Bryce Christianson's performance this past weekend has earned him the WCHA Defensive Player of the Week honor. His 46 saves in back to back shutouts of UAF was the hands down best performance by an individual WCHA player on the weekend and it was a foregone conclusion that he'd grab this award. In his last 8 games Bryce has a save percentage of .925 and a GAA of 1.75 per game. For the season his numbers are .898 and 2.45.Bryce is currently delivering the types of performances that were lacking for much of the season. He is giving the team in front of him an opportunity to win whenever he plays. I don't think anyone could ask any more of him than that. Congrats Bryce on the excellent performance and of course for receiving this well-deserved recognition.
14 comments:
with bryce playing hot in goal, let's get those forwards scoring, and strong defensive play, and who knows maybe a great play-off round.
All the best seawolves.
Good luck in minnesto-duluth this weekend.
Fan
Congratulations Bryce. It's a well deserved honor. You make us all proud!
Not a shock there. And wow, I didn't realize what a strapping young man Bryce was... ;)
I'm a big fan of the soul patch.
... I miss Justin Bourne. :(
Congratulations to Bryce but the reality is he has really been good the Whole year with the exception of a couple of series against Wisconsin. People forget he started out 3-0-1 and was singled out with Tommy Grant in the CHN article at the top of the blog as a major factor early on. Thru Mid November the article stated he was at a 910 sv pct and an stingy 1.97 ga so factor that in with an impressive 5 or 6 number 1 star selections and huge wins in places like Denver and I think that states the case for an hell of a year overall not just of late.(sorry donald) Several of his ties UAA had no business even being in the game but came out with points. The Minnesota series was an absolute beauty and he has a chance to be the first Goalie in how many years to have a winning record if Duluth goes like this weekend against Fairbanks. Another stat that a couple of fans were chating about last weekend is that so far to date he currently sits first alltime amoung seawolf goalies in GAAs so considering the great goalies that have played here that mis nice company to be in. Hopefully other Alaskans will follow him to UAA because he is a great example of the success you can have when given a chance at Big Time College Hockey..The coaches deserve some credit here for him and the others who shut the door on any talks of "another second half slide". In fact its on to the FINAL FIVE and its my prediction as this weekend showed we are for real,
Seawolves Fans: Don't forget to vote for the UAA Leon Thompson Fan Favorite Award. Bryce is in the lead right now with 35.9%. Cast your vote before March 22 for Kevin Clark, Bryce, Tommy Grant, Paul Crowder or Nils Backstrom by going to the home page of www.goseawolves.com. Scroll down to the lower right hand corner of the page to place your vote.
GO SEAWOLVES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I made a post about a month ago that UAA needed a real D1 goalie. Maybe he just needed the confidence of being the coaches #1 pick, but since that post, Bryce has played stellar goal. I will eat my words. Keep up the great play, you have given this team the tending it needed to win every game you have played since being given the top billing.
The thing is JSthlin is we need more people that are passionate about Seawolf Hockey like yourself and the rest of Donalds commentators who chirp in on the blog. Its real easy to say the things you did when you read Fluff pieces from he ADN like the article Doyle Woody did in regard to the new standard for Goalies in regards to save percentages around the time of you comments. That article pointed out that the new bar should be around 920 instead of the standard bar which has generally been accepted at 900 for most levels as the bottom line for good goaltending. This is Aanother clear example of an unsophisticated Article on Seawolf Hockey like we get from the ADN. What Doyle failed to mention is that the goalies with exceptional save percentages were all on Dominate teams at there levels with "A" level Scoring support, "A" level Defense,"A" level special teams ect.. A Goalies save percentage is closely tied to there teams success. Last Place teams normally dont have Goalies with 930 and above save pct for a variety of reasons. While I dont know the level of hockey you have played or Coached but it is fair to say that most casual fans or even passoniate ones are swayed by what is written especially in the ADN and on the internet. Whats even worse is so are Pro Scouts that maybe see a player like Bryce stand on his head then go to the WCHA statiscs and could dismiss him solely based on a low save pct. Or with out a doubt they will use that as a negotiating tool when trying to sign him in the future for less money. As was pointed out at 915pm the goaltending at least when Bryce was in the net has been good with the exception of a couple games. The other thing with the goalies at UAA Save percentages is that it has been brought up by Donald for years and many times by others that we have a major problen the way shots are recorded at the Sullivan Arena. Last weekend was another clear example of inaccurate recording of Shots for both teams. I mean 12 shots to 15 for the game. I watched. There were clear undisputed shots not counted and and way more than 2 or 3...Cmon where else do you see games like that other than the Sullivan. Can any one do an anyalsis on the shots recorded per game at the Sullivan vs on the road for the Seawolves. How about Bryces and Johhny Os save pct at home vs the Road. I guarentee it will tell the story. I will say it. They and every other Goalie coming into the Sullivan are getting screwed. The Seawolves dont change there style and go into a shell all of a sudden at home. This fact alone in my estimation would affect there save percentages as much as 10 to 15 percent if it was being done like at every other arena in the WCHA. Other programs even give the goalie the benifit of the shot if its close. Like it should be. The bottom line is this will affect how much money a Goalie could make and sign for in the Pros and is a very serious problem that needs to be corrected and as pointed out in this Blog several times. Maybe its a sight line thing but it is to hard to evaluate shots where the scorekeeper is sitting. I would like to think that is the problem but feel sorry for the Goalies that this will affect them as much as it does now and for the beginning of there pro careers. So my point is JStehle is your a stand up guy its just we all make comments on the understanding of the situation and I just dont think that you might have had the background to be as informed as others. One thing I think we acan all say is that the GAA is not subjective and that is a clearer indicator of bryces actually play and we will all take 3rd overall in the WCHA as fantastic for him and the TEAM because as he pointed out in the ADN last weekend..."Its the Team".
The athletic dept. was supposed to have someone on the UAA bench counting shots and comparing these to what the official came up with. Has that happened? It's a huge problem at the Sully, and has been for a few years now.
Just another example of the AD not doing anything about a clear problem. FIX IT.
What is important is not bryces save percentage but how well the forward and defense play in front of him. Und's goalie is not as talented as bryce but there team limits the close in shots that score goals. Let's show bryce in minnesota-duluth how talented this team is, don't wait for next year, lets go after them now.
Fan
No question that its all about the Team with this group.
He was a runner up for player of the week on insidecollegehockey.com
A whole ton of credit goes to how good the team in front of Bryce has been playing. Particularily the special teams.
There is no question the Team is tied in to the Goalie performance. If he could have had a little help in Wisconsin they would have had points there to as Wisconsin scored on there 5 on 3 and we didnt.. thats ballgame and a good example of goalies needing Special Teams and scoring support.
The whole credit depends on the team..
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Britney
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