The Seawolves tonight hit nearly all the targets in their gameplan that were necessary to get an important win over UNO. They got the scoring they need from Tommy Grant and Sean Wiles who both hadn't been producing at expected rates. They held UNO to under 25 shots for the game by blocking shitloads (20) of shots. They got solid goaltending from Rob Gunderson. They won the face off battle 33-27 led by Craig Parkinson who went 16-11 on the night. Their penalty kill delivered. And finally their execution was mostly solid in all areas of the ice. When you put all those factors together you get success.
Walking out of the rink tonight I couldn't help but think the score could have very easily been 5-1 in UAA's favor (UAA hit two pipes in the 1st period). But such final score would have been a bit of an injustice to UNO. The Seawolves outplayed them in several stretches but this opponent did not lay down at all. UNO really pressured hard in the second half of the 2nd period and for large parts of the 3rd including the last 6 or 7 minutes.
The line of Naslund, Cameron and Currier was particularly effective tonight and it's work ethic paid off for Daniel with his 2nd goal of the year and the game winner. I was really impressed with Tyler Currier's energy and physical play. He'd played himself into a regular spot on the blueline this season but his return to the wing tonight paid nice dividends.
I thought the game was a bit chippy in places but referees Adam and Walsh looked determined to let the teams on the ice decide the outcome. That was a good thing. But I cannot go the whole season without saying that we seem to have the worst sets of linesmen in the WCHA up here. This miscalled offsides and icings tonight were blatant. And the control of players during face-offs was downright ridiculous. Lots of chippy little shit going on there tonight. In one instance, I saw Matt Bailey really barking at one of them. Mostly though none of their miscalls really seemed to affect the outcome.
Congratulations to the team on a pretty gutty effort tonight. This game may not have been the biggest "war" of a game we've seen this season but it was definitely a battle. Expect nothing less tomorrow night as I'd think both teams will be motivated to play hard again. I also think there might be some individual hurt feelings that could play a factor tomorrow. Hopefully, the Seawolves keep their noses clean and don't respond to the niggling stick jabs and slashes which were evident tonight.
I was happy to meet and re-meet several of the parents in attendance. I'll redouble my efforts to tomorrow. I'll be in the booster room prior to the game for sure so look for the my Yul Brenner head and come say hi if I don't happen to notice your name tags first.
Here's the boxscore.
Here's the UAA post game release.
7 comments:
Fun game to watch tonight. Very proud of this team's quiet confidence. They don't get down even when the opposing team scores a fluke goal here or there. 3 lines scored and 9 guys had points. Total team contribution. Well Done!
Awesome game tonight. The Seawolves did a great job of forechecking, stole a lot of pucks in the forward end, won a lot of battles along the boards and created a lot of very good, exciting chances. But for the pipes and a few whiffs and near misses, we could easily have had 2-3 more goals.
DD - any chance you could post replays of our goals. There were some sweet ones, including Tommy's narrow angle sniper shot and Wiles' rocket that puffed the back of the net before he'd even finished his swing. I'm curious about the scrum that produced the winning goal too. All I could see was the puck trickling over the line.
It seems like there's a number of bloggers who regularly are able to watch a replay of the whole game. I'd do that too if I knew how ... and will welcome any instructions.
Way to go Wolves!! Another nationally ranked team bites the dust at the hands and feet of UAA. Let's pick up another win tomorrow night, then take the Cup back from UAF next weekend. I'm feeling pretty good right now.
If some GCI customer with a DVR is savvy enough to hook up their computer to the DVR (not that difficult) they could easily put together the goal highlights.
For me, all I can do is wait until when/if GCI posts the game in their archive and then screen capture the video. Sometimes they take more than a week to post the games though so I completely gave up on doing it. To put together the goal highlights on average takes me at least 90 minutes per game.
GCI uses a crappy client that is cumbersome to fast forward to find the highlights. I have to capture the highlights, edit with standard Quicktime, save and upload. If I had GCI and a DVR ... I could do it in about 30 minutes which is about the same amount of time it takes to do an average recap.
Volunteers? I know there's folks out there with the necessary stuff.
Nice job to the Seawolves last night. A well-deserved two points.
That was a great game and I congratulate the seawolves. Being a Sioux fan I had to watch the game as we were hoping UAA would slow down UNO in the march up the standings. Like I have said in previous posts this program is getting better each game and each year. You can take out anyone and especially in your own rink. I hope you guys can get home ice for the playoffs. Great win last night. Do it again tonight for the sweep.
UAA came out on fire, and that is how they need to start every game. Tonights rematch is gonna be a tough one. This UNO team is indeed very good, and they are gonna be hungry for points tonight.
Gotta feel that if the Sully were full it would definitely give the Wolves more of an advantage.
Nice to meet some of the parents last night, thanks for making the trip!
Awesome game last night, Wolves! Let's put another game away tonight and get those other 2 points.
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