nathan Lawson played well enough in the net that I'd expect him to play again tonight but getting beat high on his glove side on the first goal was a surprise to me. Overall he did what he was supposed to do in terms of giving his team a chance to win. Kevin Clark looked good in places but also had a couple of times where he was awkward. I would credit him though with breaking up a couple of 2-1 rushes when he found himself the last player. He also made a couple of good plays in Bucky's end as well as getting two Badgers to foul him in the 3rd to gain PP's. I didn't look at the faceoff stats but I thought that the Seawolves won more than their share. The one stat for UAA that is a big positve is that 3 times now this season they've scored a goal while playing with an empty net.

I thought the flow of the game was a bit choppy but I guess that was just how and where the penalties were called. UAA had more PP chances and in the 3rd period had about 90 seconds of a 5 on 3 where they were unable to convert. To me that was the pivotal part of the game. Converting at that point would have given the team a huge turn in momentum. I thought UAA was overall the faster team. Perhaps my expectations are too high but I can't help but feel that last night was another 2 points that got away.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah I pretty much saw Wisconsin playing pretty much the game they wanted to. Trap in the neutral zone take it up ice and keep it in our zone for long periods. We did earn our chances and i think part of the problem was that our younger players weren't ready for the badgers style of play. But Lawson played very well except for maybe the first goal, which I barely saw since i was down underneath the sully at the time.

Another note I tried to start some go home commies go home chants but the students are RETARDS half of them didnt even get why we were calling them commies. But I did figure out and almost got a good one out of some, after they take a penalty we go with the You, you, you... stinking commie. I liked it and then i told at least one of them to go eat some cheese.

Oh yeah and as you mentioned with the EAG in your article, our team is playing till the final buzzer, unlike last year where it seemed they gave up halfway through the third if they were down. And the guys faces after the game were as nasty as i think i have seen, NOT HAPPY, which is good some positives to take out and they took the defending natl. champs to OT but that isnt' good enough for them.

Donald Dunlop said...

All good observations ... thanks for those.

I'm thinking I've been wrong all these years that I've thought UAA crowds didn't need a cheerleading buttknob on the PA system (ala the Aces) in order to make noise.

There wasn't a single proactive thing that the crowd did last night to spur the team on. It was pitiful.

Anonymous said...

totally agreed, with that but i don't even know if a PA guy would help. I sit with students who unless I start a chant won't do anything. Even on the PK I have to start the D-Fence chants even if the team has had the puck in our zone for a whole minute. They just don't get it. I know there are students there that will spend the whole time just talking to friends and "hanging out" with out paying any attention to the game! Its disgusting is what it is. We actually even have a team that wants to play sixty hard minutes minutes of hockey, although maybe not the first five that seems to be the part we struggle with, and the fans don't care they just sit there. Personally I am becoming disgusted even going to the games just because I am tired of my throat hurting since I feel that I have to yell for almost everyone else around me, it just gets tiring night in and night out. hopefully someone will eventually get it figured out but I hope the athletic dept. hasn't sat around to long until it is too late. we have talked to them about changing things for years and finally they have taken some advice to get students involved but they are going at it wrong, but they might be headed the right way just hoping its not too late.

Anonymous said...

you have to find some one to replace that crazzy kid and the horse from last year his body is doing on awsome job but he needs some one needs to step up. I think uaa needs to offer a manditory 1 creidit class on on fan involvment this class would be taking as a freshmen and they would be shown how to fire up there team by exsamples from around the nations best atmospheres

Anonymous said...

spelling corection *buddy

Anonymous said...

This was a back breaking loss for this team. I watched it last night on TV. First horrible job of promotions for UAA. National champs in town and ANNOUNCED crowd of 3800. There was a promotion with kids infree. The rink looked looked empty on TV. Terrible. Two having a chance to get a point would have been big for the team. Very demorilizing to come out wiyh nothing. Could be 0-4 and looking at the next 6 games i don't see many points for UAA. Donald what is your opinion of these comments. Also i thought Crowder was really effective. But some guys were MIA out there. This could really snowball the wrong direction. Crucial game tonight.

Donald Dunlop said...

I actually haven't decided yet if I'm going to go tonight. I was disgusted when I left the rink. I guess I have to decide if 14 bucks is worth the risk of being pissed off again.

3800 sucks. This town ONLY turns out for a winner. That's why the Aces were on Ebay for sale two years ago.

As far as the impact on the team ... you have to take it a weekend at a team in this league. You can't look back or look forward. There are points to be won or lost every weekend and if you let past performance or future concerns worry you then you likely won't get any points.

The team attitude seems excellent this year. But last year midway through the season it took a turn to bad so I suppose it's a bit early to say that won't happen again. Who knows. Prognosticating is obviously not my forte'.

Winning tonight would boost the team's confidence.

Anonymous said...

anonymous @ 2:o2/3PM
STOP TOOTING YOUR OWN HORN!!!!

Anonymous said...

being part of the people who do promotions, yes the promo's did suck!!! Nobody knew what was going on, i had to fill in the last minute doing spotlights which i had never done before the other spotlight was not unlocked the fog machine wasn't working right, and nobody told spirit when to come on. then we had another group running the bowling thing and that was their first time and with too many people not knowing what was going on it was bad.

Anonymous said...

Yeah that crowd sucked last night. There is no will to cheer and make noise. I don't how many times I've been told to shut up and sit down. Like I'm annoying them from talking on their cell phones.

Anonymous said...

DISAPPOINTMENT IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT!
I am hoping that the team feels more up than I am right now!
GO SEAWOLVES!

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