Tonight the UAA Seawolves put a nice little thumping on #3 ranked UND. The Sioux jumped out to an early 1 goal lead at 3:38. The Seawolves answered though just 1:53 later when Kevin Clark smartly carried to center on a 3-2 waited for the first sign of a committing defender and dished the puck square to Josh Lunden on the left wing. Josh took a couple of strides and fired a high wrister to the left side to beat Anthony "rebound" Grieco. Pretty goal. The Sioux would score their last goal of the evening at 9:48 to retake the lead but (in a period that saw lots of end to end action); the Seawolves knotted it at 2 when Chris Tarkir picked up his first goal of the year at 14:10 after a nice play by Nick Lowe to get the puck on net. Nick skated in and fired a low wrister from the dot to the wide side which Grieco had to kick out (he was too deep in the crease maybe) and Tarks just had to bang it home.
UAA opened the second with Paul Crowder's gwg on the PP just 34 seconds in. Paul stripped the defenseman halfway to the corner behind the line and spun out leaving him beaten then step out to enough of an angle to toss the puck through Griecos pads. It was a great effort and a pretty goal. Kevin Clark finished a goal made by Josh Lunden just 2:06 later; Josh was in deep and skated clear with the puck to make a stuff attempt at the corner. Grieco made the intial stop and the puck was knocked in by Clark. Then at 18:16 Justin Bourne added a power play goal with a "wicked snappah" that couldn't have possibly been any more in the corner of the net. Game over man.
Nathan Lawson was sharp in the net. During one of the 3 times that Hakstol pulled his goalie in the last 6 minutes Nathan had an opening for a shot at an empty net goal. He corralled the puck, took a look and fired it high but an outstanding effort to block the shot by a Sioux forward kept Nathan from what I'm sure he is ITCHING to do ... score a goal. I sit up top center ice and I could see the lust in Nathan's eyes from there. The PK was great all night shutting the UND PP down on all five chances. Jay Beagle continues to impress with his effort on the PK. It's a really valuable asset for the team and I know the Anchorage crowd appreciates that effort. The Cartwright, Corrin, Tuton line worked hard and created some chances for themselves with forechecking and cycling but I'm not sure they had a full night of shifts as the bench looked shortened a bit in the 2nd period. In any case, it was a good team effort all night.
I thought Mark Smith played his best game of the year. Luke Beaverson and Chad Anderson both played well too. Mat Robinson was his usual stellar"ness" and Nils Backstrom is just going to get better and better ... and maybe even better than that. Shane Lovdahl looked good all night contributing with some nice hits, blocked shots and an offensive chance or two as well. Coach Shyiak returned defensemen to the point on the power play and the Seawolves went 2 for 5 on the evening. That's a good result. Special teams are important eh?
One of the best players on the ice tonight for the Seawolves was 6'7" 252lb UND defenseman Joe Finley. If he wasn't giving the puck straight to a Seawolf in his own zone then he was committing a stupid penalty. There were more than just a few people near me that I heard shouting "We Love You Joe". And we did. God bless the poor bugger. North Dakota fans will be blaming Grieco but there was only 1 of the first 4 goals (the Clark goal) that he probably should have stopped. UND played better in front of Walski as well. Blame the nose picking defenseman (Chorney) that Crowder left on the boards. Yeah the same Chorney that pitched a hissy fit halfway through the 3rd and got himself an extra ten minutes for his peewee antics. It was nice of Shepherd to let him watch the rest of the game from the box instead of insisting he go to the dressing room.
UAA opened the second with Paul Crowder's gwg on the PP just 34 seconds in. Paul stripped the defenseman halfway to the corner behind the line and spun out leaving him beaten then step out to enough of an angle to toss the puck through Griecos pads. It was a great effort and a pretty goal. Kevin Clark finished a goal made by Josh Lunden just 2:06 later; Josh was in deep and skated clear with the puck to make a stuff attempt at the corner. Grieco made the intial stop and the puck was knocked in by Clark. Then at 18:16 Justin Bourne added a power play goal with a "wicked snappah" that couldn't have possibly been any more in the corner of the net. Game over man.
Nathan Lawson was sharp in the net. During one of the 3 times that Hakstol pulled his goalie in the last 6 minutes Nathan had an opening for a shot at an empty net goal. He corralled the puck, took a look and fired it high but an outstanding effort to block the shot by a Sioux forward kept Nathan from what I'm sure he is ITCHING to do ... score a goal. I sit up top center ice and I could see the lust in Nathan's eyes from there. The PK was great all night shutting the UND PP down on all five chances. Jay Beagle continues to impress with his effort on the PK. It's a really valuable asset for the team and I know the Anchorage crowd appreciates that effort. The Cartwright, Corrin, Tuton line worked hard and created some chances for themselves with forechecking and cycling but I'm not sure they had a full night of shifts as the bench looked shortened a bit in the 2nd period. In any case, it was a good team effort all night.
I thought Mark Smith played his best game of the year. Luke Beaverson and Chad Anderson both played well too. Mat Robinson was his usual stellar"ness" and Nils Backstrom is just going to get better and better ... and maybe even better than that. Shane Lovdahl looked good all night contributing with some nice hits, blocked shots and an offensive chance or two as well. Coach Shyiak returned defensemen to the point on the power play and the Seawolves went 2 for 5 on the evening. That's a good result. Special teams are important eh?
One of the best players on the ice tonight for the Seawolves was 6'7" 252lb UND defenseman Joe Finley. If he wasn't giving the puck straight to a Seawolf in his own zone then he was committing a stupid penalty. There were more than just a few people near me that I heard shouting "We Love You Joe". And we did. God bless the poor bugger. North Dakota fans will be blaming Grieco but there was only 1 of the first 4 goals (the Clark goal) that he probably should have stopped. UND played better in front of Walski as well. Blame the nose picking defenseman (Chorney) that Crowder left on the boards. Yeah the same Chorney that pitched a hissy fit halfway through the 3rd and got himself an extra ten minutes for his peewee antics. It was nice of Shepherd to let him watch the rest of the game from the box instead of insisting he go to the dressing room.
5 comments:
Chorney is a punk, and I'm glad he missed the second half of the third.
The wolves played very nicely tonight, hopefully tomorrow will be a strong night, too. The season is looking up.
There is different attitude and level of confidence with this UAA team. In years past we would let anything and everything get us into a funk and we go into the tank. We would not have enough confidence to go to the net. This year, the guys don't hang their heads when we get scored on. The guys seem to tighten their chin straps and get right back in the game. In years past we used to scream and plead for 60 minutes of hockey. We used to be Jekyl and Hyde, not sure which team would come out after the intermission. This year, I don't worry so much about the anything being left behind in the lockerroom. I like the look of this team, a lot.
I watched the game on the net and the ND forum at the same time. althought most comments were about the lame camera, crowd and announcers. some were, "when did UAA get so good?
Great sweep Seawolves. That Sully had great atmosphere this weekend.
Donald, I thought I picked UAA to win and tie, but I correctly picked them to Sweep! Sweet.
Good for you then. Sorry I dissed ya about it. I think more than a few Seawolf fans that have been picking against them will be converts in the future.
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