Seawolves 2 - CC 1

The Seawolves came back nicely from last nights tough loss to CC.  Ron Jeremy (er ... uh Scott Owens) recognizing UAA's equal skating and ability to dominate his team 5 on 5 came straight out of the gate tonight running a full time neutral zone trap in an attempt to control the speedy Seawolves transition game.  Nevertheless, time and time again Seawolves forwards broke into CC's zone and skated around the outside of the some slower footed CC defensemen.

The Seawolves on the whole this weekend showed they were stride for stride as fast as the oft mentioned "speedy" Black Bears.  I doubt there can be much denying that Lee Sweatt is flat out one of the finest skating, speediest forwards I've ever seen in the WCHA.  His bro has great wheels too. But there are 3 Seawolves who are damn near as fast as him and 5 Seawolves that are faster than CC player other than Sweatt.  Grant, Selby, Wiles can motor like Sweatt and Clark along with Lafranchise, Backstrom, Hunt and Leinweber give UAA an overall speed edge on the much ballyhooed Black Bears.  I'll not bother mentioning the smattering of other quality skaters for CC.  They have a coupla-three other guys with jets.  But a bender like Testwiude couldn't outskate any current Seawolf.

Once again, the team showed a strong collective character with this solid win.  With a bounce or three the final score could have been dramatically higher in the Seawolves favor.  There were two posts and numerous other chances that were within inches of crossing the line.  Olthuis was solid all night and made a couple of game saving spectacular saves in the 3rd to preserve the win.  Every skater contributed something worthy during the game.

As I was driving home I had take notice of Kurt and David's excellent assessment of the play tonight from Jade Portwood, Craig Parkinson and Ken Selby.  They were outstanding all night long with their possession game and often controlled the puck deep in the CC zone.  David also properly mentioned Jade Portwood's effort on the penalty kill and I of course concur 100%.  Suze and Mr. Suze and me especially noted their play in the 3rd.  I know they got a rousing ovation of appreciation from the fans for that great shift.  And it wasn't their only good shift ... maybe I should say OWNly since they definitely pwnd whoever they skated against.

So as good as that all was, and with no intention to take any of the shine off, their finishing was kinda brutal.  Um ... no not kinda, it was wholly brutal.  They easily could have added 3 goals on the night but for their finishing.  Loosen the grips a bit this week in practice guys, be relaxed when the chance comes and excited after you finish.  Getting excited before you score overwhelms the focus you need at that critical moment.  Some goals next weekend  from ya'll would be sweet.

Dave Shyiak gave these guys extra shifts a few times in the 3rd period.  Props to him for recognizing their contributions and backing it up with a show of confidence in them.  They played important shifts down the stretch that directly contributed to the win.  Between the 1st and 2nd period Dave used a couple of words worth mentioning, he said "not" and "dynamic" in a phrase; I'm betting at the end of the game he'd rephrase that.  Portwood, Parkinson and Selby were really opportunistic and they developed their chances with dynamic play.  Some goes for every other line tonight.

Nice play by Sean Wiles driving to the net and dropping the puck back sweetly for Alex Gellert to finish with a calm smart shot even when he musta known Mike "big bender" Testwiude  was about to nail him.  Great job on the game winner which puts Alex at two game winners for the season now.  Before tonight I might have said that Mickey Spencer had been somewhat outplaying Alex so far this year.  I've been impressed with Mickey's tenacity, physical play and thought he was above the development curve I would have expected.  But now Alex leads the team in game winning goals.  He had a strong series against DU and his contribution tonight pulls him even in my book.  Josh Lunden's strong first game back tells me that both Alex and Mitch Bruijsten will benefit from having Josh on their line.

How great is Kevin Clark?  Man oh man ... on the ice so far this second half of the season there isn't a single Seawolves player that has done more in terms of leading-by-example hockey than Kevin since the break.  Not to say he wasn't a huge offensive contributor in the first half.  He was.  He's an exciting player everytime he gets on the ice.  He's always smart with the puck and sees everything.  He can find his linemates stick through just about any traffic.  I also sense that Kevin knows his 4 year career is winding down.  I think he's got some goals (100 points) that he'll for sure get to but more importantly, I bet he's got some goals for the team that he'd rather accomplish.  Kevin is just straight up on fire in my eyes.  It is exactly the sort of play from him that will contribute to the kind of success that would be great for all the Seniors to contribute to and experience.

I think that Nils Backstrom was the Seawolves best defensive player all weekend.  I've never been dissatisfied with Nils' play.  He's always been one of my favorite players but this weekend, he was super responsible in his end, he was physical along the boards and in front of his net.  Tonight in particular he took advantage of several chances to rush the puck and when he choose to get involved offensively it was effective.  He was a clear leader on the penalty kill as well.  All in all,  his play this weekend was as good as Nils has looked during any weekend of his career.  When "din moder och fader" come from across the pond I guess it makes a guy want to  play his best.

Kane Lafranchise had an excellent game tonight as well.  He's always steady on the backend and tonight he also took advantages of some opportunities to try to make something happen offensively.  Drew Darwitz played mistake free hockey in Trevor Hunt's absence.  Let's hope Trevor isn't banged up, he's been a dynamic force offensively and that sort of play will be needed down the stretch.

Jared Tuton played a lot of quality minutes and owned just about every situation that was presented to him in his own zone tonight.  His strength, experience and overall emotional leadership will be key cogs down the stretch.

With 3 goals in the last 4 games, Tommy Grant has to be considered "off the schnide" and of course that will be important going forward.  I'm thinking late January and February have been Tommy's best months typically over his career.  So here's to hoping he continues to score.   He hasn't yet nailed one of his "trademark" goals lately but he should be confident that those will come.  Because they will.

Sean Wiles has developed a mind staggeringly ton as a hockey player since his first year.  On just about every shift he took tonight he was as dangerous a threat as any player in the game.  I initially thought he hit the corner of the crossbar and the post on brilliant shot in the 1st period.  His great setup I described above were not the only other dangerous chances in which he was involved.

It occurs to me that through the first 6 games since the break that the Seawolves have found their identity for this season.  They're now officially in my mind the WCHA team that every other team is going to "fucking hate" to play.  Yes, the adjective use of the F-bomb is well warranted.  There was lots of malevelonce between CC and our guys all weekend.  You know Michigan Tech hates us now.  And DU, their coach has openly expressed how much he doesn't want to play us again.  Yeah, they hate us in DU.

"Mad Phat Props" (I know it's outdated) to my man Kurt for pointing out that our TV people ought to be showing these scrums instead of cutting away from them.  If this production is going into Minnesota next weekend you'll get more negative reaction from all those folks down there watching than you could possibly get from whoever or whatever it is mandating or directing or causing you to cut away.  It needs to stop.  FSN shows it, FSSN shows it.  Charter shows it.  Getting it?  Every other broadcaster in the WCHA shows it.  And on top of all that ... it's pretty much impossible for me to defend.  So please, someone somewhere get that straightened out.  And oh yeah, just a personal choice here I guess ... but the cutaways to the goalie rushing off the ice and to the empty net just means we aren't seeing the actual action at those points.  That's frustrating to a experience viewer.  I'm just sayin ...

Here's the boxscore.

PS.  Sorry about the chatroom.  My "nap" today started and ended late when I woke up just 35 minutes before gametime.