Friday, January 16, 2009

Seawolves 4 - MSU-M 2

A relatively strong 3rd period tonight keyed an important win for the Seawolves. A late goal from Josh Lunden with about three and a half minutes left put UAA up 3-2 after the teams had traded even strength and power play goals in the first two periods. Tommy Grant sealed the deal with an empty netter but was cheap-shotted with a hard slash for the effort. Hopefully, it didn't do any permanent damage.

The game was a bit hard to follow as someone along the transmission path had a bad setting which crunched up the image and left probably 20 percent of the left and right sides missing. In any case, much of the game was played between the faceoff circles. I thought overall the Seawolves outplayed the Mavericks but honestly it wasn't by much; so the score is a pretty fair reflection of the play. Jonny O was solid between the pipes not having much of a chance on either goal.

Josh Lunden had the most chances to finish on the evening and his two goals are very nice to see after he had been in a bit of a slump prior to breaking it last weekend. There weren't enough power play chances to see if any of the work the boys have been putting in was effective. The 1st power play chance of the night was a bit frenetic at first as the Mavs were ultra-aggressive but once UAA gained solid control they did manage to get two solid shots through from the point.

In combination with last weekend and what I've seen in other the limited number of other league games I've seen, I have to say that WCHA referees have dramatically backed off the crazy strict rules enforcement we saw in the first half. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing quite honestly. I want to see the games played without all the whistles we had been seeing but it's tough to watch your guys get hauled down, held and interfered without getting a call. At minimum I counted 4 clear infractions on the Mavs that would have been penalized previously.

I would add more here but to be honest with you ... I'm trying to quit smoking and even though it is just day one I'm finding it hard to concentrate. I don't plan on mentioning it again but if my posting seems "off" over the next week or so that'll be why. When the gray matter is so used to nicotine it just doesn't want to crank along like normal.

Congrats to the boys. This was an important win. Tomorrow night it is just as crucial to get a win in order to have a reasonable position points-wise in the standings going down the stretch.

23 comments:

LetsGoMavs said...

The game really was back and forth. At times the Mavs looked really good and at other times horrible. Same with UAA.

Lunden had a nice game though, as did your goalie.

I was a bit annoyed with the dramatics on the alleged checking from behind on Kilburg though. Your guy (can't think of who it was) was skating backwards and ran into Kilburg and then dived to the ice very dramatically. Thul totally fell for it and Campion was shaking his head at Thul for falling for it. Sadly, after that a few of your player kept diving but didn't get the penalty they wanted so most stopped.

Overally really it was a boring game.

LetsGoMavs said...

Also, I miss Lawson. He was always my side show entertainment!! Your new goalie has to get into spraying his face down with Gatorade!!

On the penalties...both teams got away with many things that would have been called earlier this year. That is consistent with what I've seen in all WCHA games (Mav games and non-Mav games) since the end of November. Thank god they backed off on the penalty calling! That sucked to watch stop and go hockey.

Anonymous said...

whoa a opponent fan commenting first? what the hell is up with that? look: i dont comment on game day and we win, gotta keep this streak going. great 1st period(got some puck luck-glad to see it on our side) then marginal 2nd period, 3rd period was chippy. hard earned win, hope GRANT is okay. tonight the effort was there as was puck luck and we win. really like what i saw. lunden's finally getting rewarded for his work. mavs 2nd goal shouldnt have happened, a minor defensive breakdown and teams pounce. the empty-netter was a great shot-cheap slash. thats all i got.

Anonymous said...

Seawolves D skated tonight like they did earlier in the season. That was the difference.

Anonymous said...

A win is a win and the guys needed to win one. It was great to see Josh get back into the scoring mode. A win on Friday night and now they need to put two in a row and built their confidence. They sure did'nt play their best game but they won. I look for forward to seeing the guys stepping up tomorrow night and sweeping the Mavs.

Anonymous said...

I must say whether there were missed calls or not (and there were) the 3rd period was great from the standpoint of: the officials let the boys decide it and didn't do it for them. I will take that over 17 (combined)power plays like the Friday night CC game any day! Hey Donald I hear you on the quitting smoking...I am on the path to quitting chew (16 days w/o!) so I hear you. Keep with it!

Anonymous said...

Great win for us. Lunden came through like DD said he would. The way he has been going, I see Lunden ending up with 2nd or 3rd highest points. That game was won by Lunden and most importantly, Johnny O. I hope to god he starts tomorrow night. He is, in my opinion, the superior goaltender.

LetsGoMavs said...

Seawolves- Seeing the game in person I would not say that Johnny O was superior. Tormey had way more good..and some amazing saves than Johnny O. Johnny had maybe a couple pretty good ones but honestly, the Mavericks didn't give him that many shots that he had to be that great for.

I think your team would agree that Tormey was hotter than Johnny O last night. He stole some good ones from them.

Not saying Johnny O had a bad game,just an easier one. As mentioned previously by a UAA person, your D stepped up and helped him a ton....wish Tormey would have had more of that.

Lunden was impressive, it's sad that Clark had to keep being cheap and dirty to bring a cloud over your team though. Others looked good and really Clark was the only one bringing negativity to your team.

Those are just my observations...straight from the blue line about 10 rows up, so I see a lot:)

Donald Dunlop said...

LGM:
The goalie reference was Olthuis v. Christianson.

There isn't a team in the WCHA that wouldn't love to have Clark. He's skilled and intense. He does whatever he needs to do to help the team. He did draw the CFB smartly, Kilburg had plenty of time to see the name on the back of Clark's sweater though. So it's all on his stupidity.

LetsGoMavs said...

Oops! Totally didn't get the goalie thing. I thought the person meant who was playing last night! I don't know what Christensen looks like but Johnny O looked good. Stopped what he needed to. Neither of the Mavs goals were soft.

I don't know that I would want to have that Clark guy. Seems like a punk and that gets old. I like players that run their mouths and hit and stuff (like Kalinski..your favorite Mav alum!) but I'm not into cheap stuff. That gets old. If memory serves me right, I think I first observed that about Clark when UAA took a game from the Gophers at Mariucci in the play offs a couple of years ago. That was him, right?

Personally, I would rather have Lunden.

Donald Dunlop said...

Clark had a great game that night against the Gophers so yeah ... I can imagine you noticed him.

I most often compare Clark to an old NHL guy called Kenny Linseman though Theo Fluery wouldn't be a bad comparison either.

Anonymous said...

Nice to see donald back at UCHCO.COM after you were banned for a few years...

Anonymous said...

Congrats, seawolves. Keep rollin' with a sweep this wknd. Glad to see Johnny O out on the ice last night. Hopefully it will be the same line up tonight.

Donald Dunlop said...

Um ... no.

I wouldn't go back there unless I was invited and allowed to use the same exact name ("Drop The Puck") that I used before.

I told USCHO before they banned me that all they had to do was ASK me not to post there and I'd comply ... I never be part of a club that doesn't want me.

Unknown said...

Why'd you get banned Donald? Too smart for everyone there?

Donald Dunlop said...

I got banned because a St. Cloud fan knew a moderator and my most excellent ongoing pwnage of that particular doofus got to be more than he could handle.

Previous to that my inability to withhold my disdain for flagrant stupidity landed me in the box more often than I should have allowed it to.

Anonymous said...

I only watched the first period as we had an engagement, then our power was out until about 20 minutes ago.

I agree about the refs easing up on the penalties. A Mav player tripped a UAA guy on a good scoring chance, brought him to his knees, no penalty. Then a UAA guy had his stick grabbed then pulled out of his hands, no penalty.

I imagine it has to be hard on the players not having any consistency.

What's up with the slash on Grant? Was it two handed? Did he have ice on his hand after the game? Hope he'll be okay. That is just too cheap. Talk about Clark being cheap when your team pulls that crap? Come on!

Unknown said...

Don- I understand. I hate stupidity too, i.e. everytime I read Goon's horseshit.

I enjoyed your bitchslapping of him though.

Anonymous said...

Wow. 7-1. I have never seen such a horrible power play. (or game) What is with keeping the same useless powerplay game after game.....USELESS! It is time to sit some players. Wow. If you want to be a shit disturber on the ice, do it by putting the f-ing puck in the net. I for the most part respect coaching decisions, but not of late. What the hell are they doing?

Anonymous said...

College Hockey blogger stop sucking up to Donald.

Donald Dunlop said...

He doesn't need to suck up to me. That's funny. He's got a damn fine blog and is 2,000,000% more literate than Goon.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure that was either goon or his boyfriend Brandon posting that.

Anonymous said...

Dirty's diatribe is also pretty lame.

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