Seawolves 4 - NMU 0

"If you stop UAA's first line you'll beat them"; That surely was the scouting report around the league on the Seawolves so far this season. As I analogized last night, riding "the horse" wasn't getting it done. Coach Thomas has responded tonight by going with a completely revamped lineup.  

Tatchell is centering Tad Kozun (last night's best player) and Brad Duwe … Leask is centering Allen and Azurdia … Anholt is centering Freisen and Cameron …. and on the 4th line Rassell is centering Dylan Hubbs and Anthony Conti.  So it's a full 12 forwards after we've seen the 7th defenseman option for most of the season.  I predict a good outcome from the revamping.

NMU 1 - UAA nuffin

Interesting line-up with no 4th line center and Blake Leask playing center on the third line.

Pretty good flow for the Seawolves in the first six and a half minutes with most of the pressure being in the Northern end and 3 or 4 icing calls against Northern. 

Tatchell, Allen and Cameron look to skate big minutes tonight as they've already been out a ton so far this period. Northern's first penalty a clear result of the work done by them maintaining possession and pressure deep in the offensive end. They're the horses, right?

Three of Northern's first 4 shots came within seconds after 11 minutes had passed; they had a couple of good scoring chances inside the slot and Mantha was super solid handling them.

By the last TV timeout Northern had started asserting themselves and now outshooting the Seawolves. Play has been going both ways versus the more positive start that the Seawolves had.

Scottie Allen got tied up along the half wall with a Northern player as the play broke into the other end, it was a solid 10 seconds before Allen could join the team in Northern's zone but he worked the puck from the back wall out front and got hooked on the way.  Good effort.

Dude broke in and looked off feigning pass but instead beat Mantha glove side cleanly. Late goals are not good; 20 seconds left in the period.

The 2nd period is not worth talking about. Cos it was awful. It seemed to to quickly at least. So there's that. End of story. 

The delay in the 3rd seems to have helped as the 'Wolves have turned up the pressure for the last three minutes or so. Still only 7 shots in the game with 11:49 left to play. Ridiculous, the shot count should be NINE!!! Sorry, I joke. It's really only 8.

Kozun is UAA's best player tonight. He hasn't lacked any effort and has created things with his foot speed and determination. He's actually been exciting in a game with zero other excitement for a UAA fan. Not many minutes though for him though.

Riding "the horses" ain't getting it done. That's about all I've got to say about that.

Northern Michigan Up: Time To See What's What

Yeah, the pickings have been perhaps a little bit slim around here. And now another important weekend is upon the Seawolves. If ever a time for a team to show it's stuff; it's this weekend. There's lots of doubts and questions and consternation regarding the team's performances of late.  There's been some good in there for sure, but nothing to show for those positives in the standings. 

Big Rapids Mayor Proclaims "Seawolves Weekend"

Big Rapids, Michigan Mayor Mark Warba has proclaimed this weekend (and all future weekends that the UAA Seawolves visit town) as "Seawolves Weekend". In abstentia, Warba presented the Seawolves team with a "Key to the City" in recognition of their fine donations to the Ferris State hockey program. 

10 Games In: Some Analysis and Commentary

Grab a snack and a drink before you click the "read more" link below. I'm just going to jump into an analysis of the state of the team nearly one-third of the way through the season. That's right, there's 34 games on the schedule and the Seawolves have now played 10. I considered waiting until after next weekend to go through these numbers but might as well do so now.

Seawolves v. MTU: Preview

The UAA Seawolves haven't played anybody yet. That phrase is a bit of a USCHO fan forum favorite for teams that are overrated indicating they haven't played anyone of note. The reason I use it here is two-fold. Firstly, I think I've overrated our guys; at least it looks that way from the last couple of weekends. It's easy to do that when you open the season having practiced against teams that haven't had any practice. The 'Wolves looked polished and strong in their first few games. I was excited to think they had it "going on".

Seawolves Go Down in OT 3-2

Tonight was interesting.  I thought it might be.  How about that first period? I spoke with few people who were not similarly astounded with that whole period tonight.  It was a head shaker and it's ultimate result was a W for Lake State. Sure, our guys showed some grit and character by coming back to tie the game and force overtime. I doubt that fact buoyed the player's clear devastation on the bench at the end of the game. This one probably leaves a bit of a bad taste in their mouths.  And maybe that's a good thing in the long run.