Sunday, October 12, 2014

Kendall Recap: UAA 4 - Wisconsin 2


Tonight's win versus Wisconsin put the exclamation point on an outstanding weekend of Seawolf Hockey.  Already I see a team with tons of character that really seems dedicated to playing for each other.  These guys overcame a boatload of adversity tonight.  Definitely press the read more button below because I have a ton of good stuff to say about everybody.  Also, the picture above is the back of the Seawolves warm-ups.  Pretty Badass I think.


They were whistled for more than a few penalties and killed almost everything all weekend if I'm not mistaken.  Two 5 minute majors were killed tonight along with about 1:30 of 5 on 3 at one point.  Both nights saw a key player tossed from the game for major penalties.  But the team not only persevered, they flourished and came together to overcome.  That's a great indication of "team play".  

Let me start with some needed backtracking.  Yesterday I mentioned that I thought Tad Kozun hadn't found his game yet.  He found it tonight and I wish I'd never said what I did.  It wasn't that he scored two very important goals tonight though, it was his play when he wasn't putting the puck in the net that impressed me.  He forechecked aggressively and effectively, he backchecked well and challenged for the puck all over the ice.  He was nothing short of studly tonight.  Congrats to him on being named to the all-tournament team.  Other media probably voted for him on the strength of his two important goals; I voted for him for his overall and very noticeable excellent play.

The Trupp, Rassell, Conti line was excellent again tonight.  Just like last night they consistently generated pressure in the Wisconsin zone, kept the puck deep and outworked the opposition.  They were a key factor in the wins both nights.  I put Hayden Trupp on my All-Tournament team ballot as not just a nod to him but to the entire line.  I spoke with Coach Thomas after the game specifically about that line and he was very pleased with them as well.  I said to him that he's got a #1 line and 3 number 2 lines.  One of things I heard him say in the preseason was that he hoped to be able to roll 4 lines this year.  It looks to me that he's going to be able to do that.  

Freisen, Anholt and Duwe were dangerous both nights and outplayed their opposing lines.  Kozun, Azurdia and Hubbs were equally effective and dangerous.  There really were no weak spots on the weekend.  Obviously, the #1 line of Allen, Tatchell and Cameron are special.  They all had time on the power plays and penalty kills as well and accounted for themselves very well of course.  Scott Allen dominated at times.  Blake Tatchell had some extra bounce in his step tonight and made some beautiful passes and played the physical game well too.  Brett Cameron is playing like a beast.  The hit that he got tossed for was clearly unintentional and just a result of intense competition.  

I have unbridled optimism going forward.  They beat a couple of competitive teams and overcame adversity both nights.  I know I said character up front but it's worth mentioning again.  They displayed it in spades.  

Mantha and Matyas both played well this weekend.  Olivier tonight made several crucial big time saves down the stretch when Wisconsin put on tons of pressure.  I really liked his lateral movement and quickness.  It was good to see him tested and come out successful.  Goaltending was a question mark coming into the season; that question had some very positive initial answers this weekend.

Defense was solid all weekend.  I could pump Derek Docken's tires all day because he is just so consistently good but I want to really sing Jarrett Brown's praises right now.  He's got a lot more skill than I imagined.  Great hands and an excellent sense of where he is in relation to the opposition.  He can move the puck with a good pass or on the carry.  He was very poised and looked like a veteran out there.  A good veteran.  And we're going to see some offensive production from him for sure.

Chase Van Allen is a gem.  Austin Coldwell is super smart.  Chris Williams is intense.  Austin Sevalrud settled down tonight and was very solid in his end playing very unselfishly.

These all seem like great signs to me of perhaps a pretty special team.  There's obviously a long way to go and no doubt this group faces bigger challenges than trying to win their opening season home tournament.  BTW … UA_ won on goal differential.  Essentially, they won it because they scored an empty netter against Maine.  The trophy's got to go to someone and congratulations to them.  Hopefully, our guys will return the favor next weekend by beating Air Force and Penn State by more goals than UA_ does.

It was an enjoyable weekend for me.  I had an real nice casual conversation with Red Gendron about travel and he absolutely put the kibosh on notions that travel was any sort of issue with his team's play and that such notions were essentially ridiculous.  If any of you ever get the chance to talk with Brush Christiansen, DO IT.  The guy is an absolute delight to talk hockey with.  Thanks to all the UAA staff that worked their butts off to keep the media happy.  All the volunteers should be thanked as well for all they do for the program.  If you know any of them, buy them a beer.  

I'm about out of gas.  I had a long day on not lots of sleep.  I'm sure I'll look back over this later and wish I'd said a million other things so watch for me to say those million other positive things over the next few days.  Congrats to the team on a great weekend. Go Seawolves.

15 comments:

Tallen said...

Nice summary Donald, keep up the great posts!!!

A Seawolves Fanatic said...

Nice weekend, things are certainly looking up, but we must ground ourselves this was just the Kendall Classic. UA_ wins on yet another technicality....nice

Britton said...

Offense wins games. Defense wins championships :)

~Susie M~ said...

Great article Donald, read that and it's like I was there! Oh wait... I was!! You definitely add a lot of depth to the whole picture....just ask Bill how many times I hollered....thank YOU Donald for confirming what I thought I might of known lol....Anyway welcome home and it's going to be a great season for Seawolf Hockey. The warm ups are definitely BAD AZZ!!

Donald Dunlop said...

Thanks everyone for the comments and I deeply appreciate the compliments Susie … I had a long weekend working both days and covering all 4 games. Just home from work again today and have a day off tomorrow. I'm both excited and happy to have the blog going again and for it to be doing well. Almost 2000 pageviews this weekend alone which I didn't expect so soon after starting back up.

All the comments at the rink from readers and hand shaking is a wonderful thing. Thanks to everyone. The support I've gotten since being back is heart warming and encourages me to provide more and hopefully better coverage and analysis.

The games at the end of the month can't get here soon enough for me.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Donald for great coverage of the wolves. Your blog is outstanding and much appreciated for those of us no longer in Anchorge. Super job and as Suze said your writing allows to us t feel like we were at the game. As a fan that sat in section 213 for many years I miss UAA hockey.

Will H in San Antonio

Anonymous said...

The team warm ups must be a joke, I can not understand why a hockey team would want to wear a motorcycle gang style logo on their team warm ups. It has a 1% patch on it. Does UAA alum asses even know what that means? I thought they wanted a first class hockey program. What are they thinking? I don't think this is "Bad ass" or "Bad AZZ". It's just wrong! I hope the team is careful not to wear these on the road,as they may run into a real motorcycle gang. Those people don't take that kind of insult lightly. I don't know what to think, are you guys a gang or a team? This is very sad to see UAA hockey as a biker gang.

Alaska Al said...

Not a "biker gang", a very exclusive hockey club.
Love the warm ups.

Donald Dunlop said...

Anonymous @ 7:35 & 9:01 is living in the fear-ridden 50s.

The logo style on the backs of their warm-ups are a beautiful homage. It symbolizes the brotherhood ethos. Any real bikers would appreciate and respect the usage that they inspired since real biker clubs do wonderful things for their communities as well as stand together to defend their honor.

Go Seawolf Brothers!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful homage? Brotherhood ethos? What a boat load of CRAP, so now you are a expert on biker brotherhood? This is a D-1 NCAA hockey program,You say any real bikers would respect this? You better say ALL bikers will respect this and be damm sure of it before you send these kids on the road wearing this biker homage shit. Do some research Donald. So now UAA hockey wants to be known as the 1% er type of hockey players? Play by your own rules, do whatever it takes to win games, cheap shots to head, pay off the refs? You are sending the wrong message to the hockey fans, and to young kids. And yes we are living in the fear-ridden 2014-2015s.I thought they took your media credentials? 86'd as you said. You know as much about bikers as you do hockey. LOL.... Does the team sell drugs now ? Beat people up for money? You better have another argument than this! Brother Donald....

Donald Dunlop said...

Anon@10:48,
Long time readers of mine already know what is about to happen.

My friend you have made the classic mistake of engaging me with a Paring Knife while I'm armed with nothing less than dual Samurai Swords. Your complete evisceration follows.

Culture, more precisely; popular culture has a long history of absorbing ephemera from sub-cultures and using them in new ways. It's an evolutionary sociological phenomenon. Negative attributes from the subsumed sub-culture are easily discarded in favor of the positive ones. There are countless examples particularly in American popular culture in the modern era.

Once not long ago it was considered by the mainstream to be the height of offense for counter-culture types to utilize the stars and stripes in clothing. Super Patriots threatened violence in the same manner as you assert Bikers would do against our Seawolves for their fashion choice. Such threats never came to fruition and in a relatively short amount of time Stars and Stripes clothing became trendy and popular. There are many other related examples which I'll not bother to exhibit here for the sake of trying to be succinct.

The point being, your assertions as to the meaning of the symbology adopted is specious. Your understanding of sociological memes and culture's uses of them is absent. Nothing you have said here has even begun to elucidate your facetious inferences.

In three comments you've simply reasserted (with slightly different verbiage) the same thing … i.e… "the seawolves gonna get effed up by big bad bikers". Well, that's just not gonna happen.

Lastly, you know little of who I am if you're silly enough to question my past associations. I've lived in Spenard, Alaska for 30 plus years. I've spent more than a few long evenings in bars of which you'd likely walk out of immediately and associated with, been friends with and partied with the likes of which you'd also run from. While you're on Wikipedia trying to figure out Biker Culture make sure you look up The Dunning-Kruger Effect … have a mirror handy when reading it.

Should you choose to attempt to continue discussion on this subject you'll need to do two things: Identify yourself and find a better stance to support your (patently ridiculous) position. Doing otherwise will only result in deletion.

Donald Dunlop said...

Also, I meant to add that in this context the "1%" simply means that the Seawolves are "trouble" for every other hockey team in Division 1. Nothing else.

P.D. said...

I'm gonna chime in here defend the "cuts" the boys wear before and after games and practices. While I will not go into the full details of the club which all members of the UAA hockey team and staff belong, because you have to be a patched member to know the true details, I will say it doesn't condone any sort of one %er lifestyle or anything illegal. It is about being a pack, a group, a brotherhood of sorts. It's about being a apart of something bigger than just yourself! It was all part of a new attitude that Tito brought in on day one and the boys bought in! I still have my cut and will cherish it till the day I die because it reminds me that I was one of the few and proud members of the Seawolves HC from day one! And lastly, if you focus in really close you will notice that it does not have the 1% patch, the cuts all have the 1" patch. As in, the game is a game of inches, 1" here or there can make a huge difference in a hockey game. And the Seawolves HC members will ALWAYS go that extra inch more than any other team. Also when designing the shirts and the actual cut, we went to great lengths not to make three piece patches and rockers (three piece patches and rockers are a sign of a true 1% MC) but instead went with one piece patches and rockers as to pay homage to the MC culture and respect it fully.

Alaska Al said...

Anonymous is sometimes a useful tool. Imho not when you want to be taken seriously in a back and forth, give and take discussion.

Anonymous said...

God damn DD... you can be such a douche but I'm cetainly excited to have you back in the saddle again. Welcome home!

--Dre

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