Saturday, October 16, 2010

Seawolves Lose 4-3 Again

I felt like titling this post "4-3 So Nice, Seawolves Do It Twice".  But that wouldn't reflect the fairly decent offensive effort from the boys tonight.  And of course, there isn't a Seawolves player that didn't want to win tonight.  The Seawolves put 36 shots on net tonight with 3 finding their target.  That's a very positive sign. 


Credit the Union defensive play for their win though because the Seawolves attempted 58 shots.  Union blocked 19 in a good defensive effort.  The Dutchmen managed 23 shots on goal for the game with the Seawolves blocking 11.  Hmmm ... only 11 blocked shots and a 4-3 loss ... where have I seen those numbers before?  Oh yeah ... last night versus CC.

Again tonight, I thought the backchecking effectiveness was substandard.  I think it was the difference in the game.  Instead of backchecking forwards moving their feet, they reached with their sticks.  Instead of giving up the body and blocking shots, they spectated.  And it wasn't only young players that didn't backcheck well. 

For easily the last half of the game the Seawolves had their way offensively.  The third period saw 18 shots get through to Union goaltender Kinkaid.  By my count there were at least 8 really quality scoring chances after Union went up 4-3.

Unlike last night versus CC, the Seawolves buried themselves in a 3-0 hole before finally stepping up their play and responding with 3 straight goals of their own.  Matt Bailey, Nick Haddad and Scott Warner tallied for UAA.

There was some potentially bad news with Sean Wiles going out for some sort of shoulder injury.  We all hope that it's something minor of course.  Keeping the guys that are supposed to be our primary goal scorers healthy is going to be necessary for more positive outcomes than we saw this weekend.

Another less important yet still key stat was that Union won 35 faceoffs to UAA's 26.  Only Craig Parkinson was better than 50% on the night.  The Seawolves got 7 power play chances on the and did manage to get a goal on the 9 shots during the man advantages.  Contrast that to Union's 3 power play chances, 8 shots and 1 goal and you begin to see there is quite a bit of work that needs to be done on the power play.

On the flip side, overall the penalty kill has produced 2 shorthanded goals in the 4 games so far this year.  That's pretty promising.

Chris Kamal got the call tonight and I don't think there is much one can say differentiates his effectiveness from Rob Gunderson's.  Both had excellent saves at some point and both perhaps showed a bit more net than they probably meant to.  So expect the rotation to continue next week at this point.
This is a team that certainly seems to step up it's efforts when they're behind on the scoreboard.  That's not a bad identity to cultivate but it would be better to not be behind.  It's a very young team.  We're seeing lots of promise from some youngsters and some obvious maturity from some veterans.  I think it will take some more time to gel.  

Unfortunately, next weekend the team heads out to Duluth and if the less than stellar backchecking continues there ... well let me just say that we'll probably see our boys trying to muster another comeback.  In my opinion, if the team can come out and set a solid defensive tone we'll have a chance to leave Duluth with some WCHA points.  The non-conference action is over until we face UA_ late in the season.  The meat grinder awaits.

I'm already tired of late 3rd period praying for a tie.  Hopefully, we can see a more tight checking game plan next weekend mixed with opportunistic play and good finishing.

The camera work and directing tonight wasn't quite as horrendous as last night.  There were probably only 8 or 9 times where we were left staring at actionless parts of the ice for dozens of seconds versus the 20 or so times during the CC game.

I'll have more extended thoughts on individual players when I review the weekend on my Monday post.  These opening four games have provided some important lessons for the team to learn.  Let's all hope they do.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was impressed with the fact they took only 3 penalties. Keeping up that kind of "clean" play is a must as they enter conference play.

Anonymous said...

Well it's great that an Alaskan team won the Goal Rush, even if it wasn't UAA. Congrats UAF!

BBEF said...

I hang my head :( This was a game we could have won... So the Fuck Tards win the tourney... I'll cry myselft to sleep tonight!

Donald - do you want me to give you a copy of the CC rivals documentary for xmas? It’s a really special program – you can’t dispute that!

Anonymous said...

Please explain why calling the tournament winners Fuck Tards does not qualify as negativity?

Donald Dunlop said...

Because it's directed at UAF.

Anonymous said...

Victory is even sweeter knowing the Seapuppies went winless this weekend. Oh, and BBEF (Bombastic Buttfucking Egomaniac Fool), you should remember to take your Meds on time.

Anonymous said...

I feel sorry for your town, to have people like you speak for the team. Say something mean again because it really shows everyone what you are like as a person.

Donald Dunlop said...

Anon@1016,
I don't speak for the team. I speak for me. I invite you to use the search function and find somewhere in my 800+ posts here where I remotely even infer that I'm expressing anything but my own views. Read the disclaimer at the bottom of the right hand column. Read the sub-heading under the UAA Hockey Fan Blog header. Then after your done doing that .... I invite you to stop reading here.

Feedback from my intended audience (Seawolves fans) tells me that I'm doing fine. Change the channel my friend. Don't waste your time getting riled up by some obsessed college hockey fan. Either that ... or learn to embrace it for what it is. Plenty of people "get it". I cannot help that you don't.

Anonymous said...

If you don't speak for the team,you should stop using the team logo by your name. Just sayin.

Anonymous said...

a winless weekend is not good. now go down to duluth and have to get some points. if you get shutout in duluth winless in four is not a good start to the season.

Mike said...

I told one of my relatives (also a HUGE UAA fan) about this blog. He was leery, saying that most of these tend to get negative and nasty. I said "naw, not THIS one".

Hope he doesn't look at it today!

"Fuck Tard"???

YIKES!!

max said...

Anon at 7:15.
I'm sure that having the logo beside Donald's name is not offensive to any Seawolf supporter. If it is, get over it. It's no different than wearing Seawolf apparel or waving the flags. He's a fan sporting the team logo. Awesome. As a HUGE fan myself, I am impressed with Donalds effort and time put into this blog, so when words like Fuck Tard come up I consider the source.. a fan saying what he feels and he's always very clear about that. So, GO SEAWOVLES!!!! ! and Go Donald!

Anonymous said...

max, You are a good little minion.

max said...

and you are a..I think the word of the day is Fuck Tard.

Anonymous said...

Mike
Negativity? Nastiness? On a hockey fan blog? I'm with you, Meke, not this one. No f***ing way. IMHO, this is pure fun. Always.
A good effort but disappointing results for the weekend. Looking forward to a much better one next weekend. Go Seawolves!!!!
Thanks for another insightful (inciteful?) post Donald.

Donald Dunlop said...

LOL

Post a Comment