50% of the participants in this years Kendall Hockey Classic are named after a breed of dog made famous in Jack London's excellent book Call of the Wild which coincidentally takes place in Alaska. Both UConn and Northeastern are nicknamed "Huskies". Don't UAA fans see enough Huskies watching our conference counterparts Michigan Tech's (original) Huskies and SCSU's aptly-named Bluffskies? Did Iditarod champ Lance Mackey have something to do with scheduling these teams?In any case, the Northeastern Huskies and the UConn Huskies are certainly not comparable beyond the nickname. Preseason wisdom has NU coming into 08-09 as perhaps one of the top teams in the Hockey East conference. UConn looks to be one of a number of struggling-to-succeed teams in the generally weaker Atlantic Hockey conference. Of the four teams in this weekend's tournament only Northeastern has managed to get any respect in any preseason poll. The premier (FWIW) preseason poll has NU ranked at #21. Last year the NUskies finished with a 16-18-3 record and this year's roster this year has 17 skaters returning as upperclassmen. Leading scorer from last years team Joe Vitale (6'1" 194lbs .... 12g-23a) returns. Former BCHL standouts Wade MacLeod (5'11" 175lbs ... 11g-16a) and Tyler McNeely (5'10" 175lbs ... 11g-12a) return after a stellar freshman campaigns as the 2nd and 3rd leading scorer. Several UAA players will be quite familiar with both of them. Senior Ryan Ginand (5'8" 184lbs ... 10g-10a) rounds out the primary scoring threats. There is some slightly muted excitement about freshman Steve Quailer (6'3" 184lbs) who was described by some NU fans as being fast. In net the NUskies will be looking to another former BCHL player as former Merritt tender Brad Thiessen returns after with reasonable numbers (2.64gaa ... .912sv%). On the whole this NU team is slightly undersized as compared to UAA (the Seawolves are more than an inch taller and almost 7 pounds heavier). The Seawolves face the NUskies on Saturday night in the late game (11:07 EST).
UConn fans will get to listen to their team lose to UAA early Saturday morning their time (00:07EST). The Connskies return to play after a 13-21-3 record in 07-08. They return 10 of their top 10 scorers from last season with 6 of those 10 entering their 2nd year of college hockey. Atlantic Hockey Coaches picked the Connskies to finish 8th out of the 10 teams. There is an Anchorage connection on UConn's roster; former Merritt Centennial goaltender Brad McInnis from Anchorage looks to perhaps be in a backup role this year but don't be surprised if he gets a start here in his hometown. At least the other UConn players will have a bit of a tour guide with them to help them navigate around town. Forward Andrew Olson (6'3" 200lbs ... 14g-10a) returns as their leading scorer. The Alexandria, Minnesota product came to UConn from Des Moines in the USHL. Junior Chris Ochoa (5'8" 170lbs ... 10g-13a) ranks as the 2nd leading returner. Playmaker Justin Hernandez (6' 200lbs ... 2g-15a) is entering his 2nd year in a UConn sweater after playing in both the BCHL (Langley) and the NAHL (Springfield) in his two previous seasons. Michael Coppola (5'8" 185lbs ... 8g-6a) and Jason Krispel (5'11" 180lbs ... 7g-7a) round out the primary scoring threats for the Connskies. The Seawolves face UConn on Friday night and have a similar size advantage over the Connskies as they do over the NUskies.
It is useless as far as I'm concerned to preview the Nanooks (that's a Bear thingy) since UAA doesn't face them in this fixed tournament format. The tournament winner will be determined by win/loss record. That shouldn't be an issue since UAA will likely be the only team to win both of it's games. Here's why; while NU looks to be a quality opponent they haven't played an exhibition game yet nor have they had as much practice time. UConn doesn't look to be an especially strong opponent (but then look at Robert Morris's success last year) and they are in the same situation as the Nuskies with regard to practice and playing actual games.
Unlike many tournaments this format (with UAA and UAF not playing) provides fans here with something to cheer for in both early and late games. In the early games we UAA fans can cheer for UAF to lose then of course cheer for our Seawolves to win in the late games. This has the potential to put more butts in the seats. Steve Cobb and Forrest Karr are to be congratulated for this agreement. There are UAA fans in Squarebanks and likewise there are UAF fans here in Wankerage. Add those to whatever fans travel for to the other city for the tournament and we should definitely see MANY more seats filled than in previous years. I sat in a virtually empty rink (less than 500 people) last year and watched Robert Morris upset BU. It was a shame the joint was so empty. I expect many Seawolf fans to show up and watch the UAF games this year. Many will actually be cheering for UAF. There is this whole provincial philosophy of cheering for UAF by UAA fans that I frankly don't understand but it is what it is. Obviously, I won't be there cheering for UAF. So for Northeastern and UConn fans ... I'll be cheering for your team (against UAF) just like I did for Robert Morris in the BU game last year.
8 comments:
Cmon Doyle Chubber lets get the ADN going on some Preview..Im thinking about emailing Donalds stuff to ya...Wolves need some Marketing...We need some support this weekend.
I just wanted to let everyone know that the "Coach Shyiak Show" is back for year number 2. First showing should be tomorrow night on GCI Ch. 1. We have added an e-mail segment this season as well, so if you have any questions that you would like the coach to answer on the show I will do my best to get them on. Send your questions to: dtuttle@jpc.alaska.edu
Keep them clean please so I can read them on the air w/o having to edit on the fly!
To be fair to the ADN I think that they usually have some sort of tournament preview spread don't they? I haven't seen anything written by Andrew Hinkleman on their sports pages lately. Did he leave? Is Doyle going to go back to double-duty? And what I wrote here was nothing special anyway ... any cub-reporter could have come up with the same basic facts that I did.
David,
Thanks. Should be? LOL. Do you have the scheduled time? I'll promo it tomorrow if someone emails me the details. Will the shows be archived on the web as they were last year? If so, let me know the links and I'll put up permanent links to each show in my right-column.
any chance that the Kendall will be tape delayed?
GCI did announce a TV schedule and I thought it included all games except DU and UND (and it sounded like they were still negotiating those ... typically UND wants bigger bucks than everyone else to rebroadcast their signal). So my assumption is the UAA games will be on sometime that evening on tape delay. They usually start at 11 local time.
From what I understand it will run just as it did last year. Wednesday night at 7 (I think) and then again before the games re-air on Friday and Saturday nights. The UAA games from the Kendall will be tape delayed but not the UAF games. If I can get the links for the show on the web I will pass them along.
Should be...yes, I wish I could be more confident in GCI's capabilities!
that would be great if you could put The coaches show on the web.
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