Seawolves 1 - Pioneers 1

Defense and solid goaltending was the story of tonights Seawof game versus the Pioneers.  Jon Olthuis made 31 saves for UAA and Marc Cheverie had 27 for DU.  The Seawolves stood the Pioneers up in the neutral zone all night long denying them any sort of transition game and generally giving them fits breaking out of their own zone for large periods of the game.

Tyler Ruegsegger got the Pios on the board first at 7:13 of the first period.  Patrick Wiercioch held the puck in the UAA zone nicely and drove to the top of the right circle before dishing it behind the net to Ruegsegger who smartly carried the puck out front and floated with it until he had an angle to shoot.  His shot went off the right hand post and deflected into the back of Jon Olthuis' leg, Craig Parkinson had his stick in a position to clear it from the crease but the puck found it's way under his stick for the tally.

The Seawolves killed off a 2 minute cross checking penalty against Brad Gorham before mustering some pressure.  Mitch Bruijsten created a turnover in the Pioneers corner and Curtis Leinweber picked up the puck along the half-wall and smartly carried it to the top of the near circle before firing a high wrist shot to Cheverie's far side at 13:08 of the period.

That was it for the scoring.  All the usual suspects you'd expect to get scoring chances did manage to get opportunities but solid goaltending and good rebound support from both squads limited everything to mostly single chances. 

Through 2 periods the play was essentially even.  The Pioneers 4th line ground out the best pressure for DU while all four UAA lines seemed to get about an equal number of chances for UAA.  The first 10 minutes of the 3rd period was substantially in DU's favor though with lots of pressure keeping the Seawolves pretty much on their heels.  The Seawolves didn't manage to get their first shot of the period until at least 8 minutes had passed.  But UAA found a way to get some momentum after Kevin Clark took the puck wide on Patrick Wiercioch on a rush and Wiercioch tripped him.  UAA's power play wasn't spectacular but the man-advantage did seem to lift the squad and the remaining time the play was substantially even.

The OT was much the same as the last five minutes of the game with both teams digging down deep to manufacture chances but once again both goalies made solid saves and defenses cleared dangerous rebounds.

Brad Gorham looked really solid in his debut on defense.  He showed excellent hands and expert poke checking abilities.  He was whistled for 3 penalties on the night but two of them were bullshit as far as I'm concerned ... so no worries on that.  He was poised under pressure and really made no mistakes with the puck.  He made smart heads up passes and nobody got past him on a rush.  He also picked up the 2nd assist on the Leinweber goal for his first point as a Seawolf.  All in all it was a real nice debut and he looks to provide enough depth on D that I can see Leinweber up on the forward line for the rest of the season.

Trevor Hunt had an excellent game and deserves mention for a great defensive play against a steaking Patrick Wiercioch stripping him of the puck at the last moment to deny what would have been a great scoring opportunity.  It wouldn't be fair here to not acknowledge stellar play by all of UAA's blueliners as well as excellent backchecking overall from all the forwards.

Daniel Naslund had a nice offensive game with multiple shots including the first shot of the game which handcuffed Cheverie and damn near put UAA up early.  Kevin Clark was intently involved and active in all areas of the ice and noticably got under the skin of more than one Pioneer player.  Tommy Grant had a couple of chances that you'd really like to see him finish particularly one chance coming across where he was just a bit too deep to get the puck past a well positioned Cheverie.  Craig Parkinson was excellent all night on faceoffs and got credited with several decent scoring chances as well.  Overall, UAA won the faceoff battle by a decent margin but I don't have full stats as yet to quote.

The physical game was evident all night with lots of solid checking.  The Pioneers matched UAA's physical effort pretty well. 

Tomorrow night will be very interesting.  Will the Seawolves stick with the same gameplan?  Will DU find a more effective counter for it if the trapping continues?  I wouldn't be surprised to see Shyiak loosen up the trap and press a bit more on the forecheck.  There's some risk in doing so but reward rarely comes without some risk eh?  In any case, I'm sure we can expect the Pioneers to come out tomorrow looking for some scalps.

And since I couldn't decide which sister-kissing picture was better.  Here's another one.