Win At Home, Split On The Road?

The title of this post is the mantra for success in the WCHA.  Follow it and you'll get home ice.  If the Seawolves want to have any chance at home ice they must reverse it at minimum.  There are 8 more road points available to UAA and 4 at home.  Giving away 2 points last weekend to the Gophers hasn't quite killed the hope for a home ice series.  But it has made achieving it a gargantuan task.

So to begin that task properly.  I say that UAA ought to go out and sweep the Bluffskies at the NHC this weekend.  Who freaking cares if there have been zero wins for UAA at that hovel of a rink in the past.  That was the past.  The Seawolves aren't living in the past of their first half of the season.  So why would they allow shit that happened when they were little kids affect them in any manner.

I know that a Seawolves team playing up to it's potential will win this weekend.  So they just need to do it.  Sweep them.  Play focused, intense and mistake free hockey and that will happen.  Sounds simple enough.  Simplicity is a part of it.  Get the puck deep on these guys and make them go 200ft.  Trap them in the neutral zone and create some scoring chances off turnovers.  In the defensive zone, block shots, cut off passing lanes and support the goalie.  And when scoring chances come finish them calmly and efficiently.  Do those thing and W's will be the result.

The Seawolves upperclassmen must continue (as they have been doing) to assert themselves in all areas of the ice starting from the backend.  Jonny O needs to own.  Nils Backstrom, Jared Tuton, Trevor Hunt, Kane Lafranchise and Luka Vidmar all have to use their experience over the last 3 and 4 years to both deny the opposition chances as well as to start the offense and/or finish when appropriate.  Kevin Clark, Nick Haddad, Josh Lunden, Craig Parkinson, Ken Selby and Sean Wiles must continue to provide the offensive leadership and backchecking examples that they've used to contribute to the relative success we've seen during this 2nd half.

It will be lovely for some underclassman to step up and contribute to the score line.  We've seen some indications that more than a couple of them should be capable of doing just that.  But they can't be expected to do so in the same way we can expect the upperclassmen to perform.  So for both this weekend and for the stretch run to the playoffs (and beyond) the pressure is on the upperclassmen.

There are 10 college hockey games remaining for the senior class (8 regular season and 2 playoff games).  If they want to play additional games (and god knows we fans want that) then the time to start making that happen is now.  It's time to go on a "run".  It's time to make the rest of the college hockey world stand up and take notice.  Beat these St. Cloud bums and that will start to happen.  For the seniors post-UAA individual opportunities will be sweeter if the team has some noticeable success down the stretch.  Therefore it is incumbent on each and every senior that wants to progress his career to manufacture that success starting this weekend.

And yeah ... that will all be fun too.

For those wondering, I spoke with GCI Cable TV Customer Service today and confirmed that both games will be broadcast on Channel 1; 4pm on Friday and 2pm on Saturday.