MTU's blood ... UAA's guts. A very gutty performance (or as Howard Cosell would say, "a display of intestinal fortitude) is what I heard and saw. Congrats to the guys. 2 points is a reasonable result on the road in the WCHA. A split on the longest road trip of the year makes that return trip a bit more enjoyable. I have to say heard and saw because once again the MTU streaming from JumpTV sucked. I managed to "see" about half of the game with the various dropouts and when it did finally stabilize I had no audio. It's always an interesting experience to listen to Kurt 30 seconds ahead of the video feed. Makes the video sort of like a replay. I only saw the Grant game winning goal which came off a nice rush with Paul Crowder who made no mistake finding Tommy's stick waiting in the crease.The Seawolves penalty woes continued tonight with MTU getting two long 5-on-3 opportunities in the 2nd period. But tonight the penalty kill bent without breaking. Bryce Christianson was apparently very sharp inbetween the pipes (webcasts don't afford a detailed view) as Kurt praised several of his big saves. If Rob Nolan was one of the key's to MTU's win on Friday then Bryce was certainly a big part of UAA's win tonight. Tons of credit also has to go to anyone and everyone who spent any time killing penalties. I didn't see the Kane Lafranchise CFB so I won't comment on that except to say that his victims blood inspired this post's title (obviously nobody wants to see anyone injured so hopefully the kid Kane checked just has some superficial blood).
I'll have more analysis-type commentary tomorrow.
18 comments:
I saw the hit by Kane, from a side angle though, and it looked like a good call.
UAA is extremely fortunate to get 2 points out of this series. If they don't pick up their game, and stay out of the penalty box, they won't be winning any games against Mankato this weekend.
Christianson was unbelievable tonight !! Great job
I agree, Bryce stole tonights game. Well, and the penalty killers played awesome. I hope Bryce gets the start this next weekend.
Very happy with 2 points tonight! Congratulations to the team for tonight's victory. I was bummed that we didn't get an empty netter at the end to even up for the one they got the night before.
Great job by the guys, even though they had penalty problems again tonight. I also hope Bryce gets the Friday night start, in fact I believe he has shown so far to be the best betwen the pipes. John didn't give up any softies last night but he didn't win one either. From the way Kurt describe the game, Bryce had a heck of a game and may have won a game for the team.
Will, I watched the game on video, and Bruce absolutely stole this game for UAA. He was awesome. See ya this weekend!
any time you are out shot 29 to 14 and give the other team 9 powerplays to your 2 including several 5 on 3s you have either a hot goalie or are lucky or.............BOTH ...that was Absolute highway robbery tonight also congrats to Tommy Grant scored 3 out of 4 goals for the weekend...I think we are a solid team this year with alot o character...
About penalties, this is from the USCHO:
Denver’s George Gwozdecky is helping his team adjust to the new system by “penalizing” the players in practice.
“The only way you can break habits is by practicing the proper way,” said Gwozdecky. “If they get back to their old habits in practice, we’ll blow it down, we’ll whistle it and we’ll penalize them. Now obviously they don’t serve a penalty in practice, but they get penalized by having to do skates, challenging skates and things like that so that hopefully, they start to realize that hey, they’re being held accountable.
“They’re held accountable in a game, they’re going to be held accountable in practice.”
Congrats, Donald, on your team's win tonight. :)
I can go back to being a UAA fan until January! Yay!
How about the Wolves...TIED FOR SECOND IN THE WCHA......UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!! WILL TAKE IT.......
I listened to the audio off the splash zone on the goseawolves website and the stream came in clear.
We were able to pull a win out while allowing seven penalties, which is always nice. But when we go up against other teams such and UND and MINN, we gotta stay out the box in order to stand a chance. In all reality, MINN is taking the WCHA by storm, but UAA has some real potential of making some noise.
Winning games at home, and splitting games on the road could spoil trouble for other teams. One thing that hasn't been mentioned, we are only one win away from tying our win column in the WCHA from last year(yeah, we had 6 ties last year but still).
We have a tough couple of games coming up against Mankato and Zacharias has been crazy good, 47 saves on friday against MINN. As much as I want to say we will walk over Mankato, they got our number, we are 2-11-3 in the last four years, including 1-4-3 at the sully.
With Bryce's performance tonight, I pray he starts next week.
Just FYI, following the CFB, Brett Olson returned to the game in the next period, so he is apparently OK.
Congrats on your road split, Christianson definitely played a big role in stealing one for your team tonight.
stay out of the damn box wolves. having that many penalties against cc du minn & ND will not win u games.
Spoon
The broadcast was much better on Saturday night. Stay out of the box UAA. We knew Tech wasn't gonna give us many pp's, but we still managed to give the opponent 5+ power plays, which we have done every game we have played this season. Defense on special teams was fantastic, but Christianson was exceptional. Mankato gave up 9 goals this weekend and the Gophers went 5/19 on the pp including a 4/8 performance on Saturday night on the small ice (Xcel Energy Center). The Mavs went 1/15 on the pp. If we get 9-10 pp's a night, I think we have a legitimate shot at 2-4 points this weekend. Less penalties = More scoring opportunities. GO SEAWOLVES 08-09!!
Things look a little better for UAA so far. If they get 3 of 4 from MSU then I think they might be for real. The only problem with UAA is they don't have any real snipers like the top teams in the WCHA have. There's no Jimmy Kilpatrick (CC) or Ryan Stoa/Jay Barribal(MN) type scorers. So Bryce better keep it up and UAA better improve as the season goes along about burying chances.
By the way, anyone know of any outdoor rinks in Anchorage ready to skate on? I hope so, it's been cold for weeks, getting a little ridiculous not to have outdoor ice yet.
You could argue that UAA doesn't have any real "snipers" (although I don't agree, I think Lunden and Grant are pure goal scorers), but UAA gets goals from a variety of players.
If a team has one or two snipers, it's easy to shut them down. Not so easy to stop a handful of guys who can put the puck in the net. This team is about teamwork.
Howard in Anchorage-
there is the rinks near the Sully, Lake Otis Elementary, Scotty Gomez off of Lake Otis(off a side street between merrill field and northern lights) and occasionally goose lake, but goose lake doesn't have goals
great effort and it was a nail biter at the end, true lets c if we can gut out a win at Minesoda or at CC
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