The Only Good Indian Is A Dead Indian

A comment in the last post gives rise to today's preview of the upcoming series against UND.  An anonymous person hoped "for more red meat stuff".  Okie doke ... there is tons of "red meat" stuff that I read every week.  It comes from the ever adroit UAA Sports Information Department put together by the polished and professional Dallas Baldwin.

Scalp The Squaws!!!

I didn't have much to say Saturday about how the guys played since the overwhelming sense I got from that night's game about the refereeing overrode everything.  But there were some nice performances from some guys that should be highlighted.

First Thoughts On A 3 Point Weekend

Points was what I said this weekend would need to be all about.  Regardless of referees Matt Ulwelling and Craig Welker doing everything they possibly could to insert themselves into the result ... the Seawolves held on tonight for the 5-5 tie after winning 5-4 on Friday night.  A three-point road weekend in the WCHA is always real nice.  They led tonight at one point by a 5-1 margin and just thereafter lies the biggest part of the story of an overwhelmingly queer game.   The referees.

Designated Rivalry Weekend Preview Extravaganza

It's a big "WCHA Designated Rivalry" week for the Seawolves as they head down to Mankato to face the purple Mavericks.  Of course, that really means nothing other than it's the one team that UAA faces 4 times year in and year out.  It's hard to say if that familiarity has bred any dislike between the squads over the years.  I have no sense of such a thing for whatever that's worth.

UAA/MTU: Saturday Thoughts

I was gonna use my game notes to write a recap and pretend that sitting in the press box had some usefulness.  Watching the team lose a game 5-0 that really wasn't a five to nothing game is tough on a fan.  I saw a certain couple of fans that I know never leave early getting up and heading to the car with about 4 minutes left.  So let's talk eh?

Post Game Interviews vs Michigan Tech 11/19

In the grand scheme of things, your team will occasionally play like the best team in the world, others they play like Nanooks in disguise. Tonight UAA played like Nanooks in disguise. Outworked, out hustled, outscored (but not outcoached as some dunderhead spoke, how anything that happened in that game was because of coaching is on another plane of existence) the Seawolves endured another frustrating night of poor effort and missed chances.

Interview tonight from Coach Shyiak only, players were unavailable by the time I needed to get out and get out home, apologies there.

UAA/MTU: Friday Night Photos and Recap

During the game last night I was proud of myself for making sure that I wrote down thoughts and observations as they occurred to me.  I've tried making such notes in the past and rarely used much of it in my final posts.  But last night I put gold onto the page.  Pure genius.  Unfortunately for you guys ... the browser window on the graciously loaned Windoze netbook I've been using wasn't actually on the interwebs ... and so all that hockey blogging gold went for naught.  It was frustrating so I went to bed and put this off til this morning.

Post Game Interviews vs Michigan Tech 11/18

Seawolves win tonight 3-1 over Michigan Tech, breaking a 6 game losing streak and picking up their first win in WCHA play. Interviews tonight with Mark... errr Eric Scheid (sorry about that Eric), Corbin Karl, and Coach Shyiak.

A win tomorrow night would bring UAA out of 12th (and move North Dakota to 12th).

What's That Smell? Oh ... Huskies.

We've seen a mix of success so far this season.  A nice start (won both tournaments .. remember?) yes ... but there's no denying that the Seawolves haven't won a game in their last six.  

The bye week is an important factor this week and I think MTU is a great opponent to have coming into your rink following that.  The Seawolves are 5-1-2 against MTU in the last 8 games so everyone on the squad should have some confidence coming into the games about the ability to get what is nothing short of some very necessary points this weekend since they've all experienced nothing but success against the Huskies.

Sunday Potpourri: Good Pics and Bad Blogging

I haven't written for a while.  You may have noticed.  Or not.  No real reason other than every time I sat down at the keyboard anything that came to mind sounded uninteresting, unoriginal and just un-.   And then not writing became more appealing than writing.  For a few years I've managed to schlep text to these pages through some pretty difficult times for a hockey fan.  Honestly though, my inability to get anything posted over the last two-plus weeks has pretty much nothing to do with hockey.

Blogging just dropped down to the bottom of my priority list and the bye week helped that.  A few things above it on the list aren't particularly important and a few things are.  Fear not though, I'm sure my posting frequency will return to something more like normal without too much delay.

So today let's review a few things.  The Minnesota series wasn't fun.  Lucia's tactical use of neutral-zone trapping on Saturday night did the trick.  The Seawolves looked great in the 2nd and 3rd period that night but working extra hard on the last two periods of a weekend was perhaps saving it until too late.  I count that in my list of "shouldawon" games.

Last night's game in Duluth was another for the "shouldawon" category.  The guys sure had their chances I thought.  I counted at least three missed chances that shoulda been easy goals.  Shoulda don't get you a W though does it?

Nobody likes to lose.  Points in the WCHA standings are always important.  But not winning is also a chance to learn something about yourself.  It's still early in the season (not even 1/3 of the way into it).  If you add the two "shouldawon" games the Seawolves would be 5-4-1 right now ... instead they are 3-6-1.  Ask any long time WCHA fan and they'll explain how important it is to perform well at the end of the season versus the beginning.

Just look at last year's Seawolves for a perfect example; after 10 games the Seawolves were 2-6-2.  The last 14 games of the season they went 9-5 splitting with UofM, sweeping MTU, getting swept by UND, splitting with UNO and UA_ before sweeping Mankato in the final regular season series and sweeping the Gophers in the playoffs before losing in the WCHA Final Five to CC.  I'll take the current record with that understanding ... because I have as much patience as the Pope has Catholics.

Now go back to the top and check out the excellent pictures taken by the UAA Fan Blog's excellent sports photographer Tom Acquilano.   Good stuff.  Use the pictures as you wish; clicking on the "get yours" or "view all" tabs at the bottom of the slideshow will take you to the source on photobucket.  If you desire higher resolution of a specific photo let me know via email and we'll get you the full sized original free of charge.