Seawolves vs. Gophers Preview

This weekends series has a distinct difference from virtually every past series between the Seawolves and Minnesota. The sun isn't shining out of Gopher players asses. There is much lament and consternation in Gopher fandom. A near constant stream of wailing from Dinkytown rooftops of "Why why why" can be heard on most every weekend. The Gophers have fallen flat on their faces this season. Early on they lost Ryan Stoa for the year. At midseason Kyle Okposo jumped ship in search of better stats in the AHL. Year after year Don Lucia's toughest job has been to manage the personalities of his Minnesota High School All-Star NHL draftees. Generally, he's just had to pick and choose amongst the dearth of "blue chippahs" and throw them out on the ice and he'd bag 25 wins. But this season with the same youth issues as everyone else in the league and those two important personnel losses tDon is having to go back to his roots and actually do some hockey coaching.

There has been the full gamut of criticism in Gopherland; from the reasonable assertions of an off-year in the increasingly parity-ridden WCHA to back-turning by fans all the way to calls for Lucia's head. Like any large grouping of "things" though it's mostly adhered to a bell-curve with lots of head scratching and sighing amongst the majority of Gopher fans. Long time Internet Gopher fans have mostly been smart enough to not provide other fanbases with too much ammunition and have even shown a sense of humor with regard to the season their team has had. Good on them. Perhaps a nice little lesson in humility was due eh? I seriously doubt we'd have seen the same sort of reaction in Slightly Less Than Dismal Forks had UND taken the downturn experienced by Gopher fans.

There are some similarities to note between the Gophers and Seawolves this season. The Gophers have lost 9 games by 1 or 2 goals this season. UAA has lost 11 games by 1 or 2 goals this season. The Gophers have 8 ties and UAA has 7. The Gophers are scoring 2.47 goals/game and the Seawolves are scoring 2.34 goals/game. Their power play is 13.1 percent and the Seawolves are slightly better at 14.1 percent. Lastly, I think most people honestly believe that both teams are indeed better than their records would indicate. The number of close games and ties both teams have would tend to support that belief. In the two games these teams played in the middle of November the Gophers scored 5 goals and the Seawolves scored 4 and the teams split the series. That's where the similarities end though as far as I can tell.

UAA is substantially bigger than the Gophs. It isn't the biggest difference in overall team size we've seen this year but it's significant. UAA is 2nd tallest, Minnesota is 10th tallest. UAA is 5th heaviest, Minnesota is 38th heaviest. The Gophers are coming off a series with Wisconsin where they seemed to get their offense on track scoring 4 goals both nights against the Badgers including 4 power play goals. The Gophers aren't a simple team to characterize as to overall style this season. I'd say that the one thing I've gleaned from watching them play and reading what others say is that they aren't necessarily strong along the boards. We can expect their power play to be dangerous with their best chances coming on passes to the weak side (backdoor). They don't have anyone that has seemed to be particularly dynamic coming off the blueline with the puck but I wouldn't say they aren't dangerous in transition. If UAA allows a cherry picker to float they could definitely get burned. I think the Seawolves learned some lessons about playing overly aggressive on the power play against DU. I think that lesson is to be a bit more patient and not push too hard. Against DU they got burned with a couple of overcommitments on the power play though to their credit those were potentially high reward situations with the team already behind on the scoreboard. One key to preventing that from happening again will be to get an early lead.

If the Seawolves can score first and then maintain their offensive pressure and make the Gophers go 200ft then they can be successful. The hitting game will have to step up to spur that offensive effort. Puck possession in the Gopher zone will have to be high. The cycling game will have to produce. UAA will need to keep their penalties down and they'll need to cash in on whatever extra- man chances they get. There's no big magic here to get a couple of wins. I think Shyiak will have to be on top of the line changes this weekend. Match ups will be important. The Gophers aren't rolling 4 equal lines. The Seawolf checking lines will need to be on the ice against the Gopher scoring lines. Again, there's no genius in that observation. Blair Tassone, Chris Tarkir and Jared Tuton have three of the best 5 plus/minus ratings on the team and the Seawolves will need them to shutdown UofM's #1 this weekend. The last non-genius thing I can say here is that the goal scorers need to score goals. Plain and simple. Clarkie, Lunden, Crowder, Cartwright, Waldrop and perhaps Parkie and Grant need to bury the puck.

I don't think there is much else to say. Some well-executed fundamental hockey is needed this weekend. Good luck guys ... at least you won't be blinded by all that sunshine that usually shines out of the Gophers asses eh?