Seawolves Give Blogger Heartburn

The experience of watching UAA defeat defending champion Wisconsin tonight gave me heartburn. If every game turned out like this one I'd have to pony up for some Prilosec but luckily I've got a phat bottle of Tums Ultra here at home. The squad played well in most every facet of the game. Lawson was very solid in the crease and got excellent support when he needed it. Justin Bourne not only got a game winner in the 3rd period on a wraparound he also made a save on a Wisconsin wraparound chance in the 2nd period. Those two plays alone would have made him the 1st star of the game but just as he did last night, Justin contributed at both ends. There were no even strength goals in the game as the Seawolves did an excellent job limiting Bucky to 1 of 5 and managed 2 goals on their 4 power plays.

In the 1st period the Badgers managed just 6 shots on the chart but I only counted 5 (4 on their 3 power plays; 1 at even strength). UAA dominated the first period. It was just that simple but found themselves down 1-0 when Wisconsin scored at 19:00 while Kevin Clark was in the box for slashing (Coach Shyiak called it a selfish penalty). As a result he spent the rest of the night opening the gate on the bench. The 2nd period was much more even with both teams generating periods of dominance in the others zone. Cap'n Kronch's goal at 11:35 on the PP was a beaut beating Elliott high on the glove side from the top of the slot. Bourne's game winner came :33 seconds into the 3rd when a good wraparound effort resulted in a soft trickler through Elliott's five hole. UAA didn't sit back to protect the lead until there was about 5 minutes left in the game when the forecheck was lessened and three players stayed on the blueline. UAA killed off the 2 power play chances that Wisconsin had in the 3rd. Looks to me that Campbell Blair's efforts are paying dividends. The PK was excellent all night.

This victory was keyed by the upperclassmen. Justin Bourne, Peter Cartwright, Nick Lowe, Charlie Kronschnabel, Chris Tarkir and Merit Waldrop all led with their nonstop efforts. Ken Selby saw the most action he's seen as a freshman this weekend and accounted well for himself. Jared Tuton dished out more punishment with big hits all night and created much havoc in the Wisconsin zone. Josh Lunden and Paul Crowder continued their excellent play. Once again there was much to rave about in the defensive effort but I'd single out Chad Anderson's offensive contributions as special. There was a noticable change in UAA's power play with two defensemen manning the blueline vs. the forwards we've seen there so far this season. Chad had a rush tonight from deep in his zone taking the puck wide around a Badger defenseman then cutting in for a tight close effort on Elliott. It was the sort of play that was reminscent of Martin Bakula and easily could have turned into a goal. Up 2-1 late in the third UAA had a glorious chance to jump to a 3-1 lead but a Kronschnabel shot (on a big rebound from a Tarkir shot) rung solidly off the post after beating Elliott low on the glove side. Wisconsin pulled Elliott with just about a minute in the game but were never able to mount a close chance as UAA was good on faceoffs and scrambled to block shots and clear the puck. Tom Gorowsky threw a really cheap elbow at 19:54 of the 3rd that would earn him a night in street clothes if I were coaching the Badgers. I'd bet money (any takers?) he won't be sitting in the stands next Friday though. It was the same sort of late cheap shot I've seen over the years when Bucky has lost a game against UAA.

On the whole it was a good weekend for UAA. Though they lost on Friday in OT; but they scored a goal with an extra attacker to get the game to OT. And of course the victory tonight secured a couple of very important WCHA points. UAA sits in a tie for 9th with 5 teams above them having up to only 3 points more. A sweep down in Mankato could bump UAA as high as 6th place depending on other results next weekend. A sweep on someone else's rink is always a tall order but it will be important for UAA to get something down in Mankato against a Maverick team that got swept by Bemidji State this weekend.

EDIT: Here's a link to Andrew Hinkelman's story in the ADN ... oh wait. No it's not. Their website doesn't have one. A glitch I imagine. So for those of you without a paper version I'll retype a coupla things:

"That sent Wisconsin into a time wasting, no unecessary chances style of play, apparently content to see if the 1-0 advantage could hold up. After almost 10 minutes of trapping, mucking and grinding hockey to open the second period, the likes of which would put an insomniac hopped up on espresso to sleep, the Badgers took a penalty. That changed everything"

The rest of the story is the generally utilitarian (but good nonetheless) style typical of what you find in a newspaper account of a sporting event. But those three sentences above are deserving of a big pat on the back to our new UAA hockey reporter.

NUTHER EDIT: At 9:23am AST the ADN corrected the situation I described (@9:20) above and got the story onto their webpage.