UAA Hockey Fan Blog

Seawolves vs Ugly Dogs

2012-01-31T08:50:00.000-09:00

The Seawolves record versus the incoming and defending national champion UMD Bulldogs in the last twelve contests is 5-5-2. Past records of course don't really mean anything on the ice this coming weekend. What might matter a wee bit more is that UMD is 17-5-4 and UAA is 6-16-2 so far this season. They come to town after getting only one point on their home rink versus MTU last weekend. The Seawolves lost a pair to them back in November; 5-0 and 3-1.

It's almost February now and there are only 10 regular season games remaining for our boys. The goal of home ice for the playoffs is all but impossible at this point but moving up for better positioning in the standings would be beneficial. To do that there is one thing the Seawolves must do: start playing like they are capable. I don't want to say that the team hasn't looked decent since returning from break because they have in some areas. But there can be no arguing that giving up 4.8 goals per game in the last six is anything but decent.

Last year we saw a team that down the stretch played a committed defensive game. They manned up well in their own zone, blocked shot after shot after shot and gave loads of support to their goaltenders. The veterans on this squad all should understand that. They went through it. They made it happen. It's time to start making that happen again. And for that to happen they all need to develop that committed mindset. Hard hard work is the only thing that is going to make a difference between frustration down the line or something they can hang their hat on and call success.

From the fan perspective it sure seems like a good time for our guys to break the 7 game winless streak.

Pictures From The Weekend

2012-01-29T11:16:00.000-09:00

Post Game Interviews vs Denver 1-28

2012-01-28T22:46:00.002-09:00

The Seawolves lose tonight to Denver 6-3. The Seawolves suffered what is becoming an all too familiar start giving up 4 goals in the first period and one in the second to go down 5-0. The Seawolves came back and made a game of it by scoring three straight goals to make it 5-3 with Naslund, Sproule, and Gellert scoring. But a late 5 minute major by Brad Gorham knocked off any chance of a comeback and DU added a PP empty netter.

7 straight losses will not do anything positive to the psyche. The Seawolves are a desperate, young team in dire of a win but, wins do not come easy at this level. The team is not playing terribly overall but, like I said last night, momentary lapses can kill you. The question remaining is whether the players can step up and gut out some points.

Post Game Interviews vs Denver 1-27

2012-01-27T22:24:00.002-09:00

The Seawolves are, as Coach Shyiak puts it, in a "tough spell". 6 losses in a row can generally put a damper on things and it seems UAA may just be playing for not finishing in 12th. The Seawolves are not playing terribly. It is a matter of defensive lapses costing goals and not enough scoring punch. The mistakes seem small but in the unforgiving WCHA even small mistakes will be punished. UAA is young team that, to a certain extent, needs to find itself and do some growing. But in this league, it's not easy for team that needs to do it.

Interview tonight with Coach Shyiak.

54 Days, 21 Hours and 34 Minutes

2012-01-24T12:50:00.004-09:00

Such is the number representing the amount of time between the end of the last home game on December 3rd, 2011 versus UND and this coming Friday night's game versus DU. That's 4,742,440 seconds. Four-million, seven-hundred forty-two thousand, four-hundred and forty seconds.

Or seven weeks if you prefer simplicity.

That's a long time since we've been at the Sully. And now of course there's three home series in a row. That feast or famine cliche seems obvious but nevertheless appropriate.

Wisconsin 4 - Seawolves 0

2012-01-20T18:59:00.000-09:00

Being outscored four to nothing doesn't necessarily mean you were outplayed by that much. I thought tonight's game was closer than the score would indicate. The difference to me was that once the Badgers got up by 2 goals they really played well in the neutral zone and in their own end. The Seawolves were hard pressed to manufacture scoring chances.

I'm not saying they had a lot of scoring chances prior to being down 2-0 but they were certainly in the game. Chris Kamal was solid in the net and otherwise gave the team in front of him a chance to win had they been able to finish the limited chances that they did have.

It was a fairly cleanly played game but I didn't the our boys got any breaks at all from the referees. I counted two blatant penalties on Bucky that went uncalled and the call against Scott Allen was total bullshit. That said, those non-calls were not the difference in the game. The difference as I noted above was the Badgers defensive game.

There were lots of note-worthy performances for the green and gold. Andrew Pettitt was quite noticeable for his play. It was energetic and effective moving forward. I was pleased to see how responsible Sam Mellor was with his backchecking; he made many nice passes and showed growth from the 1st half of the season. Mitch Bruijsten was effective and looked good. Eric Scheid carried the puck well on a number of occasions and made chances with his solid puck handling and excellent skating. Lots of guys played pretty well really.

The Seawolves played mostly well in their own end with just a couple of miscues and opposition forwards left uncovered. At this level though those instances can be pretty costly. I haven't looked at the stats but think I can say pretty safely that losing as many faceoffs as they did isn't a good thing. This was one of those games/situations that we've seen often over the years. Good play but just not good enough at critical times to make the difference.

No reason for the boys to hang there heads necessarily and I'd expect a closer game tomorrow night. Here is tonight's boxscore.

Not Time To Scream

2012-01-16T09:34:00.000-09:00

Just a quick review of the this past weekend at MTU and a short look forward to this coming weekend at Wisconsin. Obviously, Friday night was pretty brutal. Sounded like there was some good play by the team but the breakdowns were too much to overcome. Giving up quick multiple goals is always a killer. Good on Dusan Sidor for his play on Friday which was good enough to get him the Saturday game.

Saturday was full on heartbreaking. Come back from a 3-0 deficit to take the lead? 4 straight goals is always awesomeness. Not being able to make the one-goal lead stand? There's all sorts of adjectives for that. I can't imagine the players were anything other than pissed off at themselves.

Not getting any scoring from underclassmen forwards has me concerned. With half the season gone you'd like to see the higher profile freshman forward finding their touch. Specifically, Scott Allen, Sam Mellor and Eric Scheid really need to start finding ways to get it done if the team wants to accomplish something noteworthy this season. Those three guys are going to be go-to guys in the future ... I have no doubt about that. But they're all now getting good minutes with good linemates and have enough games under their belt to be up to speed with the college game.

The penalty kill was solid shutting out the Huskies. But conversely, getting shut out on 9 power play chances in 2 games blows.

It's rough I'm sure having that much time off, coming back to some ineligibility issues and suspensions for late arrivals then trying to win hockey games. That shouldn't be an excuse though. We've seen this team learn much over the last couple of years in terms of learning to be resilient and finding ways to get over the hump. Well, we're at the point in this season now where those traits need to become part of the picture.

Lastly, all the hoopla and confusion and finger-pointing regarding Mickey Spencer's departure should just stop now ... ok? Doesn't matter exactly what happened etc from my standpoint. If Mickey wants to email me, I'll be happy to express his views. If not, as I hope I said before ... best of luck to him in whatever he chooses to do.

Now it's Advil time again for me.

Game Day: Seawolves @ MTU

2012-01-13T11:48:00.000-09:00

There is no TV. You can purchase a video stream at Michigan Tech's website. Gametime is 3:07 Alaska time.

I have confirmation that Rob Gunderson's absence from this trip has nothing to do with academics. He was one of the players who missed practice on Dec 28th coming back late from break.

Feel free to pop into the Chatango Room ... that chat box on the right column... over there ----> .. ya know? I should be in there and listening to Kurt's call on the radio.

I'm Back ... But Everyone Else Isn't

2012-01-10T09:36:00.000-09:00

Blog vacation over. Bummer sorta for me. But hockey this weekend against MTU should get me back into the required mode. There is more to touch on than I hoped there would be. Mickey Spencer is no longer on the team. Everyone always wants to know the background when one of these departures occurs. I'm not privy to any details. Nor should I be. Here's a fact about college hockey; players leave their teams sometimes. And it's for a variety of reasons.

There are any number of things we fans can suppose as to the circumstances. It doesn't really matter to me. I would like to see Mickey on the ice. But he won't be there. Someone else will. That's an opportunity for whoever that might be. There's still 15 forwards on the roster ... just sayin.

The Seawolves are 7 points out of a tie for 6th place. So there's lots of work to be done. Nobody else is going to just sit in their spot in the standings and wait for UAA to pass them so I should have capitalized the word "lots" in that last sentence.

I also heard that an unspecified number of players got back from xmas break late. I don't know who or any of those circumstances either but I'm suspecting that it means that whoever it was might sit out a game as a penalty for that. Hopefully it wasn't a high number of players. I think we all remember the getting back to the hotel late debacle in Denver a couple of years ago and the impact that had. I'm suspecting this situation isn't nearly as widespread or problematic as that event.

So it's off to Houghton this weekend and then Madison next weekend. Since these are the only back to back road weekends then we can assume the team will be staying down in the states after the MTU series. Both of these series present good opportunities for the Seawolves to pick up some ground. The Huskies are certainly improved and getting the majority of the 4 points down there is no sure thing.

Wisconsin doesn't appear to be the powerhouse it often is and so there's some hope there to pick up some much needed points also. Then it's the back-to-back-to-back home weekends against DU, UMD and Mankato. That will be a fun three weeks for us fans for sure. Especially since it will be something like 100 days since we saw our boys on home ice. Ok ok ... it's really only 55 days between the last home game and the next one.

UAA's geography is always a challenge for the team and often the schedule can make it seem like two seasons. It sure feels that way this year to me.

WCHA Offensive POTW: Mitch Bruijsten

2011-12-13T15:24:00.000-09:00

Junior Mitch Bruijsten's Friday night hat-trick in Colorado Springs to lead the Seawolves to a 6-3 win earned him WCHA co-Offensive Player of the Week honors. Congratulations to Mitch on receiving the award. Here's most of the text from the league's announcement:

Bruijsten, a 6-4, 205-pound junior right winger from Nijmegen, Netherlands, posted his first collegiate three-goal hat trick (on just three shots) to help the Seawolves to a 6-3 WCHA road victory over No. 6-ranked Colorado College last Friday (Dec. 9) at Colorado Springs World Arena. With his team trailing 2-0, Bruijsten netted an unassisted shorthanded goal at 17:37 of the first period to close the gap to one and then tied the game at 2-2 with a power-play tally at 3:00 of the second. After CC regained the lead at 3-2, Alaska Anchorage rattled off four straight goals to secure their first win over a top 10-ranked team, with Bruijsten completing his hat trick with a man-advantage goal at 3:00 of the third period to earn No. 1 star of the game honors.

Seawolves 6 - Cutthroat Trout 3

2011-12-09T20:42:00.000-09:00

There is a difference between not scoring and not being able to score. The Seawolves showed tonight that they are able to score. And doing it should help erase the idea from their minds that they are not able to score.

They've shown excellent offensive tendencies in the first four games of the season scoring 4+ goals a game. Had tough streak for the next 8 games scoring only 7 goals during that stretch. And now in the last 5 games they've come close again to the 4 goals per game mark with 19 goals.

This team CAN score. Nuff said. Hopefully tonight's result builds some confidence amongst our boys. From Kurt's always excellent call it seemed that CC imploded and the Seawolves took advantage. Congrats to Mitch Bruijsten on his hat-trick with the first coming shorthanded. Nice.

Don't expect CC to piss down their leg again tomorrow night.

Here's the boxscore.

Note: I'm mired deep in a cold right now folks. I haven't had a cold like this for quite a few years so I'm keeping this short. I'll have a post on new recruit Austin Sevalrud as soon as I can get to it.

CC Cutthroat Trout? Better Than Tigers

2011-12-08T08:57:00.000-09:00

In the past I've asserted that the CC Tigers had the absolutely stupidest nickname in the WCHA. That's saying quite a bit with as much as I hate UND. Of course, Mavericks and Bulldogs are pretty close contenders for the stupidity crown. College sports team's nicknames should reflect some geographic attribute or regional cultural or something with some sort of local interest. With Tigers being no closer than about 8000 miles to Colorado Springs it gets the retard crown.

Tigers have nothing to do with the front range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. In 1994 the name was almost changed to Cutthroat Trout. That would certainly have been better than Tigers but not exactly one of those names that inspires fear from opponents. I still think Black Bears would be their best bet. There actually are some of them in the state now (there were none when I lived there in the late 70s).

They should be mocked for their nickname. It perhaps doesn't deserve the same vitriol as the former name of UND which as we all know denigrated a whole race of people. Anyway, send Ken Ralph an email making fun of his school's nickname. His email address is Ken.Ralph@ColoradoCollege.edu ... Come on Ken ... I know you're ambitious and are hoping this ill-considered move to form a new conference will make your resume look good but it'll take some time to see if that was a smart move or not. Leading the change from your pathetically ludicrous nickname to something reasonable like Black Bears could go on that resume right now.

Ken is a UAA grad and member of the UAA Sports Hall of Fame for his swimming exploits. So at least he knows the pride that a decent nickname can instill in amateur athletes versus the absurd one they are using now.

Our boys are likely lounging comfortably in one of the worst cities in the U.S. as I write this. Why do I say that? Because that joint is more full of extreme right-wing conservative nutbags than any place I've ever been. There's so much wrong with that place that I really can't begin to explain it all for this post. I have detailed some of the fucked-uppedness in the past here. Search it if you are that interested.

Now about their hockey team. The Seawolves played those guys six freaking times last year. A scheduling anomaly put them in last year's tournament here in Anchorage and then it included 4 regular season games. In those 5 games UAA held the advantage with 3 wins and 2 losses. As it turned out CC turned out to be the Seawolves WCHA Final Five opponent. Our boys pretty much outplayed them (territorially etc ..) but came up short.

So there is every reason to expect that the Seawolves can snag some points this weekend down there. To do so they'll have to put the brakes on the highest scoring offense in the league. Not a small task for a team that has had some struggles putting together 60 minute games. If I was coaching it would be all defense this weekend. I'd throw everyone back in front of the UAA goal and give whoever is in net the kind of support they'll need to keep CC from getting on the board too much.

Offensively, I'd do the same thing I'm doing while I write this. Cross my fingers. Chances have been manufactured in enough quantity for the Seawolves to have won some games they've lost. Finishing hasn't been there. A coach can't do shit about that really. The guy with the puck on his stick in front of the other team's net is the only solution. Our boys have to find a way to finish. My advice? Get excited after the puck goes into the net ... getting excited beforehand is a recipe for a miss.

Not a lot of other stuff I can say about this weekend. It's the last games before the Xmas break. Going home and celebrating the holidays will be sweeter with those points. Here's the UAA release if you want to read something useful about this series. There's no TV ... (there never is from that place) and the webstream is from that crap outfit America One.

Perspective: Have Some Please

2011-12-05T08:08:00.000-09:00

It appears that some of us fans are frustrated with our team's performance this season. Well, as head Internet cheerleader for the Seawolves it's incumbent on me to say a few things. Let's take a look at reality shall we?

Our boys through 16 games last season had an overall record of 5-9-2. Through the first 16 games this season our boys are 5-9-2. As a fan were you mostly happy with the way that last season turned out? See um ... there's a shitload of hockey still to be played eh?

I seriously feel like there really isn't much more that I have to point out after the above fact. But I will.

Year in and year out the WCHA has an average of about 6 teams in the top 20 in the nation; sometimes more. Take a look at KRACH at the end of past seasons and you'll often find our boys ranked from the low to high 20s in the nation.

So um ... in general our boys are typically well above 30 or so other Division 1 programs in the country. Sure, we'd like to see them in the NCAA's. Getting there as a member of the WCHA is a tall order for a team that isn't a mega-school (Minnesota and Wisconsin) or a team that has multiple national championships (North Dakota, Denver). So far this season our boys have lost to the defending national champion and two of last year's NCAA participants for a total of 6 of the 9 losses.

Let's pretend something together shall we? You are an elite hockey player ... where you going to school first? Um ... teams with national championships and loads of history and tradition finishing near the top of the league contact you. When a school in Alaska calls what can they offer you to win a recruiting battle? Not much. So you see ... um ... those history rich and traditonal winning programs have an advantage don't they?

With that in mind when you go to the Sully or turn on a TV to watch our boys you probably shouldn't expect them to win every game. Hell, even some of those traditonal winning programs don't get to the NCAA's every year. Um ... remember what happened to Minnesota last year? Ok then. What I'm saying here is that it's important for us Seawolves fans to have reasonable expectations. Home ice as a goal for the season is a tall order. But it's not unreasonable to hope for that. It's obviously still a possibility.

Which leads me to the nattering naybobs of negativity (Spiro Agnew said that first). There are folks who call themselves fans who pop up to piss on certain aspects of the program anytime they can. I see some of that happening right now. For example, if you read Doyle Woody and look at the comments section you'll see this fucking retard there called "richardscommonsense" who shits on the program pretty much every time the Seawolves lose.

Here on this blog we get to see some of those as well. On here I take care of them generally by correcting their stupidity. Someone ought to go over there and do the same. I used to do that but seriously folks ... how much do you expect us here to do? We provide pictures, post-game interviews and whatever the hell I decide to write. It isn't required for you to attach your real name over at ADN to comment. So how about it? I challenge someone to step up and chase that turd off the Seawolves stories on that website.

Lastly ... I've said this before and I'll say it again at some point I'm sure. This isn't professional sports. Our boys are out there giving their best for a partial scholarship to a school who's degree doesn't exactly turn heads ... the University of Alaska Anchorage ain't Harvard folks. Dig me? I'd bet that there are few (if any) Seawolves getting all their schooling paid. 18 schollies between 28 players makes that a reality. They deserve respect for that. Pretty much all college athletes do no matter where they are going to school.

So does that mean you aren't supposed to want them to win? Hells no. I want our boys to win. But I consider my primary responsibility as a fan to support my boys. Winning is a bonus. Seeing them give it their best is the most important thing. They are young amateur athletes folks. Keep that in mind eh?

I hope nobody minded me saying "our boys" over and over here. But that's who they are to me. Beginning with the 2013-14 season the Seawolves will be in a conference that is much more suitable for the program than the WCHA and they'll win more games and finish higher in the standings than they typically do now. Will that make that future team somehow better than this year's (or any past year) team? Nope. Go to the games and enjoy the sport. Hope for a win but have some perspective for the realities of the situation eh?

I know someone is likely to come here and say something about "excuses". Don't. These words above aren't ... they're reality. I'll have a preview of the upcoming games against CC later in the week and whatever else occurs to me to write.

Post Game Interviews vs North Dakota 12-3

2011-12-03T22:37:00.003-09:00

There is a malaise of sorts hanging over the UAA hockey program. The team is losing and not playing well, the players seem frustrated, and the fans seem either uninterested or frustrated themselves. It's tough to be young team finding it's legs in the WCHA as mercy is non-existent. Once again a small time frame with a lapse in play was the doing in for the Seawolves, this time North Dakota used the second period to build a 4-1 lead and never look back.

Interviews tonight with Tyler Currier (the best player this weekend in my opinion) and Coach Shyiak.

A trip to the Springs and CC beckons before the holiday break and then a 10 day road trip to kick off the new year.

Post Game Interviews vs North Dakota 12-2

2011-12-02T22:43:00.003-09:00

Tough loss for UAA tonight as NoDak scored 3 goals in the first ten minutes that they made hold up in a 5-2 loss for the Seawolves. Interviews tonight from Curtis Leinweber and Brad Gorham.

... And The Horse You Rode In On

2011-12-01T20:04:00.001-09:00

You other fans have no need for me to discuss exactly what being a fan of a team means. It's a bit different for everyone. One aspect of being a fan of a particular team often might mean that you hate another team. The word hate scares a lot of people. Not me. What follows is a description of my hatred of UND's Fighting Sioux hockey program. Don't even click the read more below if full use of language offends you.

I fucking hate the fucking UND Fighting Sioux hockey program. I fucking hate every fucking thing about them. I've spent more than a fair bit of time over the years writing this blog deriding and insulting those fuckers. So for me, every time my beloved Seawolves play against these cunts I want to see my guys metaphorically fucking rip their heads off and shit down their necks. That means I want UAA to beat them 10-0 on Friday night and on Saturday I want my guys to score 7 touchdowns and win 49-0.

So first ... I HOPE WE NEVER HAVE TO SEE THEM IN THE REGULAR SEASON at the Sullivan Arena. If the UAA program EVER invites UND to play here after they leave the WCHA then I'll stop this fucking blog on the spot. Seriously, there is no reason for them to ever visit the Sully again after this weekend. These cunts have made about 4 million dollars over the last decade by receiving the Alaska Exemption and playing extra home games at their rink (funded by the gambling proceeds of a casino owning fucking Nazi pig).

So I hate them because they made money? Not at all. It's their overall attitude towards UAA that bugs me. These fuckers were happy to make that money but at the same time their fans, bloggers, newspaper reporters and athletic department personnel shit on UAA at every opportunity. I'm not going to go through tons of examples of all that shit; but suffice to say if one of their athletic directors, coaches or media people even once acknowledged the truth of the financial benefits of playing against UAA in conference then it may have mitigated my hatred a bit. But I cannot recall a single instance where anyone associated with that program said anything like that. So fuck them ... in their ear holes.

I'm just jealous of their success ... right? Wrong. I could give a shit about titles etc. Sure I'd enjoy seeing my team reach those goals. But I don't resent other teams that have achieved those things. But I sure as hell hate fuckers that have that success and turn around and do everything they can to shit on other programs. Just one example here ... there was a time in the WCHA when programs held luncheon's much more often. It was pretty much standard procedure for opposition coaches to attend these events. But then tDon, Gwoz, Eaves and Haxtool all got to be too big for such things. How fucking awful that they be asked to spend a couple of hours on game day getting fed a nice lunch and tell a story or joke or two.

Ok .. why should an opposition coach support the luncheons of opposition teams? Only the booster clubs holding those events really benefit from it ... right? I'll happily stipulate that. But when every one of those fucks that I just named moan and bitch about two fucking hours of their time after my program has paid the majority of their team's airfare? Nope .. fuck them. That's just selfish and trashy. Then they fly home on UAA's dime with a couple of extra home games that make their school half a million dollars or more? Yeah .. fuck them in their eye-sockets. Know that I think my following assessment is actually a stupid one to make in regard to sports in general and especially in hockey but acting in that manner is completely CLASSLESS.

Now onto another specific example of why I don't like this weekend's opposition head coach. A few years ago a fan of MTU was in the stands at MacInnes during the warm-ups and was yelling stuff at UND players and coaches. I don't remember what the guy said (my memory sucks lately) he was saying but it was just some razzing and shit like that. Next thing he knows either some players or assistant coach (sent by Haxtool) confront him in the stands. WOWS. Nothing resulted from the confrontation ... I'm sure they were proud of themselves for intimidating some fan to shut up. What fucking balls that is ... fuck them in their other fucking eye sockets. A different result would have prevailed if that shit had happened to me. And oh yeah ... I just don't like the way the dude looks. Sometimes you just see someone's face and that's enough ya know.

I could sit here for a while and provide other examples of why I hate UND but you should be pretty much getting it by now. So dear UAA Seawolves players ... go out this weekend and play up to and exceed your potential. Look at the guys around your locker room and be there for your teammates this weekend. Play for each other like you did at the end of the season last year. Give it up for your goalie and stand up for your teammates. Beat these mother fucking flatlander twats down hard. I promise you that you'll love doing it just as much as I'll love you for doing it.

The Only Good Indian Is A Dead Indian

2011-11-30T08:23:00.000-09:00

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.

So let's look at this week's release "for more read meat stuff" eh? I don't actually visit the UAA website for the weekly release. Being on the media email list saves me that step. The release I get (typically on Tuesday) is exactly the same thing you can find on their website. It's a nice format which I pretty much copied for the game day posts (when I actually do those). First, the unmatchable Dallas gives us the media info. Where to get live stats for example: GoSeawolves.com and WCHA.com. The release tells us where to listen to the game and where to watch the game as well as directs fans to UAA's Facebook and Twitter accounts for updates. Most of us here know all that stuff.

Next on this week's release is the list of promotions. On Saturday night the first 1500 folks through the door get a "Seawolf Roller Banner". After the game that night is the first "Skate with the Seawolves" event of the year. The UAA release doesn't mention that the booster club is also auctioning game worn jerseys that night. And it shouldn't as booster clubs and athletic departments always maintain separation.

Then comes the section called "The Series" ... I'm copying/pasting the good stuff ...

THE SERIES – UAA vs. UND
OVERALL: UND leads, 43-18-4 AT UAA: UND leads, 15-14-1
LAST MEETING: Feb. 12, 2011 (UND won, 3-1) STREAK: UND 2
NOTES: The last time UAA won against UND was on Oct. 24, 2009 at home (2-1), while the last Seawolf sweep was on Nov. 17-18, 2006 (6-2, 4-2) at home … in the last 10 outings, UND leads,7-2-1 ... last season the teams met for one WCHA series and a non-conference game … on Oct. 8, 2010, UND and UAA skated to a 5-5 tie at the Sullivan Arena in the Kendall Hockey Classic … in that game, UND was up 5-1 before UAA came back to send the game into extra minutes … on Feb. 11-12, UND swept UAA in Grand Forks, 6-1, 3-1.

LAST TIME vs. NORTH DAKOTA: The Seawolves and Fighting Sioux last met with then-No. 5 UND sweeping UAA on Feb. 11-12 ... the Sioux won 6-1 on Friday and 3-1 on Saturday ... UAA’s lone goals of the weekend were both scored by then-freshman F Matt Bailey ... forward Mitch Bruijsten assisted on Bailey’s first goal, while the second goal was unassisted ... splitting time between the pipes were freshmen G Chris Kamal (Friday) and Rob Gunderson (Saturday).

LAST TIME OUT: Prior to facing the Fighting Sioux, the Seawolves were on the road at Minnesota State on Nov. 25-26 … UAA took a season-high three points from the Mavericks with a 5-4 win on Friday night and a 5-5 tie on Saturday night ... on Nov. 25, the Seawolves and the Mavericks, who each enjoyed at least two one-goal leads during the 60 minutes of play, finished both the first and second periods deadlocked with 1-1 and 3-3 scores, before UAA outscored MSU in the final frame, 2-1 ... three Seawolves picked up their first goals of the season – senior D Curtis Leinweber, sophomore F Brett Cameron and freshman F Scott Allen ... on Nov. 26, UAA surrendered a 5-1 lead halfway through the second period by allowing the Mavericks to score four unanswered goals throughout the second and third frames for the 5-5 overtime score ... Leinweber added two goals, while Cameron, sophomore F Jordan Kwas and junior F Mickey Spencer each added their second goals of the weekend.

SEAWOLF BITES: Following the Minnesota State series on Nov. 25-26, the Seawolves have recorded two WCHA wins; one against Michigan Tech (Nov. 18, 3-1) and one against the Mavericks (Nov. 25, 5-4) ... UAA is 2-1-1 in the last four outings after losing six straight from Oct. 21-Nov. 12 ... in the MSU series, UAA’s 10 goals in the two-game series easily topped the seven goals that UAA registered in its first eight WCHA games … the Seawolves also scored four PPGs during the MSU series after scoring just twice on the man advantage in the first eight games ... the win on Nov. 25 was UAA’s first WCHA road win of the season, while the 3-point weekend was a season-high ... the Seawolves tallied a season-high 5 goals in league play for the first time since Nov. 12, 2010 against Bemidji State (UAA won, 5-4) ... the five goals was the most since UAA recorded 6 against non-conference opponent Mercyhurst on Oct. 15 ... the Seawolves also scored two power-play goals on Friday and Saturday – the first time in league action and first since earlier this year against non-conference opponent Clarkson ... on Nov. 26, UAA posted a season-low 13 shots on net while allowing MSU to find the net for a season-high 46 shots … the Seawolves were also tagged for a season-high 48 minutes of penalty time … UAA now holds a five-game unbeaten streak against the Mavericks ... after averaging 9.6 penalty minutes per game in the first 10 games, the Seawolves have gone up to 15.1 PIM/G following the last four games where they combined for 116 minutes of infractions – second most in the WCHA overall stats … UAA, which was outshot by MSU both nights, is 4-1-1 when out shooting its opponents and 1-6-1 when being outshot ... the Seawolves are also winless when allowing 30 shots or more on net ... UAA completed the month of October with a 3-4-1 record and a 2-3-1 record in November ... UAA’s Brice Alaska Goal Rush title was its first since the inaugural event in 2008, and it marks the first time in four years that the Seawolves have swept both of their preseason tourneys (BAGR and Kendall Hockey Classic).

Then there is a UAA vs. UND statistical comparison this week which I haven't noticed in previous editions:

UAA vs. UND COMPARISON
Overall Stats           UAA             UND
Scoring Offense         T-11th (2.43)   9th (2.86)
Scoring Defense         11th (3.36)     T-7th (3.21)
Penalty Minutes         2nd (15.1)      11th (11.8)
Power Play              T-6th (20.8)    T-6th (20.8)
Penalty Kill            10th (76.7)     T-6th (80.3)
Combined Special Teams T-5th (51.9)    9th (48.1)

It doesn't cut/paste particularly well. It's info that fairly easy to glean from any site that tracks stats but certainly nice that Dallas does the work for us.

PLAYER NOTES: Individually, four Seawolves have posted multi-point careers against the Fighting Sioux – sophomore F Matt Bailey (3 gms) leads with three goals and one assist ... senior D/F Curtis Leinweber has 2-1–3 totals in eight games, junior F Mitch Bruijsten has 0-3–3 totals in five games and sophomore F Brett Cameron has 1-1–2 totals in three games ... during the Minnesota State series three Seawolves netted their first goals of the season – Leinweber, Cameron and freshman F Scott Allen ... Allen collected the game-winning goal Friday and the first point of his career ... he then added an assist on Saturday evening ... Cameron and Leinweber each posted a multi-point game – Cameron’s fourth of his career and Leinweber’s fifth ... Leinweber (3-1–4) and Cameron (2-2–4) each recorded four points in the series ... overall, seven Seawolves posted a multi-point weekend ... junior F Mickey Spencer broke a 7-game scoreless streak with his team-leading 6th and 7th tallies over the weekend ... Spencer also leads UAA in points with nine, while junior D Scott Warner leads in assists with six ... suiting up in his first collegiate game on Nov. 25 was freshman F Kory Roy … freshman F Eric Scheid produced his first collegiate multi-point night with two assists on Nov. 26 … the Blaine, Minn., native has recorded 1-4—5 totals in the last five games ... after missing five games with a shoulder injury from Oct. 22 to Nov. 12, sophomore F Jordan Kwas has returned to the lineup with 2-1–3 totals in the last four games ... throughout the MSU series, UAA was without senior F Jade Portwood and junior forwards Daniel Naslund and Alex Gellert due to injuries ... at the Kendall Hockey Classic, Spencer became just the sixth player and the second Seawolf (Rob Conn vs. Dartmouth, 1990) to record a hat trick in the Classic ... it was also the Seawolves’ first hat trick and first four-point game since Kevin Clark accomplished both in a 5-4 victory at Michigan Tech on Jan. 16, 2010 ... leading UAA as co-captains this season will be seniors Brad Gorham and Jade Portwood and juniors Chris Crowell and Scott Warner.

I haven't cut/pasted the whole release. But there wasn't much I left out. Now here's the thing about this blogging deal ... Dallas Baldwin does most of the legwork and I just ride on her coattails. It's a smooth ride. Sure, every once in a while I roll through stats and find some interesting trend or tidbit or whatever to give you. But that's rare (get it? ... we're talking about red meat ... I said "rare").

So if you read some cool tidbit in whatever media you turn to about any college hockey team ... the chances are it came right out of a weekly release that some hard-working professional person put together for lazy people like me to peruse and steal. That means the added value that I provide here should be something other than "red meat". I'm not the salad bar or the dessert table either. The best metaphor for me (and ANY other blogger/media person) is that we're the salt on the table. I'll be salty tomorrow (and hopefully alliterative) ... count on it.

Scalp The Squaws!!!

2011-11-28T20:10:00.000-09:00

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 I'd like to start with the blueliners. I thought as a group Seawolf defenseman played really well. There can be no denying that some mistakes with the puck and/or missed assignments turned into positives for Mankato. That said, I really liked what I've seen out of Scott Warner and Brad Gorham lately. These two guys are playing like leaders. They both seem determined and focused to me.

After the leadership group on the blueline the name I want to mention is freshman Derek Docken. I'm wowed at his consistently excellent defensive play. I know he made a mistake this weekend (a split second one) that led to a goal on Saturday night but that's been the rare exception for this rookie. I think it's already time to look at him as a veteran. He certainly hasn't played like a rookie. His positioning is always smart. He's willing to carry the puck deep into the opposition zone and always does it smartly.

I'm completely jazzed with everything he's done so far this season. He's played every game so far and I'd expect him to continue to do so. Derek probably isn't going to awe us fans with many dipsy-doing fancy-pants skate-o-rama hat-trick games over his career but his steady excellence and adherence to his defensive responsibilities will make him a memorable player for me. I'm looking forward to the next 3 and 3/4 seasons with him standing watch back there.

We got to see a couple of guys play this weekend that we either hadn't seen or only seen briefly. It's a tough schedule and league when it takes 14 games to get everyone some ice time in a game. I understand Kory Roy had been injured though I'm not aware of the extent. In any case, he played this weekend and looked comfortable in his roles ... it's difficult to pick up a new number on an opposition broadcast so I didn't get to see him play much but as I said when I did notice him he looked good.

Andrew Pettitt got some face-time on the TV broadcast as the Mankato folks nabbed him for a between the period interview. He handled himself just as well in the interview as he did on the ice. I saw him make at least one sweet spin move to advance the puck into the Mankato zone that told me he's got some nice stick skills and good feet. Most of his action the rest of the team was geared to possession and cycling which he performed well.

Good on Scott Allen bagging his first collegiate goal. He's played with great energy so far this season and I liked what I saw of him backchecking more effectively this weekend. Let's hope that getting the first one behind him opens up the gates for more.

Curtis Leinweber had the most individually successful series of any Seawolf player this weekend. He came into the series with no points on the year which had been mostly played at forward. He moved back to the blueline this weekend and banged in 3 goals plus an assist. I have to say at this point that my consistent hope to see him play more at forward over the last couple of seasons is done. It sure does seem that he brings the offense more effectively from the backend than when he plays up on the wing. I haven't looked at all the stats from other WCHA series yet but it will surprise me if he doesn't get the nod for WCHA Defensive Player of the Week.

We've been seeing a shitload of different lineups so far this season. Some of that is obviously due to injury. Here's what I want to say about that though ... it's going to give a lot of guys chances to skate with a lot of other guys ... and in the end that's going to contribute to the same sort of team feeling that we saw at the end of last season. Guys playing FOR each other equals success. Let's none of us forget how important that is and how it will become a contributor to success down the line.

I'm sure I've missed some things I wanted to mention but I'm about out of time here today to get this posted. I'll have at least one decent series preview this week leading up to the series against the hostile and abusive UNDs. With assholes like me going out and finding offensive and/or racist blog titles and picture folks in Grand Forks still wonder why they're being forced to drop their nickname?

First Thoughts On A 3 Point Weekend

2011-11-26T19:41:00.000-09:00

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.

The Seawolves went up 5-1 on Curtis Leinweber's sweet power play goal (his 2nd of the night and 3rd of the weekend) at 7:31 of the 2nd period. To that point in the game 2 penalties had been called on Mankato and a single penalty call had tagged the Seawolves. 45 seconds later began a string of penalty calls against our boys the likes of which could be classified as nothing other than amazing.

Bruijsten picked up the first one with a holding call at 8:16 ... a minute and 7 seconds later Tyler Currier goes for holding and the purple cows go on their first 5 on 3. Then just 17 seconds after Bruijsten gets out of jail, Matt Bailey gets whistled for cross-checking. A couple of seconds after that 5 on 3 ends Mankato makes it 5-2.

Then comes the 4th straight call against the Seawolves and the most arbitrary and egregious call of the night. Mickey Spencer took two hits from a couple of Mankato players in the corner and registered his dislike that one of them left his feet to make the hit by responding with a cup check. A cup check is pretty much not more than a rude hello in hockey. Yet when Eriah Hayes dropped like a sack of potatoes the referees responded by calling a 5 minute major and a game misconduct for spearing.

There was no spearing act. On this first five minute major Mankato scored 57 seconds in (at 13:51) to make it 5-3. Then after another couple of minutes at 15:26 the refs decided to change the 5 on 4 into a 4 on 4 by tossing 2 p-cows along with Brad Gorham. Then at 19:25 Gorham got whistled for tripping.

Then right after that power play ended early in the 3rd they whistle Chris Crowell for holding @ 2:06 and the p-cows capitalized 9 seconds into the power play to make the score 5-4. Three other penalties in the 3rd period against the Seawolves including a 5 minute major against Mitch Bruijsten for CFB and a game misconduct just a minute after the Seawolves went on a 5 minute major power play of their own. An interference call (incorrect call btw) on the Mankato goalie and a slashing penalty against Matt Bailey (rolling my eyes) meant for a while the teams actually played 3 on 3.

Just a couple of minutes after all that nonsense was cleared up and the teams actually were playing 5 on 5 the game tying goal came at 10:24. From then on it was pretty much UAA just holding on any way they could to avoid losing the game. The shot total on the night is the stat which reflects that best ... 46-13 in favor of Mankato. The Seawolves scored their 5 goals on the first 7 shots of the game.

I'll try to get some specific thoughts posted about the weekend etc tomorrow or Monday but that's all for tonight.

Designated Rivalry Weekend Preview Extravaganza

2011-11-23T10:32:00.002-09:00

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.

There could be a bit of underlying animosity this weekend as the last time the Seawolves skated at the ThisOrThat Wireless Arena they handed them a couple of regular season ending losses that were likely to leave a bit of a bad taste in their cow mouths. I'd assume they'd use that as motivation to play hard this coming weekend.

For the Seawolves this weekend has to be all about recovering lost points. It's never easy to sweep any team on in this league but when you're faced with an opponent who has 2 more points than you coming into the weekend and you're sitting in last place with a quarter of the league schedule behind you ... well it's pretty fucking crucial to get pointS. That's just the way it is.

The purple cows are scoring at an equally low rate to the Seawolves but they are giving up .75 more goals per game than UAA. But no statistics will be the difference this weekend. Effort will be. This year's edition of the Seawolves has lost more than a game or two due to less than 100 percent efforts.

This weekend is a chance for them to show that they've learned their lesson. This squad is certainly capable of going to Mankato and winning gameS. They have to believe that themselves and then go out and play with energy, focus and confidence. That will be the difference.

So yeah ... not a weekend preview extravaganza.

UAA/MTU: Saturday Thoughts

2011-11-19T23:37:00.000-09:00

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?

That was a frustrating game to watch. The Seawolves had more than enough real opportunities to keep the game close on the scoreboard. If you don't think so then you watched a different hockey game than me. At the same time, Tech was very effective offensively all night. They won most of the puck battles inside the UAA zone and frankly looked like they wanted it more. As the game progressed it also became more and more destined for Tech ... I could tell from all the bounces that went their way.

I know what you're thinking. You're disappointed. It's been a long time since we've seen a Tech team come into the Sully and win a game ... and it happens at a time when we are all really feeling the need for our boys to get 4 points. Nothing wrong with feeling that way. But this Tech team did a good job tonight. Jordan Baker was pretty much able to do anything with the puck he wanted. And the Pietila kid had a real good game for them as well.

It happens. Other teams can play well.

I thought Scott Warner stood out for UAA tonight. Not that plenty of other guys didn't play well. But I wanted to make mention of him. He blocked a number of shots and one in particular stung him but he really fought through it and played effectively until the end of that shift. Good on him.

So that's about it. Don't be too down about the loss. The guys will regroup and give em hell another day. Here's the unedited notes I made for whatever they're worth.

first period
matt bailey with the first scoring chance inside the first minute off a turnover at the blueline. he broke in clean and gave robinson a forehand deke before shooting a high backhander which robinson saved well.

tech seems to have brought their lunch today prepared to work hard ... they are making things happen in the seawolves zone with hard work and cycling.

ridiculous call on Karl ... the tech player and he coincidentally gave each other a shoulder on the way to a puck and since tech player went down Karl gets whistled. weak call.

the guys killed off the penalty pretty nicely ... that is they didn't give up any quality scoring chances but at 11:04 just xx after the end of the penalty the Seawolves got caught on one side and after a failed breakout tech was able to find an open guy on the weak side who buried the puck easily. The goal pulled a review from the officials and I've got no idea why. Don Adam likes playing with the replay gear?

so for the first half of the period i'd have to say that tech has substantially carried the play. check that ... they carried the play for pretty much the whole period. our guys had some chances. Gotta start converting those chances or it'll be same old story.

2nd period

now scott allen gets sent off for hitting someone too effectively. they called it interference for comedy reasons.

tyler curriers penalty was just dumb. he went looking for payback after being hit and ran the guy right in front of the ref.

been a night of getting beat to the puck for the seawolves. plain and simple. last night they were the ones getting to pucks first and winning faceoffs. turned completely on it's head tonight.

very frustrating. seems like every time the team gets a chance they put hte puck wide or robinson comes up with a big save. he wasn't the reason for the win but he sure was a big part of it and you can never fault a goalie that gets a shutout.

ridiculous late call on corbin karl ... pure bullshit. the fucking tech player was going down and karl fell over the back of him. that was a call made just so the ref could add to his own personal "look how many majors I called" ledger.

Post Game Interviews vs Michigan Tech 11/19

2011-11-19T22:59:00.002-09:00

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

2011-11-19T09:38:00.001-09:00

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.

The win was a nice one. And important of course in getting the first couple of league points. I think the post game interviews really summed things up well. Coach Shyiak said he thought the team played for 50 minutes and I find no reason to disagree with that. Eric Scheid definitely made the play of the night with his sweet cross-ice backhand feed to Corbin Karl pinching in on the weak side.

The media area gave a perfect view and I could see the whole thing develop so I crossed my fingers real quick and hoped that Eric saw it ... and as soon as those thoughts formed, Eric did see him. He got good pace on the pass as well making sure the puck got to Karl before the goalie could get across his crease.

There was massive concern for Portwood after he went off with a clear knee issue suffered when he laid a massive hit. I didn't think there was any twisting etc and they're calling it a sprained knee. Jade is a really valuable player as well as a fan favorite for his workhorse efforts. He'll be missed even if it's for only one game.

Coach Shyiak has definitely been running through different line combinations. Last night the Portwood, Naslund, Mellor line sure intrigued me ... it will be interesting to see the lineup tonight. Just FYI ... I'm not going to make any more guesses around here about lineups though. It's embarrassing when I'm wrong (always).

I thought the guys coulda scored a coupla/three more goals. I thought they were lucky a bit that MTU didn't get a couple more goals. The last 4 minutes or so of the game pretty much belonged to Tech and they sure came close a couple of times. Chris Kamal had a real nice outing and looked pretty confident.

There was lots of good looking stuff from guys all through the lineup. Jordan Kwas had a good return but seemed tentative here or there. That'll go away quickly. Defense was solid solid last night with few if any breakdowns that I can recall. Scott Allen's penalty is a complete mystery to me and perhaps nothing other than one particular control freak referee trying to score brownie points in front of WCHA Commish Bruce McLeod by making a call that is one of the points of emphasis. Maybe they get an extra 25 bucks if they whistle an "emphasized" penalty?

That's it for now. Go look at those pics ... some really good stuff in there. Thanks as always to JJ for the video interviews and to Tom for the pics.

Post Game Interviews vs Michigan Tech 11/18

2011-11-18T22:44:00.002-09:00

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.

2011-11-17T08:48:00.000-09:00

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.

I'd mostly like to think that the team is focused on the game at hand on Friday. Rust or whatever funk that can strike a team coming off a bye can be avoided with proper focus. The task to be done is the only one to think about. Win on Friday.

I don't know what to expect other than to guess that Shyiak will continue to change the line-up to give guys with fewer opportunities to see some ice time. There's no way he can really have a good idea what some of his players bring in game situations. Of course Jordan Kwas' status will effect that as I'd expect him to play if he is healthy. I'm guessing perhaps that means that Andrew Pettitt gets another couple of games this weekend. Beyond that I'm not willing to guess.

Michigan Tech fans are pretty hopeful that the Mel Pearson era will see more success than has been recent history for the program. And in his first ten games the new head coach has guided the Huskies to a 6-3-1 overall record, 4-3-1 in conference games for 9 points and a tie for 4th place with Wisconsin in the league standings. A typical WCHA season includes a team that performs dramatically higher than expectations. Last year the Seawolves made a run at the end of the season to perhaps gain consideration as that team; this year it's clearly MTU as the most likely looking candidate to take a big step up.

Is it all on Pearson? Has he come in and implemented some system that makes the most of every player's potential? Coaching can be a bit over-credited sometimes for success and/or failure so I tend to think the fresh player/coach perspective for a team with 23 veteran players has a lot to do with it. While I've no doubt that Jamie Russell was liked and respected by his players sometimes just a regime change works to improve things in difficult to quantify ways. That's what it smells like to me anyway. And my smeller is pretty much all there is in the way of a preview this week.

Sunday Potpourri: Good Pics and Bad Blogging

2011-11-13T15:05:00.001-09:00

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.

Saturday Live Blog Versus Da Gophs

2011-10-29T17:18:00.000-08:00

<a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=2dcf928717" >Seawolves vs. Gophers : Saturday</a>

Seawolves Zero - Gophers Way More

2011-10-29T02:58:00.000-08:00

There's not a lot I need to say here tonight/this morning. Is there? The Seawolves pretty much got a good ole butt-kickin. I would hesitate to use a word like dominated but the score is reflective of such. The boys had their chances here and there but when opportunities arose, the response was lacking. Shooting the puck wide when the net is open ain't gonna cut it in any league.

That isn't to take anything away from the Gophers. Kent Patterson came up with a couple of real nice saves to earn the shutout and their offense was a machine-like. Is there really anything else to say?

To make it a game tomorrow night the Seawolves will have to do two things better than they did tonight and those things in general are called offense and defense. They'll have to finish and they'll have to find a way to keep the Gopher snipers from finding their spots. I know ... it's obvious. Nevertheless, it's true.

I didn't find it to be an ugly game. I found some bright spots; Leinweber looked good up on the wing but perhaps not quite fully comfortable. Nice to see Eric Scheid get his first ice time along with the first chance to see Kory Roy. Both did ok under the circumstances. The Seawolves did block a lot of shots but I think the better game plan might be to test the opponents goalie a bit more than they did tonight. Eh?

All the lines had their moments. If our boys had finished their best chances it would have been a much closer game. Fuck having to say "if" though. Sorry to be blunt. But it sucks to write "if" in that context.

Nights like tonight remind us why the two-game series in college hockey is special. Saturday is another day. That's all I have.

Game Day: Seawolves v. Gophers - Certain Retribution Edition

2011-10-28T07:10:00.001-08:00

Watch/Listen:

TV: GCI Channel One (Live Statewide - 10:30pm tape-delayed in Anch/MatSu)
Live Blog: Here ...
Live Audio: KTZN 550AM (Kurt Haider) pay-per stream available at GoSeawolves.com
FREE Video Stream: uaahockey.nmtvsports.com

Other Stuff to read:
ADN Story: Da Gophs-r-gud (Doyle Woody)
Star Trib: Nate Schmidt Feature (Roman Augustoviz)
Star Trib: Big Series (Roman Augustoviz)
GopherSports.com: Q & A with Kurt Haider

It's getting to be a regular motivational quote factory over in the Minnesota hockey program. Last season after the UAA's Friday night victory Gopher player Jake Hansen said, "We knew that we are a better team than they are and we didn't take advantage of it [Friday]." This time around the quote torch has been passed to Gopher radio man Wally Shaver. Click this link to hear what he had to say at the end of his program "The Goal Line" for Gophersports.com.

"There's certainly retribution in store."

It doesn't reach the same level as Jake Hansen claiming superiority after a loss but it's what we've got. I'll imagine he wrote it down first and planned to say "The Gophers will certainly be looking for retribution" or "It remains to be seen whether retribution is in store" or even "I sure as hell hope that the Gophers stomp the guts out of the Seawolves whatever the hell they are". I'm fairly certain that had he chosen any of those I wouldn't now be highlighting them.

See you in the chat at around 6:30. Go Seawolves!!!

<p>&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=394586255c" &amp;amp;gt;Friday Night: Seawolves v. Gophers&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;</p>

2011-2012 Seawolves Intro Video

2011-10-26T22:26:00.000-08:00

AKSWF alerted us in the Chatango to the release today of this new Seawolves Intro on their Facebook page. Pretty nice. I like it lots. Best one yet. Christopher Hargrave gets the credit for producing this. Well done Christopher. The 36 Crazy Fists music is great. A fine job all around.

How Many Dead Gophers Does It Take To ...

2011-10-25T23:37:00.000-08:00

The Seawolves were the first WCHA playoff opponent to win a game at Mariucci Arena. That wasn't last year. On March 10th, 2007 the Seawolves broke that Gopher unbeaten streak. Last year they became the first team to win 2 games at the Mariucci Arena during the WCHA playoffs. Then the next night they became the first team to win 3 games at the Mariucci Arena. The Seawolves are 6-8-2 against the Gophs since.

It's a pretty good possibility that this weekend could be the last chance to see the University of Minnesota men's hockey team on the ice at the Sullivan Arena for quite a long time. The WCHA's unbalanced schedule means that the Gopher's won't be coming to Anchorage for it's final season in the league next year. As a Big 10 member the chances they'd schedule a non-conference series up here is close to nil as they'll be maximizing their home dates.

It's possible that they'd accept an invitation to the Kendall Classic (such an invitation would greatly offend my sensibilities to be honest) but at the very least that will likely be quite a number of years from now. None of that means anything on the ice this weekend. Cos, like I said. This weekend is about some payback if you're a Gopher veteran. And with the Seawolves coming off a couple of bad results combined with not having played at home since the opening weekend then you have to expect lots of high energy play this weekend.

If these two games are anything like the SCSU game at the Kendall then hockey fans at the Sullivan will get their money's worth this weekend. Will it be that sort of up and down racehorse hockey? I"m sure we'll see a good rush or two or three ...

In looking at some early reporting I see Don Lucia is using his well worn "...they play a 1-1-3" analysis of the Seawolves. And oh yeah ... the Seawolves are "gritty".

Hopefully he thinks that is all UAA is. You and I know differently. This year's edition is more dynamic offensively. Scoring has been pretty balanced thus far. The offensive execution has been at a higher level as well. We've seen the improvement of the passing game and how that's influenced the transition game and improved the look of the power play.

If this year's Gopher squad comes up here thinking UAA is just going to sit back and play some purely defensive game they'll be making the same mistake as last year in the playoffs. How many times did you see a Gopher forward back check during that series? Yeah ... me too. Few. The Seawolves won those games because the Gophers ignored what had happened on Friday night; they still thought all they had to do was go forward. Two-way play? Basically none from them. The Seawolves defensively matched the Gopher's offensive execution (blocked dozens of shots and got solid goaltending) and the Gopher's near complete absence of back checking provided all the offensive opportunities UAA needed.

That all said ... the Gopher's are better too this year. Especially offensively. They're only averaging 5.83 goals per game so far. But even if you throw out the 15 goals against Sacred Heart they'd still be averaging 5 goals per game. And then there's the whole payback thing.

Expect to see Chris Kamal in the net on Friday. His 37 save outing on Saturday and his past success against the Gophers makes that a clear choice in my book. Curtis Leinweber is questionable for this weekend and Jordan Kwas' sprained shoulder will keep him in street clothes. Expect whoever else is in the lineup to play their asses off. A series like this could be a chance for a young player to get noticed or an established one to stake a claim. The first chance is Friday night. Win that one first.

Should be a fun series. I got word from SID Dallas Baldwin that they will not be hosting "Live Chats" on a regular basis but instead will be doing them during special events like the Kendall etc ... So I'll be hosting one both nights this weekend. I liked them doing those. I liked them doing those a lot. More than a lot even. They of course are cordially invited to spend as much time as they wish in our chat over here.

Already Time To Get Over It

2011-10-23T21:20:00.000-08:00

I can imagine that before this weekend a few of us Seawolves fans were harboring unrealistic expectations and/or even wild hopes for remaining undefeated for a nice long time. Come on now ... admit that some transient "7-0-1" imagery went through your head. There were lots of good signs from the first 4 games to lead to such hopes. But psst ... there was going to be a 2 in the L column at some point this year. Obviously though, these two losses aren't the end of the season.

Getting your hats handed to you early in the year is better than late in the year. And it's pretty clear to me (despite not seeing the games) that the Seawolves got their first real taste this year of getting outplayed.

This weekend it was UNO's turn to dominate all the categories. They attempted 75 shots on Saturday night. The Seawolves blocked TWENTY and still 40 got through to Kamal. They won the faceoff battle on Saturday 39-28 as well. Quite the turnabout when that was the Seawolves modality the first two weekends. I come back to the theme that the bad taste in their mouths from this weekend should be a very useful reminder and spur some good hard practices this week.

For us hardcore Seawolves fans this coming weekend has about a hundred times more excitement so I know I'll forget about these two losses pretty quickly. No matter what you read this week on the internet, I promise you there are Gopher players fired up about getting a chance at some payback wins up here.

Game Day Post: Seawolves vs. Red Cows

2011-10-21T13:19:00.000-08:00

I fell down on the job here a bit this week. Sorry I didn't get to a preview. I will not be hosting a chat today or tomorrow. You have only one choice for viewing this series; webcast on AmericaOne (formerly B2 networks). The cost is either 8 dollars for a single game or 30 dollars for a 30 day UNO hockey pass. I cannot discern which is the case without registering. I will be listening to Kurt Haider on the radio.

No TV From Omaha; Big Surprise or No?

2011-10-18T22:53:00.001-08:00

Why is there no TV this weekend? Future college hockey national powerhouse Nebraska-Omaha cannot even interest an Omaha TV station to broadcast it's home games? WTF? I thought this was an elite program that was going to help give the Butt-Hurt Hockey Conference a national spotlight and they can't even get their local broadcaster interested? Well, no doubt in two years NBC Sports will be begging them for the rights. Right?

Yeah, I got nothing good to say about UNO's athletic department. Did I mention how Athletic Director Trev Alberts cut the D2 wrestling program on the same day they won a national championship? Did I mention how just three years ago this was shambles of a hockey program that looked doomed to fail at some point? Yes, they turned it around or rather Dean Blais turned it around with just his name and reputation. And woohoo ... now they're going to the Butt-Hurt conference with DU and UND. What's funny is that Dean Blais has made it pretty clear that he'll be retiring and it sounded likely to be around that time. That's a bus just waiting for the wheels to come off if you ask me.

Used to be the only WCHA venue we didn't get to see the game from was World Arena. Every other program provided TV coverage. Then the WCHA expanded and even eensy-teensy tiny wittle Bemidji provides TV coverage. With scheduling as it is though; this could very well be UAA's first and only trip to Omaha ever. I don't envision any reason that the Seawolves would schedule a game in Omaha after next season. No big loss for us fans though eh? But what about the Seawolves players? What fine attractions might they miss by never going to Omaha again?

Well I guess they might miss not getting to go to The Fun Plex which sounds like lots of fun. It's in the name yah know? They have a Tilt-A-Whirl and Bumper Boats. Um what else? A park with a fountain? Um .. no. Boys Town? Um ... no. The Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge? Um ... NO. A park with a fountain really??? Okay .. Okay I kid Omaha; there is one cool thing to go to there ... if you're into them.

The Henry Doorly Zoo ... no bullshit; that joint is pretty nice. We used to go all the time just to hang out with Murphy the Lowland Gorilla. And from their website I can see that the place is dramatically larger than it was in 1984. So that's cool if you like zoos. Otherwise, there really isn't much for a hockey player to miss about not going to Omaha. So maybe the guys can fit in a quick trip to the Zoo this week. It'll be their only chance.

I'll have an actual hockey preview tomorrow.

Seawolves 6 - Mercyhurst 2

2011-10-15T21:01:00.002-08:00

Congrats on another pretty dominating performance resulting in a quality win. The Seawolves again pushed the pace of the game and played some damn smart hockey throughout. Mercyhurst showed some heart in the 2nd period and worked hard to get the score to 4-2 early in the 3rd and for a moment or two it looked like a dangerous 2 goal lead. Then in a quick span of 1:14 the Seawolves put it out of reach.

Quinn Sproule got it started early for UAA tonight, he banged home the 1st goal with just 54 seconds gone from the clock. Daniel Naslund scored his shorthanded goal (on the highlight reel above) at 9:59 before Jade Portwood picked up the eventual game winner 6 minutes and 5 seconds later when he put the puck off the goaltenders back from just behind the goal line (highlight reel above). He also capped all the Seawolves scoring at 12:32 of the 3rd. In between his two goals came Sam Mellor's 1st collegiate goal (on the highlight reel) and a well earned goal for Tyler Currier. Some payoff from all his buzzsaw-like play is great to see.

I capped the video above from the most excellent GoSeawolves.com Live Chat. UAA SID Dallas Baldwin shot it and posted in the chat. It's only 3 of the goals as she had some battery concerns. Great stuff though. I used a loss-less option on my video capture tonight and I think it looks tons and tons better. Great job Dallas and thanks for posting them. Let me add that they're Live Chat is going great guns. They are doing the stuff that I would have liked to do but lack resources to pull off. And honestly, its the stuff that makes you miss too much of the action for me. So go there. The moderation is quite reasonable and the info provided along with stuff like the highlights above during the game are sweet.

17 goals in 4 games is a pretty nice number. My calculator says that's 4.25 goals per game. The most interesting thing about this number to me is that it honestly could be a lot higher. The Seawolves are now averaging 38 shots per game. That's a big number too. The offense is really rolling so far.

A caution here though ... the Seawolves have had fast starts like this in the past. I'm not pointing that out to take anything away from the excellent performances so far. I'm seeing as much offensive potential in this squad as any past UAA team. But a 4 game early season undefeated streak outside of conference play does not make a juggernaut. The next 4 games will tell us all a lot more about what this year's Seawolves squad is capable of doing.

And some final notes ... that woman singing the anthem up there at the Carlson Center had a crazy awesome voice. She definitely belted it out nicely. Someone please get her a copy of the lyrics though. The broadcast tonight was much improved from last night. The overly used zooming from Friday was pretty much done. Good on whoever directed for making the adjustment.

Seawolves 3 - Red Mavs 0

2011-10-14T20:39:00.005-08:00

In a penatly-free 60 minutes for both squads, the Seawolves (the 4th time ever being unpenalized for a full game) needed just 5 minutes and 41 seconds during the 2nd period to build a 3 goal lead and chase Uno's goaltender to the bench. After writing about my concerns that the fun-filled family card game would get chippy, the zero penalties result is a big surprise to me. That the Seawolves won wasn't a surprise.

This Seawolves team came out in the same fashion as last weekend ... relatively flying. The 1st period saw the boys generate several good scoring chances. They looked energetic and faster overall than the red mavs. They definitely got the lion's share of possession and chances outshooting Uno 8-5 for the period.

For most of the 1st half of the 2nd period the story was the same. Good chances without any getting through. The forecheck continued to be active creating turnovers. The possession game deep in the offensive zone continued as well. Defensively everyone did their jobs and at 9:43 Mark Pustin broke the scoreless tie with a nice wrist shot from inside the circle on the left wing. 5 minutes and 1 second later Quinn Sproule launched a stiff wrist shot from the blueline that had eyes and found it's way in. 40 seconds later Matt Baily took a Sam Mellor feed in neutral ice skated in on the right wing and beat Faulkner with a great forehand shot high after giving him the "i am going to shoot this puck with my backhand" look. That was it for Faulkner.

The Seawolves played super smart hockey from that point on. There was no dropping back and just playing defense ... but instead they controlled the flow of the game and by using every opportunity they could to pin the puck in deep in the Uno end but without risking any odd man rushes in the other direction.

Rob Gunderson was the 1st Star or Player of the Game or whatever they are calling it. He not only earned the shutout, he picked up an assist on the 3rd goal scored by Bailey. Gunderson was sharp all night and came up with at least one mind blowing save. A couple of times I noticed him come almost aggressively out of the crease to challenge shooters. A confident goalie does that.

Good stuff from a lot of guys tonight just like last weekend. Lotsa hustle and moving feet. I could mention just about everyone as having done something that contributed to the win. The Crowell, Naslund, Portwood line had a monster night working down low. Bruijsten, Bailey and Mellor continued to be threatening and put up 13 shots on the night. The Cameron, Kwas and Spencer line also made good chances. I thought the defensemen were pretty active offensively but they did only manage to contribute 3 shots on the night. The Seawolves lost the face-off battle pretty badly with the red mavs doubling them up 29-14. Tyler Currier continues to be the designated buzzsaw. His energy, physical play and desire have all been very visible this season.

Tomorrow it's Mercyhurst's turn to face what looks to me like one of the best Seawolf offensive squads I've seen in quite some time. The fun-filled family card game beat them last weekend 5-1 so one might expect the Seawolves to have a big night but I've got three words for such thoughts: don't get cocky.

Brice Goal Rush: Game Day - Seawolves v. Card Game

2011-10-14T08:08:00.002-08:00

Watch/Listen:

TV: GCI Channel One (Statewide in Alaska)
Live Blog: GoSeawolves.com
Live Audio: KTZN 550 (Kurt Haider) pay-per audio stream available at GoSeawolves.com
Live Video Stream: America One (formerly B2)

Other Stuff That's Worthy of a Link:

Jordan Kwas Feature (Doyle Woody Anchorage Daily News)
Josh Archibald Feature (Chad Purcell Omaha World-Herald)

Notes: I'll add UAA's lines when I receive them. I will not be hosting a chat for either game this weekend. I do not have GCI Channel 1. I recommend the GoSeawolves.com Live Blog. I trust that Nate or Dallas (whichever is moderating) will provide much better updates than I do anyway. I plan to check in there from wherever I end up watching the game. EDIT: I do not see a chatroom installed on the site for this game. Perhaps it will be up later?

I hope that you don't have to watch this game via America One. At least UAA's home games are webcast for free on a platform that doesn't REQUIRE you to install some proprietary plugin. Too bad Alaska's other D-1 hockey program is more interested in selling their webcast rights for some minor pittance versus providing a usable free stream that enhances the visibility college hockey.

Lots of good stuff to be on the lookout for in this afternoon's game. Hopefully we'll see some/all of the guys play that we haven't seen yet. It'll be fun to see who nabs the goals of course. It's also a real good preview of next weekend's first series for WCHA points since a trip to Omaha is next on the itinerary.

Go Seawolves!!!

Brice Alaska Goal Rush Preview

2011-10-13T08:10:00.000-08:00

The Seawolves will be off to the Banks of the not-so-Fair for this weekends games. I used to think Fairbanks got it's name because someone thought the banks of the Chena River were somehow fair. They most assuredly are not however. They are muddy and nasty in Fairbanks. Icky even.

The town instead took it's name from Indiana Senator Charles W. Fairbanks who was Teddy Roosevelt's 2nd Vice-President. How lame is that? I swear if I lived there I'd be leading a movement to change the damn name of that place.

Anyway the Seawolves get play two games in the arena where sound goes to die. What I mean by that is that the acoustics in the Carlson Center tend toward absorbing sound versus enhancing it. Anyway, I'll save the Squarebanks bash-fest for later in the season. This post is all about bashing Friday night's opponent; a fun-filled family card game. I spent more than a few nights thrashing my wife's family playing Uno. Good times.

I gotta say something here. I never wanted Uno in the WCHA. We already had purple mavericks ... why did we need red ones? Because they were coached by Dean Blais? Pfft ... any gap-toothed fool could have had the success at UND that Blais had. If he was such a genius hockey coach then why didn't he make it in the NHL? Other than being a good recruiter I can't feature too much coaching credit to that guy; typically folks give him loads for winning the World Jrs with what was probably the best lineup EvAH (okay .. Scott Sandelin had a good lineup and pissed it away ... I guess that means Dean Blais > Scott Sandelin). And what does it take to be a good recruiter? Ask any military one ... the better lies you tell the more dudes you sign up.

So um ... you're getting the point here right? I don't like Dean Blais. Never did. And even my fondness for Omaha as a city (I was stationed there in the AF) doesn't mitigate that. The guy just "ain't right". And neither is Athletic Director Trev Alberts. That dude pitched a major fit at ESPN because they weren't sucking his dick as often as they were the other commentators. So they canned him.

After becoming AD at Nebraska-Omaha Alberts killed the D-II football program and told the wrestling team it was done on the same day they won a national championship. We're talking douchebag here. Maybe not quite the same level of douchebaggery as say a Chris Collingsworth but that's a pretty high standard. I'm happy to say that Creighton was the only Omaha college that ended up with any of my disposable income when I lived there.

The red Mavericks were pretty good last year. They surprised everyone a bit. In their series up here against UAA ... the Seawolves won the first game. Blais didn't like that at all and on Saturday night the red Mavericks busted out their chippy game and despite outshooting and outplaying them the Seawolves ate a tough loss. I wasn't fucking happy at all. You won't see the motivational poster I made of Dean Blais on that post as when I originally posted it.

Why? Because some Omaha-World Herald photographer/reporter who wasn't concerned (or perhaps smart) enough to watermark his photograph that I found using Google image search filed a DMCA copyright protest against the pic and Google made me take it off. That was hilarious to me. World-Herald homeboy didn't really give a copyright shit that someone used his photo ... it was the way I used it that bothered him.

Anyway ... the red Mavericks don't look to have as strong a team this year as last but probably not by very much. So this Friday afternoon the Seawolves face a pretty tough opponent. I expect to see a somewhat different lineup from Shyiak this weekend. I wouldn't begin to guess who'll get the nod and who won't. And I don't think it should matter that much. Why? Because this Seawolves team showed resiliency and character last weekend in addition to their overall very strong performance. There's no reason to expect anything less from any lineup.

On Saturday the Seawolves face Mercyhurst. I don't not like anything about them.

INCH National Player of the Week: Mickey Spencer

2011-10-11T09:10:00.000-08:00

In what is most likely just a first weekly award for his 4 goal and 2 assist weekend Inside College Hockey website has named Mickey Spencer it's National Player of the Week. It seems fairly obvious to expect at minimum for Mickey to also be named WCHA Offensive Player of the Week. So congratulations to Mickey for this nice national recognition.

One Tourney Down, Uno To Go

2011-10-10T19:10:00.000-08:00

Today I'd like to eschew my propensity for verbosity in favor of being concise. The Seawolves played some pretty damn good hockey this weekend. They pretty much dominated Clarkson; we all saw it. The Golden Knights have a couple of nice players but overall the Seawolves imposed themselves on them all night. Karpowich earned that tie for the team.

The domination of St. Cloud was to a somewhat lesser level as they have more than just a couple of nice players. But you're getting the drift here I'd assume ... mostly domination. Shots attempted by UAA on the weekend = 135 with 73 getting through -- shots attempted by opposition = 96 (41 for Clarkson and 45 for SCSU). On Friday night UAA's total shots on net was equal to the total number of shots attempted by Clarkson.

I thought the possession game this weekend was a thing of beauty. Seawolf forwards worked the deep zone of both opponents time after time. The necessary physical play to accomplish that was nothing short of stellar. Passing was really crisp and controlled which benefited the power play. The offensive play we saw from the team was straight up excellent. If not for a couple of quality performances by opposing goalies the Seawolves might have put 14 goals on the board. There was really only one problem offensively ... how many clear scoring chances to seemingly open nets were missed wide?

The backend was solid ... rookies Derek Docken and Austin Coldwell both looked at ease. Wes McLeod didn't see any action this weekend but we already know he can play. Leinweber, Gorham, Warner, Sproule all had good weekends on both ends of the ice. Looks to me like barring injury this team will have some undressed talented blueliners sitting in the stands. Competition for playing time should bring out the best in everyone.

So that's a whole heap of a praise I've just laid out with just two games played in the season. I have to think the guys are brimming with confidence. And if they play with confidence and up to the level that they played this past weekend then who knows? Another test awaits Friday and I'll preview that in the next day or so. The red Mavericks got beat by toothpaste over the weekend in their own tournament so they'll be looking to rebound. And as with any team coached by Dean Blais they'll likely have his green light to get chippy.

Concise? Hey ... I tried.

Seawolves 4 - St. Cloud 3

2011-10-08T22:26:00.001-08:00

The Seawolves wrapped up the 2011-2012 Kendall Classic championship on the strength of Mickey Spencer's 3 goal night. Spencer had been a healthy scratch quite often last season but came on late and ended the Gopher's season scoring the game winner in the 2nd game of the WCHA playoff sweep at Mariucci. The Mick was awarded Most Outstanding Player of the tournament with his 4 goals in 2 games.

I'd tend to think he'll be a leading candidate for WCHA player of the week honors but I've yet to look around at other performances this weekend.

Notes: I'll finish this post later after I have (as Shyiak puts it ...) a few diet cokes. There's no post game video interviews as James is out of town. No pictures tonight either so it'll all be on my later eloquence to keep you entertained.

Congrats on the win. It was really an excellent performance even though the guys were behind or tied for most of the night.

Much Later Update Than I Planned: In an attempt to keep my recap somewhat readable I opted for sleep versus drunken writing so here I am now instead of last night.

I'm assuming most of you reading here watched the game on the Seawolves FREE stream. While other universities are obsessed with making maybe a couple of thousand bucks a weekend on 6 dollar fees for their web stream, UAA provides theirs FREE. I know my daughter watched both games this weekend in Chicago. I don't think enough positive can be said for this UAA "policy".

I really thought that was an excellent game. I had extreme difficulty maintaining the requested decorum in the media area. I did jump out of my seat on the OT winner.

We saw a lot of positive stuff this weekend. It's cool to get the trophy and the watches but possessing those isn't what is exciting me about this team. It's what we saw out from so many players whom we might have had questions about their performances.

I didn't know Mitch Bruijsten was going to turn into such a force on the ice. And he was this weekend. All over the ice. Offensively he was monstrously effective. I also didn't know Daniel Naslund was going to take another massive off-season leap in the effectiveness of his skating. He has really turned it around completely and now his skating is not only effective ... it's a strength. He did an excellent job killing penalties and showed quick feet all night. In my preseason review of the junior class I noted that Mickey Spencer's best route to more ice time might need to be for him to be productive. He was pretty fucking productive this weekend eh? Walk tall today Mickey ... puff your chest out a bit. You deserve it.

Chris Kamal had a stronger game Saturday than Gunderson on Friday. I'm useless at guessing what that will mean to Coach Shyiak. If it was my choice I'd play them both next weekend and they'd both know they were going to play. Going with the hotter hand isn't a bad rationale ... so who knows (other than Shyiak)?

It was a great team win. Sure Spencer scored the first hat trick for UAA in the tournament since Rob Conn in 93 and his goals were key to the win but it was the effective play of everyone that enabled the win. The Gellert, Pustin and Currier line in particular gave me lots of wow and aww moments.

On the weekend the Seawolves attempted 135 shots. 66 on Friday and 69 on Saturday. 73 of them got through to the net. Those are juicy numbers for fans that hope to see their team score more goals. I think it's a real positive sign.

Here are my unedited notes made during the game ...

first part of the period was a bit of a feeling out process ... kwas penalty and resultant goal seemed to motivate the seawolves and they generated some chances
good backchecking from tyler currier after the scoring chance from leinweber (around 7 minute mark) who stole the puck at the uaa line and led a 3 on 2 break with a good scoring chance .. st cloud broke out and currier got back well to kekep a potential scoring chance from happening.
mickey spencer broke up a rush in the last minute as well...
pustin gellert currier created turnovers on the forecheck ... especially with about 3 minutes lapsed in the 2nd.
great stretch of up and down hockey through the middle third of the 2nd with uaa getting multiple good quality shots including 2 pipes.
great diving poke check from xxx xxxx when scsu player came out the box after the 2nd scsu penalty expired.
cameron carried it in and slid to the outside of the circle and flipped the puck in front of the crease where it was picked out of the air by jordan kwas. a very vneeded goal after uaa had so many ofther chances.
riduculous boarding call on portwood called by the referee that was 100ft away.
mickey spencer stuffed it home after some hard work on the power play maintaining the zone .. he started the play along the boards by shuffling a nice puck to the goalline where naslund and bailey combined to get it to the front of the net for mickey to poke home.
and ti didn't take long to bury the 3rd ... just a minute or so after the goal the seawolves hit another pipe then on the next rush into the zone again by spencer for his 3rd goal in two nights. great night for the mick.
spencer wanted a hat trick.

I never did figure out who made the great diving poke check. Someone please say in the comments cos whoever it was deserves credit for the great effort. And lastly, just let me say that someone ought to hold their "game over" pronouncements til later in the game than when there is still 13:42 left.

Kendall Classic: Seawolves 4 - Clarkson 4

2011-10-08T01:08:00.002-08:00

Perspective is a really interesting psycho/sociological trait. We only develop perspective as a result of our experiences; Hume describes all that very well. How you feel about tonight's tie is all about your own perspective. For me ... I'm a bit nonplussed. Perhaps a wee bit frustrated. But hey, it's the first real night. Lot's of guys played well. The three rookies in the lineup all looked good. The Seawolves outshot Clarkson 41-23 on the night with a margin of 13-4 in the first period.

Credit must first be given to Clarkson tender Paul Karpowich for his 37 save night. More than a couple were flat out excellent and one in particular about 10 minutes into the 2nd on Chris Crowell from high in the slot was straight up robbery. I was counting it as a goal and then Karpowich flew back across the crease and stacked his pads for the save.

I really thought the first period was dominating for UAA. They controlled the puck well, had long spates of possession and generated lots of scoring chances. The best of which unfortunately went wide. I counted 3 clean passes to open back doors on the power plays and three wide shots.

Both of Clarkson's first two goals came from scrambles in the UAA crease; the first was even strength and the 2nd during a power play.

Mark Pustin's goal to get the Seawolves back to within one was a damn pretty one. He created a turnover just inside the UAA line and skated the puck to center ice with just one defender covering. I think it was Naslund and Leinweber that joined him on the rush creating a 3 on 1; Mark skated with the puck into the slot and before the defender could even decide what to do he fired a wicked hard low shot to beat Karpowich on the stick side.

The Seawolves 2nd goal came on the power play goal (off the rush into the zone) from Mickey Spencer who also added an assist on Daniel Naslund's goal a few minutes later when they took advantage of a defensive breakdown of epic proportions to make 4 or 5 sweet little passes until the puck was on Naslund's stick at the edge of the crease and he smartly flipped it in.

Up 3-2 I sure felt a sense of relief expecting the Seawolves to have control of the game but the Golden Knights didn't come up here on the longest road trip in the school's history to give up halfway through the game; and then another two goals came out of the blue. Or at least they seemed to come out of the blue. Maybe that was just my perspective.

Matt Bailey's goal to tie it up was a nice one. It was pretty much how you'd draw that up; a nice lead pass followed with short cross-ice pass to Bailey who cut across traffic and found the opening. It was a very solid finish.

UAA owned the overtime spending near 4 minutes of the session in the Clarkson zone. The shot chart is full of notations in the Clarkson end with the Seawolves attempting 13 shots. Clarkson blocked 4, 5 went off target and 4 were saved. Give credit to the Clarkson players taking one of the team as well as the goalie.

It was my first look at some of the freshmen. Only three dressed tonight; Sam Mellor, Austin Coldwell and Derek Docken. I was impressed with Docken's poise. He looked comfortable, showed good sense and kept his positioning very well. Austin Coldwell fired 4 shots on UAA's first power play ... I'm pretty sure three of them were first timers. They were all well taken and heavy. He had a total of 7 shots on the night. He looked good on both ends of the ice. Sam Mellor showed good ice sense getting into scoring areas at good times. He was in on a couple of scoring chances that didn't pan out but I'm expecting some to do so sooner than later. I look forward to seeing all three of them play again.

I thought Daniel Naslund had a very strong game. He skated on the penalty kill and did well. His foot speed has improved from last season when it was already improved. Mitch Bruijsten had a good game as well. I think I could say that about everyone. Jade Portwood looked like a man amongst boys at times not only with his strong physical play along the boards but also showed good control and strength on the puck especially deep in Clarkson's zone. Tyler Currier was effective physically and showed some quickness creating a couple of 2 on 1s that almost clicked. Warner, Leinweber, Sproule and Gorham all contributed well on both ends of the ice. Matt Bailey had the best faceoff stats winning 10 draws and losing only 5. The Seawolves led that category overall 36-30.

So all in all. A bit of a mixed bag. Lots of good stuff but no win.

Other Notes: I'm completely rethinking the need for me to do a live chat from the game. With the UAA folks providing the same feature I'm thinking that me doing so is redundant. And nobody showed up to tonight's featured chat so I bagged it after a while. Honestly, unless there is some outcry from you guys I'll be happy to pass on ever doing it again.

I'll post the pics as soon as I can. Check back if they aren't up.

Post Game Interviews vs Clarkson (Kendall Classic) 10/7

2011-10-08T00:26:00.003-08:00

Hey everybody, Jimjamesak here with the post game interviews from tonights game against Clarkson. Interviews tonight are from Mark Pustin, Derek Docken, and Coach Shyiak. Unfortunately I'll be on my way out of town during tomorrow nights game and I won't be doing them tomorrow, most likely the only game I miss all season. Please to click on the video to go to the YouTube page and bump the number of views up for me!

Kendall Classic: Game Day 1

2011-10-07T13:33:00.004-08:00

Friday, October 7 2011

UAA Seawolves vs. Clarkson Golden Knights

Sullivan Arena 8:05pm (AST)

Video Stream - http://www.PennAtlantic.com/ (UAA v. Clarkson ONLY)
Local TV: GCI Channel 1 (Tape Delayed in Anch/Mat-Su Valley)
Local Radio: 550 KTZN (Kurt Haider play-by-play)

I'll be at the rink sometime before 6pm. I'll open the CoverItLive Chat room sometime during the UAF/SCSU game (3rd periodish).

Injury Notes: For UAA the following players are out tonight due to injury ... Scott Allen, Eric Schied, Chris Crowell, Andrew Pickering and Kory Roy. All were scheduled to play but got dinged up yesterday during practice. Rob Gunderson will start in net. I'll add the lines for tonight later today when I receive them.

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On The Fly WCHA Teleconference Synopsis

2011-10-04T10:02:00.003-08:00

The WCHA held it's teleconference this morning at 8 a.m. Here's how it went ... They all said some version of ... "guys worked hard in off-season ... excited to get going ... not sure how good our team will be ... and there's no i in team .. give a hundred percent". Ok ... so I took some liberties with my paraphrasing. But yeah the theme was established and pretty much adhered to.

Mel Pearson is happy to be at MTU.

Mike Eaves says his team has lots of "young people".

Scott Sandelin knows he lost a lot of scoring; he mentioned that early. Naturally, like three questions for him were about that.

Sounded like Don Lucia was putting the dog out or something when his turn came up. Then he came on after Bruce McLeod called him ... and said mostly the same stuff as the rest.

Bob Motzko worries mostly about his defense. This weeks trip will be all about the team bonding and he plans to get everyone ice time. Milan and Holka are the two freshman he likes.

Troy Jutting said some stuff. I was distracted by my utter disinterest in any of it.

Tom Serratore says he has 4 fairly balanced lines and he'll be leaning on Dan Bakala to "win some ball games" as he did last year. And I hereby award him 83,181 internet points for that metaphor. Don't make too much of the points awarded. I once gave 700,000+ points to someone for a particularly timely and appropriate fart reference.

Dean Blais looking for leadership out of his returning vets and scoring from his underclassmen.

Dave Hakstol also had to answer questions that he'd already addressed in his opening statement.

George Gwozdecky mentioned how everybody said the same stuff about being young. Then he described how DU is young. He doesn't think his off season elbow injury will keep him from crossing his arms.

Scott Owens had the best phone or maybe he's just the only coach that wasn't using his speakerphone.

Dave Shyiak welcomed T.J. Jindra to the staff. Good depth on the backend. He'll continue to spread playing time around this weekend. Likes the leadership group. Building on the push they made at the end of the season. He mentioned in his opening that the new players were pushing the vets in practice and creating competition. So naturally after I figured out how to properly unmute my phone I asked him to talk about the freshmen.

Next season I doubt I'll get up early for this again.

Kendall Classic Preview: Clarkson and St. Cloud

2011-10-04T01:23:00.000-08:00

UAA's opponent's this weekend for the Kendall tournament are Clarkson and then St. Cloud. The Seawolves have never played Clarkson. They play in the ECAC. Every player but one on the roster has eastern ties. I only troll BCHL, AJHL, MJHL, USHL and NAHL junior leagues so I only know something about one Clarkson player. I do know a thing or two about St. Cloud though. So I'll save them for last.

Their colors are green and gold; does that help? Overall, Clarkson is a bit taller and bit bigger than the Seawolves (just a smidgen really). They have 7 seniors on the roster of which 5 are forwards and 2 are goalies. They have 5 juniors with the following breakdown; 2 dmen, 2 forwards and a goalie. 8 sophomores with 2 of them dmen and 6 forwards. Lastly, there are 9 freshman on the roster with 3 forwards and 6 dmen. And we're finally to a player that I know something about.

Freshman Sam Lebrecque played last season with Nanaimo in the BCHL and was a hot recruit commodity. He's a small (5ft 7in) puck moving defenseman reputed to have a great set of tools; skating, passing, shooting and ice sense. He originally verbally committed to Michigan Tech but something or other went awry and he ended up at Clarkson. Clarkson fans will be happy. If he doesn't turn into a force in that league then I'll be surprised.

Is Chase Fuchs a good or bad name for a defenseman? They've got one of those. They've got a couple of brothers (named Zarbo). Their lead returning scorer is sophomore Allan MacPherson who tallied 8 goals and added 15 assists last season in 35 games. Senior (C) Jake Morley was close behind with 7g-15a and senior Nick Tremblay (A) bagged 9g with 13a.

They're fairly young on the back end. Only two of which are upperclassmen (for a total of 4) that have played Divison 1 hockey prior to this season. They do have their returning starting goaltender, Paul Karpowich who last year had a .912 save percentage and 3.05 goals against average.

How does UAA beat Clarkson? Well it's a little early in the season for a coach to rely on strategies and tactics really. Coach Shyiak will pretty much just be putting the lineup out he wants so he can see what he's got. He got some small idea of that last week but in particular this game against Clarkson will be the first real test. No doubt the core of the game plan isn't going to be a lot different than last year. Team defense and opportunistic offense when 5 on 5.

Special teams is of course always a factor so this will be a first view for us fans of whatever improvements may have been made to UAA's power play approach. It's been essentially the same umbrella for the past few seasons; that hasn't led to any great success with the extra man though. My only guess is that UAA may have some speed advantage or at least rink advantage with the big ice. Otherwise, there just isn't enough info to get a sense of how the teams matchup.

Onto St. Cloud whom I allegedly know something about. This year's Huskies II (cos MTU is the real Huskies) is surprisingly similar to last year's Huskies II squad. There's a solid half dozen guys that have the potential to score plenty of goals; senior Drew LeBlanc (and folks down there are twitchy about saying his name right ... for the record .. it's "Leh-Blonnnnn"), sophomore Cam Reid, senior Jared Festler, junior Ben Hanowski, and junior David Eddy are the returners who could bag goals and add to that freshman Joey Holka as a possible scoring threat and you've got what they bring to the ice this weekend. Zero defense.

Yes they have defensemen. And yes, they're reasonably decent hockey players. But Bob Motzko employs the same strategy as Don Lucia: Go forward ... the best defense is a good offense and all that. That style should play right into UAA's strength. The Seawolves commitment to defense extends all through the lineup and we saw prime examples of what is possible throughout the 2nd half of last season and especially down the stretch. Building on that finish is what this year is all about.

DU Students Are Kyle's Mom

2011-10-02T13:16:00.005-08:00

Some 400+ University of Denver students attending the Pioneer hockey team's preseason exhibition game versus McGill University from Montreal, Quebec were stupid enough Saturday night to regale their opposition with "U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A" chants. Um ... hint-o-rama here future DU alumni ... when an American University plays a Canadian University it isn't like the Olympics .. um cos .. THERE are Canadians on your team. Morons.

One long time anonymous DU fan said this on the internet ...

"Disgusting display by the Students tonight chanting USA! Led by a student wearing a KE hat - that E was a Greek E for Sigma - sadly these students have no idea of the great Canadian players that have come through this school and given us our greatest moments - time for someone(DG?) to teach them some history. I was disgusted with their chants and singing American anthems."

Some people are believed to be saying that what's even more troubling are the unconfirmed reports of unrestrained nationalistic zealotry advocating violence: shrill cries of "Kill The Fucking Canadians!" were said to have allegedly been heard.

So just like Kyle's mom; it seems the DU student body has lost whatever minimal semblance of rational thinking they ever had before enrolling in that sorrowful pocket-emptying diploma-factory.

DU's three Canadian born players Joey Laleggia, Shawn Ostrow and Sam Brittain were said to have been heard to simultaneously utter "WHAT THE FUCK?" at one point.

Some people are also now saying that DU might not be such a safe place for Canadian players. I can't say I disagree with that. They've recently formed the "National" conference. It's not called the "International" conference, is it? Perhaps this "National" conference will indeed have benefits for other schools in the future. If the 8 ultra-elite butt-hurt schools that formed the league all swear off recruiting Canadian players it's got to be proportionally good for the rest of US college hockey.

2011-2012 Freshman Class

2011-10-02T01:37:00.000-08:00

Scott Allen, Austin Coldwell, Derek Docken, Corbin Karl, Sam Mellor, Andrew Pettitt, Kory Roy and Eric Scheid are the eight new Seawolves this season. Perhaps the best thing every season about analyzing the freshman is that I don't really know what they bring to the party. So it's all pure anticipation. And I'm full of positive anticipation regarding these guys.

The first order of business in this preview is to note that freshman defenseman Tony Larson has withdrawn from school and returned to Minnesota in order to attend to personal business. I anticipated his arrival highly as I would have expected him to become an impact player at some point during his career. I wish him the best of luck in the future.

Scott Allen comes to UAA from the Spruce Grove Saints where he was teammates with Brett Cameron and Wes McLeod. He only led the Saints in playoff scoring last season from essentially what was the energy line. Roster circumstances and timing lead to that spot for Scott; and though grinding it out on the 4th line isn't glamorous he damn sure made some lemonade out of what could have been a lemon. He's a big kid at 6ft 3in 190lbs and reportedly skates well. I've seen a lot of forwards with similar numbers come out of Canadian Jr. A and I'd expect Scott to spend some part of his first season adapting to the college game. When he starts scoring goals we'll know he's done with that phase.

Vancouver, Washington born defenseman Austin Coldwell comes to UAA from the Des Moines Buccaneers in the USHL. He was a league All Star; scored 19 goals and 52 assists in 117 games. The Seawolves recruited Austin with his abilities on the power play in mind and as a future power play quarterback. We'll see him in that role this season but there shouldn't be a big expectation that he'll produce from it. As with most WCHA freshman he'll probably require time to develop and adapt.

Derek Docken comes to UAA via Northfield, Minnesota where he also played high school hockey. He played last season with Dubuque in the USHL and before that played two seasons with Albert Lea in the NAHL. Responsible, dependable and committed are three very apt words to describe what Derek has brought to the ice over the last three years in Jrs. He's been a consistent +/- leader on every team and also led those leagues at times in that stat. Derek is the dream partner for a blueliner that rushes the puck. We're going to be damn glad Derek is on this team.

Defenseman Corbin Karl is from Foremost, Alberta and comes here from the Olds Grizzlys. His 12 goals and 27 assists put him near the top of the AJHL last season for definsive scorers and 3rd overall on his squad. His junior coach had real nice things to say about Corbin's leadership on that team.

The short time that I have known Corbin he has certainly shown his leadership qualities. Through any kind of adversity, Corbin would be willingly to sacrifice himself for the benefit of his team. Playing multiple roles and always coming to the rink with a positive attitude and a great work ethic were traits that made Corbin a consistently positive leader.

It's hard to guess the future of a player you don't know much about but his coaches words are hopefully a preview of Corbin's Seawolf career.

There isn't a freshman here that I've followed closer over the last couple of years than I've followed Sam Mellor. Do not let it surprise you when you see Mellor turning some heads this season. His junior history is full of production against older competition. He's a true 18 year old freshman. He's talented and in all the press I've seen he's seemed like a focused team player. My confidence in him and his talent aren't guarantees of production of course but ... I just cannot feature the WCHA rookie scoring table this season without his name somewhere near the top of a it. Maybe that's a big expectation for me to throw out on the internet but there's I think Sam Mellor is the most talented forward brought here since Kevin Clark.

Andrew Pettitt is the 2nd recent player from Whitehorse to join the UAA roster. Not many other places you could live in Canada where you actually can drive to Anchorage in a day. He scored 121 points in 162 BCHL games with 63 of those being goals. Though I've followed Andrew for a couple of years in juniors I don't have much of an idea about his game. He's 5ft 10in and 167lbs. I read the UAA Live Blog of the exhibition game and Nate Sagan noted a sweet spin move during the game by Andrew. Obviously a player doesn't get to this level without some skill. I'm looking forward to learning by seeing.

Kory Roy was the last addition to this years class. The Anchorage born forward comes to UAA after spending the last two seasons with Canmore in the A. He scored a nice 30 goals and added 33 assists last season. I've known less about players before but honestly not many. I'm going to assume that Kory will have to prove himself a bit to the staff. But one good thing about Dave Shyiak is that on the whole he really gives freshmen good chances to play in games during the 1st half.

Eric Scheid comes to UAA from the Lincoln Stars in the USHL. The 5ft 9in Scheid scored a sweet 15 goals with 21 assists for the stars in his only season there after leaving Blaine High School. Eric is a quick playmaking forward who has lots of experience finding his linemates for a scoring chance or finishing himself. I expect Eric to see lots of action this season. He should have the talent to sustain a regular role even as a freshman.

I'm looking forward to seeing all these guys in action and getting a better idea of what they'll contribute over the season and during their careers here at UAA. If they match or exceed the contributions from last year's freshman class then I'm sure the Seawolves will earn more points in the standings this year.

2011-2012 Sophomore Class

2011-09-30T02:56:00.000-08:00

Matt Bailey, Brett Cameron, Rob Gunderson, Chris Kamal, Jordan Kwas, Wes McLeod, Andrew Pickering, Mark Pustin and Quinn Sproule are the nine members of this years Seawolves sophomore class. Most of these guys are already established players easily worthy of the veteran moniker.

Last year Winnipegger Matt Bailey scored 10 goals (1 shortie and 1 gwg) added 10 assists, only took 6 penalties. He played in 30 games as he missed the last 7 down the stretch with a knee injury. It was an excellent WCHA debut for the 6ft 1in 194lb forward. Matt skates well and has a good nose for the puck around the goal. He's strong along the walls and can find his open teammates as he sees the ice very well. There's no reason to expect anything other than increased scoring from him this season. He very well could be the team's leading scorer.

Brett Cameron played 36 games last season and bagged 4 goals with 8 assists. At 6ft 2in and 202lbs he can make space for himself and his teammates in the offensive zone. He's a good skater and always strong on the puck. Brett was recruited to add production and having cut his teeth in this league last season I'm expecting him to at least double his point total from last year. Doubling your scoring from one year to the next is no small task but I think he probably had more goals in him last year than the 4 he got.

6ft 1in 186lb goaltender Rob Gunderson played 22 games and went 7-13-2 with an .897 save percentage over the course of last season. 5ft 10in 185lb goaltender Chris Kamal played 15 games and went 9-5-1 with an .896 save percentage. Both of these guys showed the ability to come up big in selected games. Their confidence grew as the season progressed and the team came together in front of them. Either is capable of taking the reins as the #1 goalie with a hot hand. It's also quite possible that Coach Shyiak might choose to platoon the two each weekend. The rest of the squad will be in good hands regardless.

Cochrane, Alberta born Jordan Kwas was a bit of a sleeper coming into last season. He had reasonably decent numbers as an AJHL player and was a late commit to UAA. And he turned out to be perhaps the biggest surprise of the season. Cliche' time ... Jordan can stick handle in a phone booth. He starts and stops on dimes. The puck sticks to his blade. He's a play making scorer who bagged 4 goals and added a massive 20 assists which put him in the top ten scoring WCHA freshman. One of his four goals was a game winner and 4 came on the power play. We'll be seeing a lot of Jordan on the power play.

6ft 2in 194lb Wes McLeod has a big shot and he can take it first time. The Kamloops, BC native played in 24 games last season on the blueline and seemed to get better and better as the season progressed after missing some games in the 1st half due to injury. Today is his birthday. Happy Birthday Wes. He'll be a force for the Seawolves at some point. As he continues to develop this season and becomes more confident he should increase his production. Wes is also important on the defensive side of the ice obviously. His size and skating ability are necessary in a league with more than it's share of offensively talented opponents.

Andrew Pickering came to Alaska from Vancouver just to take a puck in the ear hole? Andrew was limited to 9 games last season for two reasons. The first was that as a freshman he just wasn't able to crack the lineup consistently early in the season. Then early in the 2nd half he took a slapshot to the ear hole while going down to block against DU. It split his ear. I'm still processing that all this time later. Damn. Split his ear. Everything I saw from Andrew told me that he's capable of getting consistent ice time. He filled in nicely on defense when it was needed and showed good energy and ability when he did play. Lots more to see from him I hope.

Californian Mark Pustin is 5ft 8in and 168lbs. He's got a good set of hands and can stick handle well. He's got quick enough wheels to break away. Mark played in 19 games last season. His style is well suited to be a top six forward but as a freshman wasn't going to be able to crack that barrier. So he spent the season learning the necessary roles on the 3rd and 4th line when he played. This will likely to be a season of continuing development for Mark and with time he could work his way onto one of the top two lines. If he produces when he gets his chances that'll be sooner rather than later.

6ft 191lbs Hussar, Alberta born Quinn Sproule turned in a very solid freshman season on the back end. He's yet to score his first collegiate goal but showed he's very capable with good junior numbers. Quinn played in 32 games last season and was very responsible and committed in his own end. He also showed us that he can rush the puck forward when appropriate and that ability will earn him some stats this year. Dependable isn't a flashy adjective but it fits Quinn's first year. With more time he'll become more confident and maybe there are flashier words I can use later this season.

This group of players were very important for the Seawolves success last season and this year their collective contributions could make them the highest producing class.

NAIT Exhibition Preview: Fear The Dion, Darlings

2011-09-27T22:19:00.000-08:00

I'm far from an expert on many things. One of those many is university hockey in Canadia. So I thought I'd poke around the NAIT hockey website and see what I could learn. And out jumped #32 Dion Darling's balding head. Far be it for me to have much to say about balding heads but that's not really the point. He looked to be pretty old though.

So I did some research and here's Dion's story. He turns 38 next month. He was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in the 5th round in 1993. After 3 years in the WHL with Spokane and Moose Jaw, Dion spent most of the next 4 years with Fredricton in the AHL; then 3 years in the IHL with Fort Wayne, Long Beach and Manitoba. In 2001-02 he skated 13 games for Idaho in the WCHL and 14 games with Omsk in Russia. The last 6 years he spent in the UK playing for Sheffield, Nottingham and Cardiff.

He's 6'3" and packs 222lbs on the blueline. Back in 6 AHL/IHL seasons he tallied one-thousand one-hundred and sixteen penalty minutes. Here's his hockey.db entry.

This is a link to an interview with Darling on hockeyfights.com. The interviewer wrote this preamble before the Q&A in 2003:

Dion Darling is a tough, no-nonsense defenceman with the Sheffield Steelers in the British Ice Hockey Superleauge. Dion was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in 1993, but has spent most of his career in the minor leagues in North America. Before coming to Sheffield, Dion had played for the Fredericton Canadiens in the AHL, the Manitoba Moose in the IHL and in Russia with Omsk Avangard. Darling became the Sheffield Steelers’ main enforcer this season, taking on the likes of Dody Wood, Dennis Maxwell and Jason Clarke.

Make sure you go read the whole interview. Dion wasn't one of these guys that was reluctant to fight but did it anyway in hopes of getting a shot in the show. After reading the interview, I'd say he was happy to do so.

Honestly, I'm scared to look at the playing histories for the other guys on NAIT roster. Good luck Seawolves and um ... ffs; don't piss Dion off.

Kendall Classic: Free Tickets For Kids

2011-09-27T08:47:00.000-08:00

The Kendall Classic tournament is a bit over a fortnight away but it's a good time to point out the above deal so you can let your friends know about it that might otherwise be unaware. There's not a lot here for me to describe. You pay regular admission and bring two kids: they get in free. Pretty straightforward deal.

Just think of all the "ooohs and ahhhs" your children will exclaim when they see the first future NCHC (lol .. still a stupidly awkward name for a league) team to come to the Sully this year. They'll be truly amazed at this "elite" program/university (yawn) ... that finished behind UAA in the standings last season. Um ... or they won't notice at all as they cheer the team onto (as Lyle Woods says) "another Seawolf victory". That'll be after they beat Clarkson of course.

After the 2012-13 season, I wonder if UAA will ever travel to SCSU of the NCHC to play them at the NHC?

2011-2012 Junior Class

2011-09-25T23:14:00.000-08:00

Mitch Bruijsten, Chris Crowell, Tyler Currier, Alex Gellert, Daniel Naslund, Mickey Spencer and Scott Warner are the seven players that make up this season's all-important junior class. The senior class's leadership is of course important; but with 359 combined games between these juniors ... the sheer quantity of experience and maturity amongst them will the biggest part of the leadership of this year's Seawolves squad.

Mitch Bruijsten's freshman season was fairly typical for this league. He spent much of it developing and adjusting to the college game. At 6ft 4in his quickness was sometimes a question and his ice sense wasn't all it could be. But in his second year Mitch found his game. His first couple of steps dramatically improved and his positional play was solid. After just 3 goals as a freshman Mitch racked a nice 9 goals and 8 assists last season with 2 game winners. His whole season was a big step developmentally and suggests to me that as a junior he could contribute even more.

Chris Crowell came to UAA as a 4 year Vernon Vipers veteran and Captain. Chris was a force as a leader on that team with his play. Here at UAA his off-ice and locker room leadership has been important. In his first two seasons though he has played just 28 games. I'm betting he'll at least double his game total this year. Like Mitch Bruijsten, Chris is a big forward at 6ft 3in 206lbs. He's strong and uses his size well in all areas of the ice. He's a smart player as well. He also knows how to rally his teammates with his physical play which rallies his teammates. Any goal production from Chris will be a bonus this year as I expect him in large part to primarily play fill a defensive forward role much as Craig Parkinson did last season.

Tyler Currier is the current Mr. Versatile in the Seawolves lineup. He'll play any position and do well with it. Last season he found a home on the blueline when he filled in for injured players and he flat out earned his starting spot there. Tyler is also Mr. Hustle. His feet are always moving and he comes up with multiple big hits in every game. Like Chris Crowell, he only has a single career goal. Tyler's versatility will likely serve him well again this season. Including him there are 10 defensemen on the roster. And honestly, there are more than a couple of freshman with decent potential to see a lot of game time. His kind of versatility and hustle are two things a coach loves to have available in a player so I'm betting Tyler plays often. I'm just not going to guess where.

Alex Gellert played in 71 of 72 games over the course of his first two seasons. Alex is now perhaps the best face-off man on the team. Last season when the team needed a crucial draw, it generally turned to Parky to get the job done. This season, I'm betting that Alex will be that guy. Committed defensive play was a big part of the Seawolves nice run in the 2nd half last year. Alex knows what it takes to play on both ends of the ice. At 6ft 1in and with good wheels he'll do what the things that are necessary to help the team win. He's quite capable of scoring a big goal as well. In his first two years he's managed 5 goals. That doesn't sound like an unreasonable goal for a two-way forward on this year's team.

Daniel Naslund scored three goals as a freshman and three goals as a sophomore. Statistically you'd guess he had similar seasons; that would be a mistake, there was a world of difference in his play as a sophomore. As a freshman it was clear Daniel had sweet hands but even at 6ft 3in he could sometimes get bumped off the puck. Last season though like Mitch Bruijsten, Daniel found his game. His skating and strength on the puck vastly improved. And with those skills his soft hands became more of a factor in his ability to contribute. That potential didn't fully turn into production last season but I have to believe that is coming. I always imagine him as an excellent target in deep in the slot on the power play and think he might find a home in front of opposition goalies often this season.

Mickey Spencer wants to score more goals. I want him to score more goals. Last season Mickey dressed for only 14 games after 32 as a freshman. He missed games both due to injury and battling back from same as well as taking a turn sitting out. Both of Mickey's goals last season came after the regular season. He scored the game winner against the Gophers in game 2 at the Mariucci to effectively end their season. And it was a pretty one. I'm thinking that Mickey's ice time this season may be a direct reflection of his production. So please Mick, bury every scoring chance. He's got the wheels, smarts and shot to put up double-digits in goals. But he'll have to find his game in the first half of this season or he may risk seeing limited time.

Scott Warner is a now a 2nd year transfer from Army. At 5ft 9in and 174lbs, he is the classic undersized college blueliner. During his freshman year at West Point he bagged 6 goals and 3 assists. Last season (after sitting his transfer year), Scott scored 3 goals and added 7 assists. Though his numbers weren't big he was often an offensive force on the blueline. He's a defenseman that likes to find opportunities to move the puck forward but at the same time is very very responsible in his own end. Scott will likely dress every game this season as he did last year. In fact, his experience will make him a stalwart back there for the Seawolves. He'll see time on both the power play and penalty kill as well.

Everything that these each of these guys can bring to the ice will be needed this season. The Seawolves are overall a pretty young group but there's a fair amount of potential scoring, an understanding of the need to play two way hockey and excellent physical play that this junior class will contribute.

2011-2012 Senior Class

2011-09-14T19:26:00.002-08:00

Jade Portwood, Brad Gorham and Curtis Leinweber comprise this year's Senior Class. Though fewest in numbers amongst all four classes; these three guys are certain to contribute more than their proportional share to success this season. Each brings a comparitively unique set of skills and experience from the others. The common attribute they share is leadership both off the ice and on.

The 6ft 3in, 205lb Portwood is a hard charging big winger who's been a key fixture on checking lines throughout his first 3 seasons. During that time his development as a top defensive forward has grown noticeably. That growth has enabled Jade to become an important penalty killer who last year lead the team in shorthanded points with 3 assists. Last season also saw him become a consummate shot blocker; though to my mind he didn't get statistical credit for all the shots he blocked. Jade skates very well for his size and knows the importance of keeping his feet moving. He has potted 7 goals in his first three years and last year alone contributed 9 assists. His experience and leadership will be important factors to the team as well this season. I expect him to have his best statistical season this year.

The 6ft 1in 197lb Anchorage born Gorham has been a key cog in the defensive effort over the last two seasons after transferring from Ohio State to UAA. His steady and smart positional play has provided much stability on the back line. Brad possesses a great ability with his poke checking. He can be a force moving forward with the puck creating offense. His skating is excellent and he's got both an accurate wrist shot and a good slap shot. To me he defines the type of solid hockey player so often produced by Anchorage youth hockey ... gritty and tough. Uncompromisingly so. Over the last couple of years I fear Brad has been targeted on occasion and been tagged with some major penalty calls that were undeserved. This season I expect him to find a balance in his physical play so as not to give any referees an excuse to sit him.

The 5ft 8in 175lb Leinweber will be without a doubt the most dynamic offensive threat from the blueline this season. Curtis is as quick on his feet and can explode out of the gate. His puck handling skills are exceptional and his vision is excellent. As a freshman Curtis lead the freshman class in points and I expect he'll lead the seniors as well this season. He is the type of defenseman on which gameplans can be built. If Coach Shyiak can feature Curtis' skills in certain situations it'll result in production for the team. My focus on his offensive abilities shouldn't in any manner diminish his defensive skills. He plays positionally smart with commitment and is capable of coming away with the puck in any part of the ice.

To help the team to more success each of these three guys need to have their most possible productive seasons. All the things you expect from seniors playing Div 1 hockey are evident in each of these three excellent hockey players. They're mature, experienced and show leadership. And with the bulk of this years squad being underclassmen, those traits will be key factors.

Thursday Potpourri: What It's All Gonna Be About

2011-09-08T15:25:00.000-08:00

I must admit that hockey fever has not yet begun to manifest itself. Today's decently sunny and pleasant weather doesn't do much to change that. I'm also in the middle of a move to new digs which distracts from getting the kind of start on the season that I usually feel by this time of the year. None of that is to say that there'll be less content here. It's only going to get busier here over the next few weeks. So let's talk about a few things.

What is this joint going to do for you this season? First, I'm happy to announce that I've found a person willing to act as a photographer for the blog. He is experienced, has the awesome gear and hopefully can make all the home games. I've given him an out if it isn't something that satisfies him (in other words I told him if he doesn't dig it that he doesn't have to commit since he's not acutally a hockey fan ... yet). But naturally, I hope it works out well for the whole season. My plan is to post some sort of gallery for each game.

Next, there'll be a CoverItLive chat for every game this season; home and away. For me that means a couple of things. I'll be sitting in the media area. I'll miss my purloined seats with Suze and Bob. I've been sitting there for more than a few years now. I have dysfunction with counting years so I don't remember how many, but I bet Suze can add it up accurately. I won't be able to actively cheer and yell shit from there. And no, I'm not going to troll Doyle Woody.

I'm trying to save $350 currently to buy a used Mac laptop to use in the effort. Feel free to support that by donating. I have access to a loaned Windows based netbook but like 20 years of using Mac exclusively makes me hope to not have to do that.

I've decided it's time for the blog to have a Facebook presence. However, I don't want anything to do with it administratively speaking. So ... I'm looking for a Facebook volunteer to set up a UAA Hockey Fan Blog page with all the appropriate resource linking etc. I know there's one or two of ya that spend as much or more time on that website as I do here doing this. I'm imagining (since I don't use Facebook at all) that it wouldn't be a hugely big deal to get this going. So if you are interested in doing this please volunteer (psst, do it anonymously if you want) ... email me. I'll also be trying to use my twitter account more so if you already reads twits then you might want to follow.

The meet and greet picnic is this Sunday at 1pm at the Lucy Cuddy Center on campus. I've been to these several years going and can definitely recommend it to those of you who typically don't go. It's a great chance to see some other regular fans as well as get some free food. Naturally though, the highlight is the freshman intro lineup and Q & A's. Last year the weather was fantastic for this event. I hope it is again. See you there.

Expect to see the following in the coming days/weeks running up to the beginning of the season. I'll do a class by class profile of the team. Seniors first then each of the other classes separated by a coupla three days. After that I'll take a look at the league overall and try to assess each of the teams. Of course, we'll cover any relevant breaking news along the way.

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Now lemme say this ... I can't imagine be more optimistic about a team than I am about the one Coach Shyiak, Campbell Blair and T.J. Jindra are going to put on the ice this season. When you combine the awesome teamplay that we saw at the end of last season with frankly the most underrated freshman class in the WCHA things look very promising. I'm thinking this team has a high number of veterans who are poised to have their best seasons as well.

So even though I said I don't quite have the fever yet ... I'm excited.

Dear 2011 Seawolves Freshmen

2011-09-06T13:39:00.001-08:00

All,

Welcome to Anchorage, UAA and Alaska. It's cool here, you'll probably like it and all that ... but summer is over, classes are in session and hopefully you are all taking captains practices seriously and getting fit. There's a boatload of y'all. And this year's team is gonna need you all to be fit and ready to go in just less than a month.

Success as a hockey player at UAA is pretty much in your hands. You all will get chances to play especially in the first half of the season. Some (maybe all, eh?) of you will establish yourselves during that time. How you respond to not fully establishing yourself will be a big factor in the success of your career. You were recruited with that in mind. Coach Shyiak recruits players with an eye on personal character so we fans are assuming you have the traits necessary to be a successful Seawolf hockey player.

Regardless of all the conference shenanigans currently happening and whatever future alignment happens, the WCHA for the next two seasons is still the damned hardest league in college hockey. The veterans on this team can tell you exactly how hard. Listen to them and follow their example. You don't have a veteran teammate that didn't learn those lessons last season. Do as they do; follow their example. When you're asked to fill a role, fill it like it's never been filled by anyone in the history of role filling!

This team took a step last season toward more success and as big as a challenge as it might be for a team with a big freshman class the fans here in Anchorage are going to hope for improvement. You guys all have a chance to contribute to that.

This letter is the third "Dear Rookie" offering here on the blog. Here is last years and here is the year before. Nothing from those will be on final but you should read them for the lulz.

Sincerely,
Donald

UAF Accepts Invitation To Join WCHA

2011-08-26T00:29:00.000-08:00

Less than 24 hours after receiving it, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks have accepted the WCHA's invitation to join and begin play in the 2013-14 season. Good on them and welcome to your big brother's conference.

Here's the most relevant blurbs from the UAF release which came at 4:14 Thursday afternoon.

UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers noted that UAA athletic director Steve Cobb and Chancellor Tom Case were strong advocates for the Nanooks' inclusion in the WCHA conference.

“I would like to thank UAA for helping make this happen. Their work and support is an example of the community spirit that makes the University of Alaska great,” Rogers said. “We cooperate off the ice, and compete on the ice.”

This decision is just one part of the multiple changes spurred by the expected departures of Big Ten schools from the WCHA and CCHA as well as the subsequent back stabbing by the WCHA members of the new Butt Hurt Hockey Conference.

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There is an unprecedented number of offseason things to offer commentary and perhaps analysis, so I'll get to that over the next few days. There is of course all the regular things to consider and write about as we start this season. Up next I'll post my annual welcome letter to the freshman class. How many days til the first game?

The New Conference's Name Is Whut?

2011-07-13T01:48:00.001-08:00

I figure by the time most people read this that the Butt Hurt Hockey Conference (Denver, UND, UMD, CC, Miami and UNO) will have an official name. Before that happens, I just want to get on the record. This is literally the only thing I care about with regard to the BHHC's plans.

Dear BHHC folks,

If you people could please really name your conference "College Hockey Super League" or "Super College Hockey League" or ... aw hell, anything with "Super" in it; well ... that would really be grand. Please do. No foolin'.

I personally would be delighted with the options that presents here on this blog; both in the near and more distant future. Trust me on this ... just the prospect of such a name has already put a smile on faces all across the college hockey landscape.

Otherwise, good luck with whatever the hell else.
Regards and Buh-bye,
D

So that's it for now. Keep your fingers crossed!

The History of Why This Happened...

2011-07-10T21:11:00.004-08:00

There's a lot of blame being tossed around for this mess: Penn State, the Big Ten, DU, North Dakota, even somehow UAA I bet. But to get sense of why this is happening you need to go back further to 1993.

So what happened in 1993? Well besides being the year that UAA joined the WCHA it's also the year the new Mariucci Arena opened at Minnesota. It had everything a college hockey program could've wanted and more, a huge locker room with a players lounge, weight rooms, offices, comfortable seating for fans, and the largest capacity in college hockey; over 9,000 fans. It was never before seen in college hockey and it set a trend for the future.

If you look at the arenas teams in the WCHA played in in 1992 it would probably shock some of the newer, younger fans. Minnesota played in a small section of Williams Arena built into a hockey rink in the 1950s, DU played in an old naval drill they got surplus in the 40s (with a nice rainbow painted in the 70s), North Dakota in the old Ralph Engelstad Arena a ho hum 6000 seater of years past, CC played in the Broadmoor World Arena, which was converted into an ice rink in 1938 from an old riding academy, and Wisconsin in the 8000 plus Dane County Coliseum with ample beer gardens and not much else. St. Cloud had the newest building with the National Hockey Center that opened 1989, the next newest was Michigan Tech with the MacInnes opening in 1972.

But with the new Mariucci opening up suddenly Minnesota had a real edge in recruiting and, most importantly, revenue potential. Now all the other schools in the WCHA were playing catch up. CC pushed construction on the World Arena (opening in 1998), DU worked to get Magness built (opening in 1999), Wisconsin first tried to renovate the Dane before deciding to build the 15000 seat Kohl Center in 1998, still the largest in college hockey.

In 2001, never to be outdone and not wanting to see his alma mater languish in a shoddy 6000 seater, millionaire casino owner, NoDak alum, and Nazi enthusiast Ralph Engelstad spent $110 million to build UND the finest arena in college hockey, complete with granite floors, leather seating, and team facilities that NHL teams wish they had.

Arena building had become a dick measuring contest out west in the college hockey world. Schools poured millions into it. Schools had to have bigger, better, nicer or they wouldn't be able to compete. Mankato, Bemidji, Duluth, even UAA knew they needed that new arena to even come close. With bigger and better seating you could pack in fans and charge them plenty. With those luxury boxes you could woo corporate money and high price boosters. With nicer locker rooms and training facilities you could attract those blue chip recruits who may have run off to the CHL.

And that's where the next dick measuring contest was: recruiting. Before the 90s college hockey was mainly American and Canadian kids with little to no chance at the NHL (if you weren't in the Q, the O, or the W you weren't in the NHL unless you were really really good). With the rise of the USNTDP teams needed those big facilities to attract the draft picks that were being churned out, not only to keep the players happy but to keep Oshawa and Kelowna away too. Now it became about how many draft picks you had on your team, no draft picks meant no chances of winning.

So when Penn State announces their formation (and their nice arena to go with it), everybody knows the Big Ten Hockey Conference is coming. So when the schools that spent millions on new arenas just to keep up with the Big Ten schools, saw the Big Ten schools running off towards bigger money, bigger exposure, and bigger recruiting advantages without them, they panicked. All that money they spent on bigger, better, nicer would be wasted, they thought, unless they did something drastic...

They had to cut the fat out of the meat. The only way to keep up would be to form a new league with only those schools that had these facilities, the ones that had the blue chip recruits, the ones that, if the banded together, could have the exposure needed to keep up.

It remains to be seen if this whole adventure will work for those involve or whether it'll be a big disaster. But if you're mad about this and need to blame somebody, don't blame Penn State, don't blame Barry Alvarez, don't blame DU or NoDak (although you can call them backstabbers), blame Mariucci Arena and the others that were built to keep up with it if you have to. But reality is, as hard as it is to accept, this was coming. The actions from these schools is nothing different from they've done in the past. The only thing to do now is to survive, adapt, and overcome.

The New World Order...

2011-07-08T19:47:00.004-08:00

I suppose my hope that I could nearly completely ignore the College Hockey world this summer was, well, misguided. Time to talk about the elephant in the room I guess...

First the recap:

1. Penn State will be joining the Division I rank in 2012-13. That season they will play as an Independent.

2. 2013-14 the mess begins. Minnesota and Wisconsin will the leave the WCHA, Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State will the CCHA and join Penn State in the new Big Ten (Eleven, Twelve, whatever) Conference.

3. Now, reportedly, North Dakota, Denver, Minnesota-Duluth, Colorado College, and Nebraska-Omaha will leave the WCHA in 2013-14 to form a new conference with Miami (the Ohio one) and possibly Notre Dame from the CCHA (and at one point Western Michigan, however WMU seems to be out of this now) to form a new "Super Conference" (known as the ButtHurt Hockey Conference around these parts or BHHC for short). The announcement is expected sometime next week.

---------------------

This discussion wasn't really a new thing. Penn State had announced in the fall they were joining up and the speculation started. The Big Ten Hockey Conference at that point was inevitability, the money was too much to ignore, even for Minnesota with their kicking and screaming. It was something that would've hurt the WCHA and CCHA but not killed either them, the big moneymakers would be gone but the core of competitiveness would have remained. This is where the panic from DU and NoDak comes in. They believe (to some rightly, to some wrongly) that without Minnesota and Wisconsin their recruiting, their exposure, and their money will be gone, so the idea is to join the remaining "power" schools together in an effort to increase exposure, keep recruiting levels consistent, and, of course, keep the money coming in. Miami was doing a similar thing in the CCHA.

This effort, for the most part, got it's legs from the constant posting about it at the LetsGoDU Blog (and who's writer is jumping for joy right now). Nobody else ever thought any of it until the paper in Grand Forks, citing "confirmed sources", brought the news that this was a real possibility. (Link Here) More news was reported on the potential breakup but nobody was officially speaking, nobody knew what was really going on beyond speculation and "confirmed sources". The ADN was silent, even Woody's blog, until this article came out yesterday.

What is surprising in all of this is the fact that the one to spill the beans and be the first to comment is Dr. Cobb. Dr. Cobb has always been the one to never comment, on the record at least, until the official announcement is made. However the comments that were made are not surprising and points to the level of antipathy between the remaining schools and the breakaways. "I blame everybody for being less than honest with their own league members. It's a really sneaky back-door deal." isn't holding any punches back (beyond the levels of good taste). Dr. Cobb will be taking some heat for having this happen on his watch but really nothing could've been done to prevent this, if DU and UND wanted to go UAA couldn't stop them and they certainly weren't taking UAA with them. At the very least the breakaway schools could've been upfront about this and helped make the transition process easier on all counts. The antipathy would've been lessened and arrangements could've been made for scheduling and the like.

The biggest revelation in all this was the plan by the WCHA to extend invitaions to Notre Dame and Miami to join, a 100% vote according to Cobb. Had this happened the CCHA would've been gutted and left the remaining schools in serious trouble, UAF included. I suppose those of us in WCHA leftover group shouldn't be too upset about being left out when we planned the same to the CCHA. It also speaks to an idea that remaining schools had a plan to continue on together but also gives more light to the "back stabbing" by the breakaway schools. Seemingly all of us thought the BHHC ideas were just wild speculation and the remaining schools we're given that as well.

In the end the biggest question is where does UAA go from here? For this I stand by my earlier statement that all UAA needs is a conference with an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament and they'll be fine. For the most part, any new conference that UAA ends up in will be wide open, wide wide open. This can only mean new and better chances for success. More success can lead to better attendance, more money, better facilities etc. It sucks for the hockey fan like me to not see Minnesota and like but to see UAA successful would be nice.

In the end it's a crappy situation and the way it came about is infuriating. This isn't over, the rest of the schools need to figure out a way to get everybody into a conference and keep everybody relatively happy. It's going to be tough but it can happen, common sense just needs to, finally, break out.

UAA and UAF Likely Conference Mates ... Finally

2011-07-07T15:46:00.000-08:00

The same sort of hegemony by the haves of college hockey that conspired to keep it's two most distantly located members in different conferences, now looks to be leading to a situation where one can easily infer that the Seawolves and Nanooks will finally be conference mates again.

Sunday Potpourri: John Hill and Other Stuff

2011-07-03T23:19:00.003-08:00

Yay it's July. But somewhat of a shame that the summer hasn't been a bit nicer weatherwise. It hasn't been the worst ever though. I took the pic above (and the new banner background) at 11:42 PM on June 21st from the roof of a 5 story building in west Anchorage.

I feel somehow obligated to say something about John Hill's severance from the University of Minnesota hockey team. If you didn't know, Hill was the UAA Seawolves HEAD Coach (his words here -- "my dream job") and voluntarily left the program to return to UofM and once again shine his friend Don Lucia's shoes as an ASSISTANT Coach. And on the way out the door, he threw the program under the bus.

Apparently, Hillers was responsible for the Gopher's defensive game. With long time fans failing to renew season tickets and the once long wait list to get season tickets gone; the administration figured they needed to change something.

John Hill now knows exactly what it's like to be thrown under the bus. That reality does not pain me. In the least. I take no pleasure in the man's professional demise but it's somehow a fitting end. I also find it a bit ironic to think that they dumped the Alaskan from their staff after UAA swept them in the playoffs to end their season. If only they were that spiteful. That'd be sweet.

Best of luck John. I hear there are assistant coaching opportunities available right now in Europe.

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I've become aware that two players from last season's squad will not be returning to UAA this fall. Drew Darwitz and Justin Kirchhevel will not be back Word is that Justin will transfer to Penn State. I don't know what if anything Drew might be doing related to his hockey.

Kirchhevel had some ankle issues that hindered his fitness throughout last season and Darwitz was just unable to crack the lineup consistently. Best of luck to both of them.

Speaking of Penn State, I'd put money on either UAA or UAF being their first Division 1 opponent. Their AD mentioned a while back that they'd like to take a trip up here. And since former UAF coach Gadowsky is running the PSU ship, it sorta follows. And with both UAA and UAF's tournaments being season openers for most opponents ... well. Who knows?

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I'm once again hoping to take a road trip with the team this season. Looks more plausible to me this year versus past seasons. I think I've decided to go to St. Cloud on the weekend of February 17th and 18th. My only other real option is Madison on Jan 20th and 21st. Now I know that Madison is alleged to be THE great party road trip with all the State Street hoohaw and I know my fine friend Richard goes to Madison every year but I just can't feature me in that rink.

For the St. Cloud trip I'll need to borrow someone's Polaris satin jacket.

_________________________

See Limitless. Best movie so far in the 21st century. No doubt about it.

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This probably won't be my only post in July but don't expect more than a couple more. Sometime nearer the end of the month I'll do my yearly "Letter" to the incoming class. I also plan to stop in on the folks at the UAA Athletic Department and check on a couple of things. So I'll have whatever information that comes from that in the next couple of weeks or so.

Now I'm just going to toss an idea out there. Mario Lucia has got to be the most coveted prospect for college hockey. tDon's kid doesn't appear to be desirous of the coach/son concept and is reportedly all about CC or Notre Dame.

Um ... Uncle Brush? You wouldn't mind watching out for Donnie's boy would ya? Most likely it would be a 2 year at most kind of situation. I'm just throwing it out there ya know? Hey Mario, do you like fishing? Ever been kayaking? Want to shoot some wild animals?

Hey ... the kid was born in Alaska. Spending some important developmental years up here from 18-whatever could be a great thing for the young man. Alaska puts hair on your chest.

I'm enjoying my off-season. I hope you all are too.

Welcome New UAA Assistant Coach: T.J. Jindra

2011-06-03T13:11:00.001-08:00

Just a day or so over a month since Ryan McKelvie departed as UAA Assistant Coach and the Seawolves have hired a replacement. Welcome to T.J. Jindra who spent last season as a volunteer assistant at Notre Dame where he played from 2003-2007 and captatined the Irish for two seasons. Jindra was a dedicated two-way player who was willing to sacrifice at Notre Dame in the same mold as every Seawolf player on last year's squad.

Prior to last season's stint coaching in South Bend, Jindra was an assistant coach at Shattuck-St. Marys for two seasons. Dave Shyiak said,

“We are excited for T.J. to join the coaching staff here at UAA, He has learned and been exposed to some high-level coaching at both Shattuck-St. Mary’s and Notre Dame. T.J. is a young, enthusiastic coach who will bring good energy and championship experience to the position. His background as a leader and his work ethic will be assets as we continue to build a successful program.”

This UAA coaching position has during Shyiak's six year tenure typically been used as a platform for younger up and coming coaches and a springboard for their careers. Regg Simon filled it and moved on to a head coaching position back in the USHL and McKelvie moved up the coaching career ladder following his employment by landing a head coaching gig in DIII. Damon Whitten had a bit less luck when he moved somewhat laterally to MSU to oversee their video and when things didn't progress there moved to MTU as an assistant.

What the future holds for T.J. is anyone's guess at this point but there are some things of which he can be sure. He can count on building up his frequent flyer account and visiting lots of small bergs in western Canada for one. He'll often evaluate and contact prospects first on UAA's behalf. No doubt there is a player of two he's already coached or come across that may be prospects already.

Best of luck to T.J; welcome to the prettiest place you'll ever live. By the way; the T stands for Taylor. When I figure out the J, I'll let ya know.

Tony Larson Asserts Himself During Clark Cup

2011-05-20T18:36:00.000-08:00

Tony Larson sure seems to be asserting himself nicely in the Clark Cup Playoffs and Finals for the Dubuque Fighting Saints. The 2011-2012 incoming University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolf freshman defenseman and Former Blaine High School power-play quarterback from Ham Lake, Minnesota enjoyed a solid rookie season on the blueline in the USHL for Dubuque The 5ft 10in, 180lbs Larson played in 47 games scoring 2 goals with 10 assists and an overall respectable +4 rating on a team that finished 37-14-9 for the 2nd best record in the league's regular season. His totals were good enough to be the 3rd highest scoring defenseman on the roster.

In his final high school season Tony established himself as puck moving defenseman who was a dependable offensive asset on the power play. But over the course of his rookie USHL season it seems that wasn't a role he was able to take over from established veteran defensemen. However, so far in 10 USHL Clark Cup playoff games Tony has contributed 3 goals and 2 assists to lead Dubuque goal scorers from the blueline.

The Saints are currently facing Green Bay in the best of 5 Clark Cup Finals. They lead the series 2-1 after winning tonight's game 4-2 in what looks like (at least from the boxscore) must have been a fairly greasy last 4 minutes or so with lots of delay of game, roughing and misconduct penalties assessed; Green Bay won the 1st game 3-0 and Dubuque won the 2nd 2-1. Larson scored tonight's game tying goal at 10:12 of the 2nd period and assisted on the 3rd at 11:45 during a minute and thirty-three seconds 3 goal onslaught which overwhelmed the Gamblers.

Joining Tony at UAA this coming season from Dubuque will be current teammate Derek Docken who as a defenseman established a firm presence in the USHL as one of the most responsible and committed defensive players in the league. For a large part of the regular season Derek sat atop the +/- ratings for the entire league.

As a senior at Blaine Tony was teammates with another incoming UAA freshman Eric Scheid who went golfing with his USHL Lincoln teammates in the first round of the playoffs. Scheid had an excellent first season in the USHL as well scoring 15 goals with 21 assists in 57 games.

Larson, Docken and Scheid collectively represent this coming season's "Minnesota contingent" for the Seawolves.

AJHL's Canmore Eagles Kory Roy To UAA

2011-05-16T15:42:00.001-08:00

Chris Heisenberg has added left-handed center Kory Roy from the AJHL's Canmore Eagles to the list of incoming freshman for the 2011-12 season. The 5ft 11in, 185lb forward scored 30 goals and added 33 assists in 53 regular season games on Canmore's top line this past season. His career AJHL numbers are 41g-60a in 110 games.

Roy is an Anchorage hockey product who played at Service High and graduated in 2008; he turned 21 this past March. It wouldn't be a huge assumption to make that Kory is likely a non-scholarship "walk-on" player. His addition brings to 6 the number of forwards the Seawolves are bringing in this upcoming season after losing 3 senior forwards to graduation.

Competition for playing time amongst freshman forwards just got a little stiffer with his addition. Welcome to the squad Kory, as with every incoming freshman we hope to see you contributing. Depending on who one counts, Roy's addition brings the stable of forwards to 16 or 17 for the 2011-12 season.

Ryan McKelvie Departs The Seawolves

2011-05-02T13:31:00.002-08:00

UAA assistant coach Ryan McKelvie has accepted an offer to become the head coach at D-III Lake Forest College just outside Chicago. McKelvie completed his first year as a WCHA assistant during this past season. In the in the emailed UAA announcement Coach Shyiak said,

"Ryan has been an integral part of our success this year. He has worked very hard in his responsibilities and recruiting efforts. This is a great opportunity for him at Lake Forest College and we wish him all the best and thank him for all he has done."

As to departing the Seawolves program McKelvie indicated,

It was a difficult decision, as my time at UAA has been so enjoyable. My experience at UAA has prepared me for my first collegiate head coaching job, and I will forever be grateful to coach Shyiak, coach Blair, and the entire UAA athletic department for their tremendous support this year."

Ryan becomes the fifth head coach at Lake Forest who finished with a 5-21-1 record playing all season with an interim head coach running the program. He will obviously be looking to turn that program around. Dr. Cobb commented,

"We will miss coach McKelvie being part of our staff, but are always pleased when coaches have the opportunity to further their career. I have no doubt that, given coach McKelvie's experience, character and background, he will be successful at Lake Forest and I will not be surprised if he returns to coach in the WCHA in the future."

A national search to determine a replacement will begin immediately. The search may be influenced by the ongoing Division 1 head coaching carousel which has seen or will see new coaches hired at 6 schools this offseason (UMass-Lowell, Penn St., Princeton, Clarkson, Northeastern and Michigan Tech).

Best of luck to Ryan on his step up the coaching ranks and meeting all the challenges that come with the position. Here's the Lake Forest annoucement where he says,

"I am extremely excited for the opportunity to lead the Lake Forest College men's hockey program. It was clear throughout the interview process and during my visit to campus that my coaching goals align with those of the College. Recent enhancements to the rink and other athletic facilities at the College also strengthen my belief that Forester Hockey has the potential to be very successful."

The release indicates that he'll relocate to Lake Forest within the next month; so there's a wee bit (obligatory Scottish reference) of time before you'll have missed your chance to wish him well.

Sunday Potpourri: Eat The Rich

2011-05-01T04:48:00.007-08:00

The top 400 richest people in the United States of America now control more wealth and resources than the bottom 150,000,000 (that's one-hundred and fifty million btw ... in case big numbers don't register). So ... my 150 million homies? How about a BBQ? Is it time yet? The weather is getting nicer.

Here's the folks I'm talking about eating. Some of them have tasty sounding names actually. Yum, Stephen Biscotti.

Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, Christy Walton, Charles Koch, David Koch, Jim Walton, Alice Walton, S. Robson Walton, Michael Bloomberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Sheldon Anderson, George Soros, Michael Dell, Steve Balmer, Paul Allen, Jeff Bezos, Anne Cox Chambers, John Paulson, Donald Bren, Abigail Johnson, Phil Knight, Carl Icahn, Ronald Perelman, John Mars, Jacqueline Mars, Forrest Mars, George Kaiser, James Simons, Len Blavatnik, Steve Cohen, Edward Johnson, Philip Anschutz, James Goodnight, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Taylor, Rupert Murdoch, Samuel Newhouse, Jim Kennedy, Blair Parry-Okeden, Steve Jobs, Andrew Beal, Eli Broad, Harold Hamm, Patrick Soon-Siong, Pierre Omidyar, Eric Schmidt, Charles Butt, John Menard, Charles Ergen, Richard Kinder, David Geffen, Harold Simmons, Ray Dalio, Frederick G.H. Meijer, Dennis Washington, Ira Rennert, Ralph Lauren, Sam Zell, Richard DeVos, Ray Lee Hunt, David Tepper, Richard LeFrak, Lester Crown, Leonard Lauder, John Paul DeJoria, Micky Arison, Bruce Kovner, Robert Rowling, Stephen Schwarzman, Roger Wang, Robert Bass, Charles Johnson, Robert Ziff, Daniel Ziff, Dirk Ziff, Marion MacMillan Pictet, Whitney MacMillan, Cargill MacMillan, Pauline MacMillan Keinath, Charles Schwab, Rupert Johnson, Thomas Frist, Ray Dolby, Victor Fung, Leonard Stern, Gordon Moore, William Koch, Henry Kravis, Henry Ross Perot Sr, John Sall, Haim Saban, John Sobrato, John Arnold, George Lucas, Ron Burkle, Ann Walton Kroenke, Daniel Och, Scott Duncan, Stephen Ross, George Roberts, Edward Lampert, William Cook, Robert Holding, Randa Williams, Dannine Avara, Milane Frantz, Paul Tudor Jones, Terrence Pegula, Trevor Rees-Jones, Steven Spielberg, Bruce Halle, Jame Jannard, Leon Black, Ted Lerner, John Malone, Riley Bechtel, Stanley Druckenmiller, Leslie Wexner, Kirk Kerkorian, Stephen Bechtel, Joan Tisch, Sumner Redstone, Barbara Piasecka Johnson, Ronald Lauder, Philip Falcone, Peter Kellog, Patrick McGovern, David Murdock, Stanley Kroenke, Oprah Winfrey, Steven Udvar-Hazy, Timothy Headington, David Green, James Leprino, Nancy Walton Laurie, David Sun, Edgar Bronfman Sr, Mitchell Rales, John Tu, Malcolm Glazer, Charles Dolan, Warren Stephens, Richard Schulze, Igor Olenicoff, Donald Schneider, Archie Aldis Emmerson, Mark Cuban, Mary Alice Dorrance Malone, William Hilton, John Anderson, David Rockefeller, Ty Warner, Donald Trump, Martha Ingram, Tom Gores, Ken Griffin, Richard Rainwater, Doris Fisher, Stephen Rales, Rodney Lewis, Nicholas Berggruen, Julian Robertson, A. Jerrold Perenchio, David Shaw, Glen Taylor, Jack Dangermond, Ronda Stryker, Bill Gross, William Randolph Hearst III, Robert Friedland, Edward Roski, Michael Milkin, Stewart Rahr, Diane Hendricks, Jeremy Jacobs, Henry Hillman, William Wrigley, H. Wayne Huizenga, Herbert Kohler, Lee Bass, George Mitchell, Sid Bass, Gordon Getty, Lynn Schusterman, Alfred Taubman, Philip Ruffin, David Rubenstein, Phillip Frost, William Conway, Daniel D'Aniello, Robert Rich, Peter Peterson, Mortimer Zuckerman, H. Fisk Johnson, S. Curtis Johnson, Winnie Johnson-Marquardt, Helen Johnson-Leipold, Imogen Powers Johnson, Bennett Dorrance, Jerry Jones, Amos Hostetter, Ted Turner, James Cargill, Austen Cargill, Marianne Liebmann, Walter Scott, Reyes Jude, Reyes J. Christopher, Wilbur Ross, Michael Jaharis, Steve Wynn, Alan Casden, Jeffery Hildebrand, Albert Ueltschi, Jess Jackson, Israel Englander, Frederick Smith, Austin Hearst, Phoebe Hearst Cooke, George Hearst Jr, Marc Benioff, Jerry Speyer, Kelcy Warren, James Coulter, Fred DeLuca, Peter Buck, Jim Davis, Jeff Greene, Neil Bluhm, David Bonderman, Dean White, David Hearst Jr, Charles Munger, Stanley Hubbard, Clemmie Spangler, Bradley Hughest, Thomas Siebel, Michael Ilitch, Henry Samueli, John Catsimatidis, Alexander Rovt, Louis Bacon, Alec Gores, Clayton Mathile, Randal Kirk, Thomas Kaplan, Craig McCaw, Isaac Perlmutter, Glenn Dubin, William Connor, S. Truett Cathy, Bharat Desai, Stephen Mandel, George Argyros, Ken Fisher, Manuel Moroun, Leandro Rizzuto, Barbara Carlson Gage, Thomas Pritzker, Ted Forstmann, Marilyn Carlson, Michael Heisley, John Marriott, John Doerr, Wilma Tisch, Min Kao, Anita Zucker, Penny Pritzker, Thomas Friedkin, Leon G. Cooperman, Robert Kraft, Richard Peery, Charles Brandes, S. Daniel Abraham, Edward Bass, Brad Kelley, Henry Nicholas, Richard Marriott, David Gottesman, Norman Braman, Bernard Marcus, Joe Jamail, George Lindemann, Edward DeBartolo, Kavitark Ram Shriram, John Pritzker, Michael Price, Gary Michelson, Robert McNair, John Arrillaga, Romesh T. Wadhwani, Dustin Moskovitz, T. Boone Pickens, Gerald J. Ford, Anthony Pritzker, Jay Robert Pritzker, Thomas Peterffy, Henry Ross Perot Jr, Jamer Irsay, Joseph Craft, Roger Penske, Ron Baron, Jonathan Nelson, James Kim, James Pritzker, Billy Joe McCombs, John Morgridge, Stephen Biscotti, Ray Davis, Thomas Lee, Richard Chilton Jr, Marc Lasry, Linda Pritzker, Karen Pritzker, Jean Pritzker, Daniel Pritzker, Christopher Goldsbury, James Dinan, Richard Hayne, Leon Charney, Vinod Khosla, Michael Moritz, Evgeny Shvidler, Pat Stryker, Carl Berg, John Fisher, Herbert Simon, Jon Stryker, David Duffield, C. Dean Metropoulos, Joseph Mansueto, Tom Golisano, Henry Swieca, Alfred Mann, Bernard Saul, Aubrey McClendon, Joshua Harris, Marc Rowan, Gary Magness, Scott Cook, Johnelle Hunt, Meg Whitman, Malone Mitchell, Todd Wagner, Barry Diller, Thomas Barrack, Charlotte Coket Weber, Sheldon Solow, Arthur Blank, Alfred James Clar, Richard Scaiffe, Alan Gerry, Alexander Knaster, Peter Sperling, Jerry Yang, David Filo, Eduardo Saverin, Bruce Karsh, Howard Marks, Kenneth Adams, Peter Thiel, Steven Roth, Matthew Bucksbaum, Dan Snyder, Frank Fertitta, William Moncrief, Steve Case, Nelson Peltz, Kenny Troutt, Alexander Spanos, Sidney Kimmel, William Macaulay, Hope Hill, Kenneth Langone, Edmund Ansin, Irwin Jacobs, Peter Lewis, John Sperling, Tom Benson, Elaine Wynn, Samuel Wyly, Nicholas Pritzker, Tamara Gustavson, Donald Hall, Michael Krasny, Lorenzo Fertitta, Patrick Ryan, George Joseph, Arturo Moreno, Thomas Secunda, Jeffery Lurie, William Ford Sr, Darwin Deason, Herbert Allen, John Brown, John Edson.

There's 15 more but apparently they aren't billionaires? That's right. All 385 I've just typed out are billionaires. Know how long it would take you to spend a billion dollars on typical (non real estate) consumer items? You probably would get bored or die of old age before you finished. Anyway, let's plan the BBQ eh?

I know there's a couple of problems with this idea. First, some of you are vegans. No problem. We'll have a big salad too, you can just stand along side and watch as the rest of us munch on them. And sure another problem, yes ... it's cannibalism. Ok well ... I get that some of you can't get into that. So I figure that if we subtract the vegans and the people who are absolutely opposed to eating another human that we've got to still be left with somewhere around 250,000 of us that would be willing to partake. And hey, if it turned out to be more than that you know what they say; the more the merrier.

Next problem, 400 rich assholes really won't feed 250,000 people. I figure on average there's probably about 75 pounds of edible meat on the average super rich person. A quick trip to the calculator tells me we'd end up with about 30,000 pounds of meat which would mean an equal share of .12 pounds each. Yeah, not very filling. Maybe with the side dishes though we'd get a fairly decent meal. I know someone that makes a helluva cheesecake and if others could contribute pot-luck style I think lots of us could leave the picnic with full bellies.

The upside of only eating .12 pounds of another human. Um ... that is the upside. It's only .12 pounds. That's about the same amount of meat as in one of those regular McDonald's hamburgers. Seriously, who amongst us couldn't choke down that little amount of meat for the good of the country? I'd be willing to be a vegan or two might cross the line just this once.

I've given some thought to this and I have to say that slow roasting rotisserie-style is probably the way to go. A lot of these pricks are pretty old and probably a bit grisly. Doing them up sorta like Baby Back Ribs ought to give the best result. I did briefly consider Polynesian style but digging 400 pits seems like quite the undertaking (forgive the pun). I don't think we'd have to stick to just one style necessarily though. Maybe a variety of cooking methods would encourage more people to participate?

Another problem is of course where to have it. It's tough to know for sure. But with only 250,000 of us participating then the choices are pretty wide ranging. How about The Mall in Washington D.C.? That will pretty easily accommodate even 500,000 (assuming of course that some vegans show up and probably some other gawkers who want to vicariously enjoy the feast but are unable to bring themselves to the whole cannibalism part). Naturally, the political implications should resonate deeply when our elected officials see us eating their corporate masters.

So when do we do this? Obviously, it takes some time to plan this. We'll have to round these bastards up first. They all should be pretty east to find. A few of them will probably have to be dragged off their 180ft yachts in the Mediterranean or snatched from their private islands or whatever. But I'd think 10 teams of 10 people each ought to be able to get it done in eight or ten weeks. Naturally, we'll have to line up some sponsors to help with the expenses. I'll be happy to volunteer to line those up as I've already got several ideas how to make that happen.

I know that you're thinking. What does eating the 400 wealthiest people in the US really accomplish ... their heirs will just inherit their money and resources leaving us in exactly the same shitty little sinking boat we are in now. Nah, you really think if the heirs of these obscene fortunes saw us eating their parents that they'd continue to hoard their wealth? I'm inclined to believe they'll give up whatever they have to in order to avoid another such BBQ. And the next 400 richest assholes? Well, I'm inclined to believe they might not fucking whine about pay a few more percentage points in taxes after they see us eat the 400 people who are wealthier than them.

I'm sure you think this is some sort of parody to make a point. It isn't. I'm as serious as a heart attack. So I propose that we do this on that venerated American holiday of Labor Day this year. Let's get this ball rolling folks. Comment below, email me or heck just say something in the chatroom on the right side of the page. We can do this.

Allen Leading Spruce Grove On Road To The RBC

2011-04-18T17:41:00.004-08:00

Future Seawolves player Scott Allen has been on a playoff tear for the AJHL's Spruce Grove Saints. In the inital rounds of AJHL playoff games Scott posted an impressive 1.1 points per game, which led the team.

In 9 games he scored 7 goals and added 3 assists. Spruce Grove played 13 AJHL playoff games en route to their current participation in the Doyle Cup series which determines the western representative for the RBC Cup which is Canada's defacto Junior A championship.

In the first three Doyle Cup games against the BCHL champion Vernon Vipers (all 3 games on Vernon's ice), Allen has increased his torrid scoring pace to 1.3 points per game with 3 goals and 1 assist. He currently leads all Doyle Cup participants in scoring. Scott was named #3 Star in the 2nd game for his game winning goal and the #1 Star in the 3rd game for his 2 goals and 1 assist. The Series resumes this coming Wednesday (April 20th, 2011) on Saint's home ice at the Grant Fuhr Arena. Spruce Grove now leads the series 2 -1.

The 6ft 3in, 190lb Allen will join former Spruce Grove teammates Brett Cameron and Wes McLeod in Green & Gold for the 2011-2012 edition of the UAA Seawolves. Keep it up Scott. We're all looking forward to seeing you make your mark in the WCHA. Hopefully, your hair changes back to it's normal color by then.

Factors Important To Attendance: #1 = Winning

2011-04-17T02:50:00.000-08:00

Since Google Blogger comments system is acting up (it freaking ATE my detailed response to comments in the previous post regarding attendance and TV coverage), I thought I'd recreate and greatly expand on that response here. First, allow me to restate the general assertions.

My assertion: Tape-delayed TV coverage of Seawolves hockey has no significant affect on attendance. The counter assertion: Tape-delayed TV coverage of Seawolves hockey discourages some fans from attending.

I must warn you now though ... I'm going to get semi-real on this. I'm not going to exclusively sit here and tell you what I believe. I'm going to quote and link actual RESEARCH by professionals in the field. So, if you want to refute what I present below ... then you'll need an equal amount of quoting and linking from sources that refute it. Trust me, I spent a solid 4.5 hours scrounging around the Interwebs for this stuff. There's much more than I've linked here.

Let's start with something light first. Just a blog. The Harvard College Sports Analysis Collective. Sounds commie huh? "Collective" ... Don't be Skerred. The post I've linked to is specific to football. Nevertheless, much of what they present is obviously valid to any other sport. Like when they say ...

1. Sustained winning is important. The driving force behind big ticket sales is generally a compelling and successful team. Between 2008 and 2010 the average NCAA stadium was filled to 79.95% capacity – about 44,000 fans. However, teams that had winning seasons in that same time period drew crowds of around 53,000 (88.19%) – an 8% jump in attendance.

Note the presence of the number "1" please. Thanks. I posted that first because of the 30 or 40 links I've looked at using various Google search terms to support my assertions that is probably the best I've read.

Next I'll quote from The Sport Journal which is called a "refereed sports journal, published by the United State Sports Academy. The paper I'm linking pertains specifically to minor league baseball with a limited set of factors (i.e... nothing about tape delayed local TV college hockey coverage ok?) but the following quote is still quite relevant to this discussion ...

"According to previous studies (Hansen & Gauthier, 1989; Zhang, Pease, Hui, & Michaud, 1995), there are four major factors that affect spectators' decisions about attending games. The attractiveness of the home team is a first and vital consideration. Individual players' skill, league standing, breaking of prior records, team record, performance, and star players together affect fans’ attendance at games (Zhang et al.,1997)."

Not much else in linked article is relevant though it's interesting in general and some aspects probably do cross-over to UAA Hockey. Athletic Administrators et al studied all this sort of sports marketing crappola back when they went to school and got their degree so we can assume their mostly aware of this sort of information in their profession. Feel free to look up "Hansen & Gauthier, 1989" as I've seen it referenced over and over in all the research, but you'll only get excerpts and extracts versus their complete study.

Here is a paper by a Marketing Professor from Western Illinois University called John T. Drea called "The Effects of Winning, Weather, Scheduling and Promotion on Attendance at NCAA Division II Mens Collegiate Basketball Games". Part of it's conclusion says ...

These results emphasize a need to control scheduling (opponents and game dates) as a means of influencing individual game attendance. Second, promotion does have an effect on individual game attendance; however, the effect is previously accounted for by other variables. Individuals concerned with predicting attendance should focus on controllable variables (scheduling) while accounting for other variables (weather, team performance).

Ok? So that's three pretty decent references that support my assertion that the primary driver for attendance is not tape-delayed TV coverage. Don't think for a second that I didn't try to find studies or papers that indicated how TV coverage affects attendance. I did. But naturally, the only ones I found addressed "live coverage" and not "tape delayed coverage".

I encourage you to get on your own Google bus and do some driving if you think you can find something more specific. That's more a request than a challenge per se. If you truly believe that tape-delayed TV coverage of UAA Hockey has something to do with Sullivan Arena attendance then show me some sort of data that supports that position please.

I recommend also that you read the Wiki entry on Fan Loyalty as well as the Wiki entry on Blackouts. Both provide some insight regarding the matter.

Now onto my other points regarding this attendance discussion. People are liars. Nobody wants the label "bandwagon fan" applied to them. So, if you ask them why they don't go to a sporting event of a team they claim to be a supporter ... they'll make shit up to deflect that true nature. Truth is, that nobody wants to go watch a team lose over and over and over.

It takes rationalization and supreme self-justification as a "loyal fan" in order to do so. If you shell out lots of hard earned dough year after year and aren't rewarded with some vicarious winning ... then you must find a way to justify it. Typically, for UAA fans that means saying something like ...

"I support the team and attend every game because these athletes are amateurs representing my school with pride and dignity. They compete hard and give their all risking injury for our pleasure. They deserve that support even if they don't win every game."

That's how you and I self-justify the doling out those bucks. We aren't doing it to see the team win (we still WANT them to win) but instead we're giving ourselves credit for a more altruistic rationale. We don't like the "bandwagon fans" because they're only interested in turning out to see a winner. Do I blame people for being bandwagon fans? No, it's human nature. And the truth is that (in general) casual sports fans are indeed the bigger group in terms of ticket buying.

So... I'm not completely right and counter assertion isn't completely wrong. That said, there simply isn't much in the way of the effects of tape-delayed coverage on attendance. There are some correlations one can make between live TV and tape-delayed TV with regard to how many people show up at a rink but there is a real lack of quantifiable data about both situations. Here's a paper from a joint called The Biology of Exercise titled A Review of Attendance and Non-Attendance Studies At Sporting Events. It says ...

"Very few studies deal with the problem of non-attendance. Even those studies which attempted to investigate the problem, did it with data collected from attending individuals, during sporting events. The major contribution of the present study is that it provides an instrument for measuring non-attendance, which uses data collected from people who do not attend sporting events.

Zhang et al (6), stressed the importance for inclusion of the non-attending population in future research on spectator game attendance. Although factors influencing attendance may be different from factors influencing non-attendance at sporting events, the following two studies by Hansen and Gauthier (2) and Tomlinson et al (5), played a very significant role in the conceptualization of the present study."

So, if you think that tape-delayed TV broadcasts of UAA Hockey are hurting attendance; I cannot completely refute it.

Production of a non-local live broadcast is important for many reasons. Most importantly, it gives the UAA Journalism and Public Communications students real-world experience that they can use in furtherance of their chosen career. It also gives non-local fans a chance to see the game via webcast and that's vital for families and friends of players as well as interested alumni.

The tape-delayed local broadcast has at least one valuable metric ... it is exposure to the local community of the quality of the on-ice product. When local casual fans hear about a win that they didn't attend and can watch it, then they'll be more likely to attend the next evening or home weekend. It's Marketing 101 ya know?

Lose the tape-delayed broadcast locally and perhaps some additional percentage of folks will show up. But personally, I can't feature that there are 1000 people sitting at home on Friday and Saturday nights because they can watch a game starting at 10pm. But I sure believe there at least that number of folks sitting at home because they've calculated their chances of having their monetary outlay be rewarded with a win and come to a negative conclusion (which btw ... will change over the next few years as the UAA Hockey team starts to kick some ass in the WCHA). Winning cures all ... ask UMD.

2010-2011 UAA Recruit Wrap-Up

2011-04-10T21:21:00.002-08:00

Time for the season ending update for the incoming Seawolves rookie class. This is a real positive group of committed players led perhaps by Sam Mellor but there's lots of other good players coming to wear the Green and Gold next year who look to turn a few heads also.

Scott Allen's season with Spruce Grove started off on a bit of a down note. Allen didn't attend Spruce Grove's camp in favor of a preseason tryout with Des Moines in the USHL. When he wasn't one of two import roster spots in Des Moines he headed back to Spruce Grove where they had to work him into their roster.

This seems to have cost Scott opportunities on the top two lines and relegated him to a 3rd and 4th line role. His 21 goals and 23 assists though are testament to his ability to find offensive chances while fulfilling a checking and/or energy role.

Most impressively though, in just 9 playoff games Scott has scored 7 goals with 3 assists to lead the Saints in playoff scoring. They have won the AJHL Playoffs and are poised to play the winner of the BCHL for a spot in the RBC Cup. A reasonable approach to anticipating what Scott Allen will bring to bear as a Seawolf would be to start with what his former Saints teammate Brett Cameron brought to the table this season.

Austin finished with the 3rd highest point total amongst USHL defensemen this season. His 7 goals and 28 assists tied him for 2nd most points on the Des Moines squad. He was named a CCM All-Star on February 21st but you may remember no All-Star game was played in that league this season.

Austin is clearly the power play quarterback in Des Moines and I'd expect that he'll develop here with those skills in mind. As a 16 year old, Coldwell was determined to play major juniors with Portland but he didn't make the team in one tryout. At that point, he set his sights on playing college hockey and achieves that this coming season.

Research tells me that Austin should adapt relatively quickly to the college game. He's a very experienced 20 year old with over 200 junior A games on his resume. If he doesn't earn a regular role next season and play in a majority of games I'll be surprised.

Derek is easily quantifiable as one of the most responsible defensemen in the USHL this season. This is a player that takes some pride in excelling in the shut down role and his team leading +/- of +23 was 8th best in the league this season. He scored a goal and added 10 assists in his 59 appearances. He plays the game clean with low penalty minutes as well.

Derek went right from Minnesota High School hockey to juniors and ended up stuck on a team with who got caught in some fairly shady pay-to-play schemes with certain players. Derek was not amongst them but those events threw that franchise into a bit of a spin. He did his job well through it all though and was noticed. Sohe moved onto through a nice USHL season that sets him up to come here and continue to develop.

Still lots of development upside for Derek. I see him becoming a dominant shut down defenseman by his junior season. I expect responsibility to take him at least that far. Hard wok will do the rest.

West Viginia's own Donnie Harris isn't unfamiliar with being away from Ft. Ashby as his hockey interests took him across the country to the AAA Midget NW Regulators team prior to the above junior career. So coming to Alaska I think we can at least guarantee this will be the prettiest place he's spent playing hockey.

Donnie is a defensive defenseman who specializes in defense. He's big and strong and moves well by all accounts. In Bonnyville's 9 playoff games he bagged a goal and an assist. Here's a real good story about him from back in December.

Corbin's 12 goals and 27 assists put him at 3rd highest points overall on the Grizzly's team. Corbin had a nice veteran season on a mostly young but not great Olds team. His maturity and leadership is what I've found most often mentioned or alluded to in the few internet snippets available.

We seem to have a reasonable split between offensive and defensive minded blueliners. Corbin clearly tends toward the offensive end of that spectrum. The last couple of high scoring defensemen we picked up were Kane Lafranchise and Curtis Leinweber. Hopefully that fact bodes well for what we might see out of Corbin.

Tony is a teammate of Derek Docken on Dubuque's blueline. Last season he was a teammate of Eric Scheid at Blaine High School along with the more well-covered Nick Bjugstad. By all accounts Tony is another defensemen who likes to go forward. His 2 goals and 10 assists don't necessarily back that assertion but he is a rookie in a strong league and perhaps isn't green lighted at all times. He did put up nice offensive numbers (6g-26a in 30games) in his final high school season.

It's hard for me to tell from here what defensive pairings Dubuque used this past season so I won't guess if he and Derek were paired and instead hope that they were. Coming onto a new team with a guy you've been playing with and a guy you used to play with should make Tony's transition to college hockey a little easier.

I can't help but think we'll see a great deal of him as a freshman.

Sam Mellor finished the 3rd highest point per game average last season in the BCHL. His 33 goals and 34 assists in just 45 games put him at 2nd on his squad and 16th on the league leader list. He also played in two in season national select tournaments which in combination with a short term injury kept him out of the other 15 regular season games. His 2 goals and 7 assists led the Smoke Eaters during their 7 game playoff stretch.

Mellor is unquestionably an elite level recruit. He's on the NHL's radar and could be selected in this summer's draft. It wouldn't be wrong to call him one of, if not the top prospect to come out of that league into the NCAA. The Seawolves secured Sam's verbal committment when he was just 17 and though Major Junior did come calling, Sam has always been committed to the college route. He comes to UAA as a true 18 year old freshman.

Make no mistake about it, this guy is going to contribute offense. As with every freshman there'll be some adapting to the game but Sam's got great tools and a nose for the net. He's excelled at every level while always playing against older competition. He'll do the same thing in the Green and Gold.

There's no fudging the numbers so ... Andrew had a down year in terms of production this season with 21 fewer points. However, in 17 playoff games he finished tied for 2nd in points with 4 goals and 8 assists. Pettitt's 2009-2010 numbers peg him as a guy who knows his way around the net so I'm left but to assume he wasn't around the net as often this past season. I can't begin to guess why.

Hopefully, he finds his way back around the net here.

I'm officially more jazzed than before at Eric Scheid coming to UAA. In his rookie USHL season he scored 15 goals and added 21 assists which is better than I had expected and is quantifiably a very nice rookie season. Matt Bailey scored 14 goals in his 2nd USHL season after 11 in his 1st. Eric is skilled playmaker and knows how to get the puck to a guy that knows where to be. And this season he's shown he can put the puck in the back of the net as well.

I'm expecting Eric to be quick with a good set of hands which should make him a pretty dynamic forward here for the next 4 years. I'm expecting that he's at minimum a candidate to reach 100 points during his career.

Stenerson isn't expected to attend UAA until at least the 2012-2013 season. In his first year of juniors he did well and impressed his coaching staff and UAA staff with his poise and skill. He just turned 18 at the end of January. He didn't appear in any Surrey playoff games this season though he was in 54 regular season games. I saw no listing of him as injured but that doesn't mean he wasn't. He'll get closer tracking next season.

Zack isn't scheduled to come to UAA until 2012. He finished his 2nd USHL season with 3 goals and 6 assists for Tri-City in 39 games. Again, it's hard to know how many games he lost to injury. But with another season to watch Zack there's no need for any commentary here.

2010-2011 UAA Hockey Fan Blog Awards

2011-04-05T15:13:00.001-08:00

Rookie of the Year

Matt Bailey/Jordan Kwas

This choice came down to a battle of statistics for me. Is 4 goals and 20 assists somehow that much more valuable than 10 goals and 10 assists? I can't see answering that question either yes or no. So it's a Co-Rookie of the Year for me. These are two players that will have a lot to say about the level of success for the team next year. These guys are distinctly different hockey players as well, Bailey has speed and raw power where Kwas best tools are quickness and deftness with the puck. I'd imagine we might see them as linemates at some point next season.

Most Improved Player

Mitch Bruijsten

Nine goals and eight assists a year after scoring 2g-3a? That's a dramatic improvement. Much of that improvement is due to Mitch's smarter and better skating this season. He's more direct with shorter strides and has found himself on the good side of the puck more often precisely because of that change in style. He played with confidence for a large portion of this season as well which was a noticeable change from last season.

Heart and Soul

Craig Parkinson

If you don't know already, I think about Justin Johnson whenever I consider this award. J.J. had a unique intensity and energy that is mostly unattainable by your average human hockey player. So that's the standard. I loved that there was a group of players that all deserved consideration for this award but I chose Craig because every role he filled this season he did exceptionally well and he took on the mantle of quite a few. The number of draws alone that he completely stole by any means necessary. Craig was a leadership force on the ice, on the bench and no doubt in the locker room. In 37 games he went to the box for only 20 minutes. He also nearly doubled his 09-10 scoring with 8g-13a.

Most Valuable Player

Tommy Grant

Tommy led the team in scoring this season with 16g-16a in 37 games. Thirteen of those goals came in conference play which was the 7th highest total in the league. His five game winning goals was 1st highest in the league as well. That particular statistic made him a lock as the MVP in my mind. But it didn't end there. Tommy played in every situation all season long. He killed penalties and scored a shortie and on the power play he laid on 9 assists with 4 goals. He was a threat on nearly every shift in one way or another whether with his substantial speed or his hard shot. An MVP should be a guy that can raise the level of play by his teammates; Tommy did that.

Report Cards: Part II

2011-04-05T14:13:00.001-08:00

It is once again my (now annual) task to present my entirely subjective grades and evaluation of each Seawolves player. So without any long winded build up (except to say there's no long winded build up) here they are in order by jersey number:

#3 Wes McLeod - B+

Wes came onto the Seawolves squad with a pretty nice junior hockey pedigree and I think he played very well this season. He contributed on the scoring side and showed lots of other flashes of offensive upside; his skating and stick skills. On the defensive side of the puck he was solid as well. Not to say that Wes played mistake free hockey ... he didn't. But no more than any other freshman WCHA defenseman. Confidence on the ice is going to be the key to next season for Wes. And ... he's got a cannon of a shot too.

#5 Justin Kirchhevel - C++

I can't say I disliked anything about Justin's play this season. In fact, I think he's got a boatload of potential to become an impactful player. You can't teach anticipation. His two goals in his first game weren't the only chances he had in his 8 appearances. If the challenges that kept him out of so many games (and it doesn't matter what they are) can be positively rectified then Justin will only get better and more productive. I also liked his grittiness.

#7 Brett Cameron - B

Brett was about <--> that close to scoring twice as many goals as his 4 this season. And he's a very capable scorer. Brett figures to be one of the top two line forwards coming into next season. He's energetic and effective offensively. Shoot the puck more Brett. Here's an Puck Daddy article from Justin Bourne about it. Do that.

#8 Scott Warner - A

Scott did have the lowest plus/minus rating on the team but the truth is that his presence on the ice defensively was invaluable. So there's a case where you can surely say fuck the plus/minus numbers. Scott was very effectively defensively and also showed offensive upside with some smart rushes here and there. Scott was a really smart and mature blueliner throughout the season.

#9 Mark Pustin - B

Mark is a speedy and dynamic forward looking for a situation. Mark was an effective role player this season but had only a few real chances to play "his game". With the influx of both playmaking and scoring forwards next season there'll be lots of chances for Mark to find some chemistry. He seems like a good fit to me as a possible penalty killing short-handed goal scorer next season. Or something ... Mark will have to carve himself a niche.

#10 Mickey Spencer - B-

Mickey had a bit of a suck sophomore season from his perspective I bet. He only got in 13 games and it seemed like some portion of those were just because he was unable to crack the lineup. As suck as all that must have been, he sure put some sweet icing on that spiceless cake at the end of the season didn't he?

#11 Curtis Leinweber - A+

No offense should be taken by anyone if I call Curtis the best player on the team. So.I.am. That's why he gets an A+. He did it all this season. On both ends of the ice. In every situation. He could be counted on to lead a scoring rush and depended on to block a short. He killed penalties, skated on the power play and just generally made the game fun to watch.

#12 Mitch Bruijsten - A-

Mitch blew up a bit this season. After 2 goals and 4 assists as a freshman he potted 9 goals and added 8 assists. He was the highest scoring sophomore on the squad. He was the only forward other than Tommy Grant with multiple game winning goals. He blossomed somewhat ... like a Tulip in the spring? ... Figure Mitch for the inside track at being that forward that can clear room and act as a target for two other playmaking scorers next season.

#13 Quinn Sproule - B

Quinn dressed for 32 games this season and was a virtual fixture on the blueline. He showed poise and smarts at times as well as an ability to move the puck up the ice. As I noted with Wes McLeod, being a WCHA rookie defenseman and making a mistake here and there are par for the course. Maturity and the confidence that comes with that will be tools for Quinn to use to continue to secure maximum playing time. Lots of growth potential here.

#14 Craig Parkinson - A+

No justification needed for this grade. Craig couldn't have achieved a higher grade. He did everything he needed to earn that grade and so much more.

#15 Brad Gorham - A-

The extra penalty minutes gotta go. Yes, Brad had a bit of a target painted on his back by WCHA referees this year. But even with that unequal treatment he committed some unnecessary penalties. Other than that ... there's nothing to complain about in Brad's game really. He's responsible in his own end and smart about distributing the puck and/or leading a rush. He's got poise with the puck on his stick as well.

#16 Tommy Grant - A+

I don't have to say why. It's obvious. A friggin plus ...

#17 Jordan Kwas - A-

Score more goals. Don't quit setting up other players ... the 20 assists were the bomb. But yeah, pop some more in. Jordan is quick, smart and surprisingly strong on the puck in traffic. He's dynamic and unselfish. He could score more goals. He should score more goals. Um ... I'm betting he will score more goals.

#18 Chris Crowell - B+++

Chris gets a B for his effectiveness on the ice. He is strong physical presence when he's on the ice. He isn't nor is he likely to ever be called upon to score. He get's the +++ for all the leadership he provides off the ice.

#19 Nick Haddad - A+

We'll miss ya Nick. Well done. Nuff said ...

#20 Alex Gellert - A-

Alex's offensive stats warrant a B+ as I believe he should have buried a couple more goals than he did. But his play on the defensive side of the ice brings the overall grade up. Alex could be important on the draw next season as the Seawolves will need someone to replace all the face-off wins that Parky stole. Alex should also have a bit of an inside track at one of the top six forward spots to begin the season.

#21 Matt Bailey - A

Matt showed his potential in his rookie season with a very fine 10 goals and 10 assists. After this season Matt is what I'd call a very well rounded hockey player. He is effective no matter what he is asked to do. Next season, he has every potential to be this teams leading scorer.

#22 Drew Darwitz - B-

In two seasons Drew was unfortunately unable to consistently work his way into the lineup. He was better than just adequate in his appearances this season and played particularly well in the last games of the season.

#23 Luka Vidmar - A+

Yep. All the departed Seniors get an A+. It's how it works.

#26 Tyler Currier - A-

Tyler carved himself an excellent niche on the blueline over the course of the season. His energetic play at forward could have been valuable but his stellar defensive play and ability to fill that role when asked was nothing short of tremendous. He didn't just fill in on the blueline. He excelled. And it appeared to me that he got more confident in the role. Good, he should have gotten more confident. Grittiness appreciated too.

#27 Sean Wiles - A+

You guessed it didn't you?

#28 Andrew Pickering - I+

On January 21st, Andrew took a puck to the ear against DU (a slapshot mind you) that split his ear darn near in half. He only appeared in 8 games but things seemed to be looking up in terms of ice time. Incomplete + just means he deserves something for having his freaking ear exploded.

#33 Rob Gunderson - B+

Rob's butterfly style sometimes leaves him vulnerable to getting beat over the shoulder. As he matures he'll naturally learn to stand his ground and challenge shooters. He's got a good glove and is athletic. He handles the puck well. Patience and continued good defensive play in front of Rob will aid his development.

#35 Chris Kamal - B+

Chris has a bit of the same vulnerability to getting beat high when he takes away the ice with his butterfly style. He also has a good glove and is athletic. He more actively handles the puck than Rob. Patience and continued good defensive play will aid his development. I'm expecting both guys will share the duty next season.

#36 Jade Portwood - A+

Jade is only the 2nd returning player I've given an A+. There is one reason for that. He is a workhorse. Or the workhorse. Yeah, the is better than a. From eating up time deep in the opponents zone on a penalty kill, to blocking multiple shots in a shift, to rolling through a cycle and breaking off the wall for a scoring chance ... Jade does it all and he's doing it all the time. He's missed more glorious scoring chances over his career than he's finished. But he's not finished yet.

#38 Dusan Sidor - A+

Because there isn't a successful hockey team anywhere that doesn't have a guy like Dusan. This A+ is not just for him. It's for all those guys.

#40 Daniel Naslund - B

Daniel came a long way in his skating from last year to this season. He's learned to shorten his initial strides and to keep his feet moving. He still has great hands and next year could be an excellent target during power plays.

Thursday Potpourri: Captains, Banquet, Schedule & Tommy Grant

2011-03-31T14:19:00.001-08:00

Four Captains have been named for the 2011-2012 season today by Coach Shyiak. Seniors Brad Gorham, Jade Portwood and juniors Chris Crowell and Scott Warner were selected. Here is the link to the announcement on the GoSeawolves website.

Coach Shyiak is quoted saying,

“I think this leadership group should provide us the same qualities and direction we had with our program this year,”

Congratulations to all four of these respected players on their newly acquired leadership roles for next season.

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The annual End of Season Banquet is scheduled for Wednesday, April 13th at the Captain Cook Hotel in the "Fore Deck". This announcement on the GoSeawolves website has all the details which are pretty evident by reading the above invitation. RSVP's deadline is tomorrow (Friday April 1st).

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The 2011-2012 schedule was announced on Tuesday. The Kendall Classic will feature St. Cloud and Clarkson as well as the Alaska Board of Regents favorite welfare recipient school up north. The tournament that school hosts will feature UNO and Mercyhurst.

Next seasons WCHA teams which UAA plays against 4 times are Duluth, Michigan Tech and Mankato while they play everyone else just twice. This schedule is not yet available on the GoSeawolves website so here's a pic I took so I didn't have to type it all out.

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Last and certainly not least; you're probably all aware that Tommy Grant signed a contract with the NY Rangers on Monday. On Friday the 26th he had initially signed an ATO with the Connecticut Whale. I guess he impressed Rangers management in the first game enough to get a quick upgrade from an ATO to a two-way contract by assisting on both of the Whale's goals in that game.

Here's the release from GoSeawolves website. The reported terms of the deal that he signed is 650K per year when in the NHL and 50K year for the AHL. He should be in action wearing #16 in the Whale's next game on Sunday the 3rd of April.

Congratulations to Tommy and good luck. Here's hoping he tears it up and gets to see some action in "The Show" sooner rather than later.

2011 Seawolves Report Card: Part One

2011-03-28T18:13:00.000-08:00

As in years past it's time for me to weigh in with some grades and comments about the season. Actually, it's past time as I usually get to this earlier. Fortunately, the delay was caused by the team's trip to the Final Five. I'm not one to stick to some pre-formatted standardized grading methodology and every year I've done this, I've done it a bit differently; same thing here. The first caveat is that I'm arriving at these grades subjectively and relatively. What matters here is how I think the team performed in the noted areas based on my expectations as to their potential.

Offense: B

The Seawolves scored 89 goals this season in 37 games for a 2.41 per game average. They did that by averaging 25 shots on goal. These numbers are very close to the totals for 09-10 which were 2.42 goals per game for a total of 87 in 36 games on 24.4 shots per game. This season however the scoring was a bit more balanced with 3 players in double digits compared to 1 last season. Also, 20 players this season found the twine. Last year 17 players managed at least one goal.

The power play accounted for 24 goals this year which was identical to last season's 24. The percentage was increased slightly from 13.1% in 09-10 to 15.1% this year.

Overall there was a slight improvement offensively but I'd add that in the 2nd half of the season the team really looked excellent going forward. Passing was crisp and much improved with tape-to-tape passes completed successfully much more frequently than in the 1st half or last season. Speed in transition was good. That said, there could have been better finishing. I estimate another 10 goals scored at the right times and the Seawolves would have wrapped up a home ice spot and probably had a better than .500 record going into the postseason.

Defense: A+

This season the Seawolves gave up 106 goals compared to 141 last year. That is a dramatic improvement. Spectacular even. In 09-10 the squad gave up 14 shorties to opponents; this season the total was 4. Far fucking out. Really, I said that.

The all-around effort on the backend by the entire squad was nothing short of excellent. It only got better and better and better as the season progressed. I said it somewhere along the line that I'd be surprised to find another Division 1 team that blocked as many shots as our guys. I stand by that wholeheartedly. The level of commitment defensively was as high as any fan could expect to see from their team.

I'm not stranger to hockey games having watched probably at least 1,000 games live and god only knows how many others on TV. And never before did a single team make me more cognizant that there are two ends of the ice in this sport. The defensive schemes used and the execution of those by the players were both exceptional.

Goaltending: B

I'm very high on both Rob Gunderson and Chris Kamal. They both did very well this season and grew into their game as the season progressed. Both guys though I think are a bit vulnerable to being sniped high. That's not a horrible criticism to lay on them as many goaltenders would have problems with some of the really talented scorers in the WCHA. Experience will serve them both well as they each become a little more confident they should both be able to sneak out that extra 12 inches necessary to deny some of those snipers that beat them high this season.

With the criticism out of the way; it must be noted that both of these guys showed good maturity and poise. You want to see a goaltender who is unflappable and both Chris and Rob were pretty damn close to being just that. I'm sure both would credit the guys in front of them for giving them the opportunity to play as they did. Last season, Johhny O and Bryce got bombed all too often by bad defensive breakdowns and got lots less help clearing 2nd chances. There is room for Rob and Chris to step up their games and that's how it should be for rookies.

Coaching Staff: B+

Last season I gave the staff a C-. I would have given them an A this year but for the lack of power play production. The penalty kill was great at 84.9% for the season. The transition game was smart. The defensive structure was fantastic. Breakouts were sharp and confident. The team was ready to play every game it seemed. Last year there were nights they didn't seem prepared.

While I recognize that coaches can't finish for the players they've got to implement a power play system that produces. So here's where I get to rail against the umbrella power play. I know I'll sound a bit old school when the fact is that the umbrella system is favored by so so many coaches and is virtually the only setup you'll see at the NHL level. But it ain't getting it done.

There was a time when power play goals got scored by methods other than wicked first timers from high in the slot and rebounds banged home. Remember when guys would set up down low and find open back doors? I know, I know ... penalty killing in the WCHA is ultra-aggressive but jeez other teams find a way to score more than 15% of the time. Maybe it's just personnel? I dunno.

Summary:

There was a shitload to be happy about this season. Lots of that came in the 2nd half and especially in the stretch run. But that is slightly tempered by a first half where the record was 5-10-3. Granted that the lineup included a lot of rookies seeing their first action and that 9 of those 10 losses were essentially one goal games. Nevertheless, it is what it is.

That said, there is so much quality in the 2nd half that will carry over to next season. Again, the team will be younger than it is experienced but with leadership from the upperclassmen like we saw this year there is every reason to expect to have more success than we saw this year. This is a team that is trending upward and the future looks bright.

That whole "playing for each other" pervasive team attitude was beautiful wasn't it? I hope the guys are all proud of each other and that positive attitude continues. If it does, then we'll see something very special down the line.

I'll have individual player report cards in the next day or so as I get time to get to them. But let me finish with an email that Dr. Cobb shared from a family in Minnesota regarding their experience with the Seawolves during the Final Five.

Mr. Cobb,
I would like to take the time to congratulate your hockey team on a fine season. During the Final Five games on Friday in Minneapolis, I was at the game with my sons and their hockey team. Sitting close by were a few players from the UAA team who were watching the game. During the intermission, our players went over to talk with the players from Alaska. The college players did not brush off the young players but instead talked to them and even signed autographs for the young players. This has a huge impact on the young guys who went back to the hotel that night and while playing knee hockey were the Alaska Team when they played even taking on the names of the players. This is a positive reflection on your University, program, and those players who made a difference in the lives of those young players.

Too often we hear the bad things about athletes and do not get to acknowledge the positive. I just wanted to pass this along to you and say thank you to the players. As a parent and a coach, I appreciate those players taking the time to entertain the younger players and create heroes for them. Those kids will not forget this and neither will the parents.
Sincerely,
P. O.
Worthington, Minnesota

Awesome stuff Seawolves. Way to represent. Thank you all for an enjoyable season and congratulations on all your accomplishments.

UAA Hockey Arena: My Penultimate Words

2011-03-23T15:19:00.002-08:00

Let's talk about arenas shall we? I don't really want to but there's a hubbub. It's not something I'm fond of doing as my blogging style lends itself more to the rant & rave milieux. Getting a dumb parking ticket at the University while trying to delve into the whole issue doesn't exactly get my juices flowing so expect this to be my personal next to last words on the subject. My last words with regard to arenas will be an announcement of an on campus standalone arena for UAA Hockey. I will now endeavor to simplify the process here for everyone's mutual benefit and edification.

Here's the relevant links to catch everyone up as to the points of discussion. Click them, read and listen before proceeding. Eric Tuott wrote a Compass piece in the ADN which I highlighted here. As a follow-up he appeared on KENI's Mike Porcaro radio show last Friday to discuss the issues. Dr. Cobb appeared on the same show yesterday also discussing the issues. And there's also been a bit of commentary here on the blog.

And that's where we are. Allow me to start here by stating the primary goal; an on campus standalone arena for UAA hockey. It has been my preference for years and years now and I think everyone else's as well. So ... Can we stipulate that? I sure hope so. I can't imagine a supporter of the UAA Hockey program that wants something less than that. With that in mind the other concepts floating around are simply less than satisfactory. Right? Refurbishing and upgrading the Sullivan Arena clearly doesn't meet the goal. And redesigning the existing proposed SCFEBH (Sports Center For Everything But Hockey) doesn't either. Right?

Ok, now that we're all agreed (and of course, if you don't agree with that basic premise ... say so in the comments section), how exactly do we get what we want? Should we all email the UAA Administration? No. They want the same thing. Nobody at UAA wants anything less. Repeat. Nobody at UAA wants anything less than an on campus standalone quality facility for UAA Hockey to play their home games. Nobody. Not the players, not the coaching staff, not Athletic Director Dr. Steve Cobb, not his boss Director of Administration Bill Spindle nor his bosses Chancellor Case or even his boss President Pat Gamble ... they ALL want and are working for exactly that ... an on campus standalone hockey arena. Repeating for emphasis ... nobody at UAA wants anything less. If you think they do ... you are wrong. Sorry.

So who makes shit happen at the University? Two bodies ... the University Of Alaska Board of Regents and the State of Alaska Legislature. I'm not going to bother today to provide you all with email addresses to your state legislators. As involved citizens you should already know those or at least know how to find them. But I am going to give you the names, email addresses and phone numbers of each and every Regent below. If you want to make something happen (um ... like a standalone on campus hockey rink for UAA) then this is the place to start.

Timothy Brady
tbrady@kenbrady.com
(907)243-4604

Ashton Compton
amcompton@alaska.edu
(907)723-2213

Fuller Cowell
fcowell@gci.net
(907)345-7079

Kenneth Fisher
oldfarmers@msn.com
(907)523-0800

Jyotsna Heckman
jlheckman2@alaska.edu
(907)458-4222

Mary K. Hughes
mkhughes@acsalaska.net
(907)274-6290

Patricia Jacobson
patjacobson1@mac.com
(907)486-3954

Carl Marrs
marco077@gmail.com
(907)339-7214

Robert Martin
rngmartin@gci.net
(907)789-7157

Michael Powers
mpowers7@alaska.edu
(907)458-5316

Kirk Wickersham
kirkwickersham@gmail.com
(907)561-3726

There it is folks. Above are the people you need to contact, lobby, pressure, harass, cajole, push and/or light fire under to move forward toward getting a standalone on campus hockey arena for UAA. These are the movers and shakers that determine what priorities are addressed with regard to capital projects within the University system.

Now that said, I'm sure lots of you are skeptical about the Board of Regents. Like you, I've seen them time and again favor the the Fairbanks campus with projects while ignoring the larger Anchorage campus' needs. Well guess what? They respond to public pressure. Even if they are (and I'm not proposing this is the case) biased with regard to UAF ... they cannot ignore a continuous stream of contact from a large group of people demanding that a long standing problem be rectified appropriately.

So if you really want a standalone on campus hockey arena for UAA ... then you know what to do. Talking about it below, emailing folks at UAA and/or commenting on Compass pieces at the ADN ain't gonna do shit. The UAA Hockey program deserves nothing less than a quality standalone on campus hockey arena.

Sunday Potpourri: Simple Math, Peluso and Thankys

2011-03-20T13:25:00.000-08:00

With the end of the various conference tournaments yesterday, good mathematics places the Seawolves as the 17th best Division I team out of 58. Bad mathematics places the Seawolves as the 20th best team. Good mathematics says the Seawolves played the 2nd most difficult schedule of all teams. Bad mathematics agrees.

The Seawolves were mathematically better than a fair number of traditionally high finishing or higher profile programs such as, St. Cloud, Maine, BU, Michigan State, Cornell, Northern Michigan and Ohio State among others. The fifteenth and sixteenth teams just ahead of UAA? Minnesota and Wisconsin. UAA's most frequent opponent this season was CC and they finished mathematically in the 13 hole.

There are two ways to look at the fianl league standings in my mind. One is to be happy that a team which wasn't expected by many to do that well, did pretty well. The Seawolves finished with 26 points which was just two short of hosting a first round WCHA playoff series. In their last 19 games they compiled an 11 win and 8 loss record.

Playing well at the end of the season is something every team in this league strives to accomplish. And the Seawolves can be proud of themselves for doing so. They went 5-1 over their last six games and none of those games was on home ice. That's far from anything to sneeze at regardless of the league opponent.

The second way to look at the season is to think what might have been. Had the Seawolves just won three more games they might have hosted a WCHA first round playoff series and possibly been in the NCAA tournament. The first of those three was the early season tournament game against Union. The Seawolves spotted them 3 goals in the first 13 minutes before coming back to even the game with just over 13 minutes remaining, then giving up the game winner with about two and a half minutes remaining. Due to Unions good record through the rest of the season, if UAA had won that game the factors in the math would have been beneficial to the Seawolves. Non-conference games are VERY important.

There were multiple WCHA games where the Seawolves essentially lost their chance at hosting home ice. The 3-2 home ice loss on a Friday and the 2-2 tie the following night versus Mankato jump out of the schedule at me. A 4-3 loss against St. Cloud at home and the 2-2 tie against DU at home also loom large in the WCHA standings race.

But more importantly than the standings and rankings; this team learned valuable lessons for next season and established themselves as a team to take seriously next season in the bid for home ice in the WCHA playoffs. And the staff honed a strategy that will serve the the team well going forward. Next season, the squad will have 19 returning skaters with only two of those guys not having gotten a decent amount of ice time this season.

It'll only be a small group of seniors to lead but 8 juniors will round out the upperclassmen and bring leadership. 8 sophomores will contribute their experience to the underclassmen side of the equation with what looks to be overall a damn fine group of freshman. And damn fine may be understating that a bit.

There can be little doubt that this years squad took a nice sized step forward which makes next season's outlook fairly bright indeed. There'll be nobody looking past the Seawolves next year.

A valid question each off-season is whether or not the returning roster will look exactly as it does at the end of the year. In other words, we gonna lose anyone we aren't expecting to lose? It's always a possibility I suppose. Looking up and down the roster, nothing jumps out at me. But last year nothing jumped out at me and Lee Baldwin jumped unexpectedly.

You can never be certain, personal decisions by individual players can't really be anticipated. But for now, there's no reason to think that any specific player expected to return won't do so. Let's just cross our fingers I suppose that things remain as they are. It's obviously a very tight group of guys and any unexpected losses would be a shame.

Speaking of shame. An average of 3319 folks turned up to watch the 17th best team in all of Division I hockey play each game this season at the Sullivan. That's 53.5% of capacity and 22nd overall out of 58 teams. Shitty programs like Massachusetts, Mankato, Ohio State, Vermont, Bemidji, Mass-Lowell and Cornell put more butts in seats than the Seawolves fans. Hell, even UAF put 3118 in their crappy metal shed every night.

I think that flat out sucks. Lots of people blame the program for bad marketing. I don't think any amount of good marketing would have changed that number much. Winning is supposed to take care of it. But the 2nd half had only one decent sized crowd that I recall.

There was a buzz in the city at the end of the season and had we gotten that much coveted home ice spot, I'm sure the building would have sold out with no problem. I wouldn't have considered that any big deal. I would consider it a big deal if the regular season attendance would get up to where it really should be. At least 5K every home game. And that's at least. If little bergs like St. Cloud, Grand Forks, Colorado Springs and fucking Bemidji can fill their rinks then an alleged "hockey town" like Anchorage sure as shit ought to be doing it as well.

So go slap your neighbors for not turning out. This program and the players deserve far better treatment from hockey fans in this town. And I'm not talking about the fight fans that show up for the Aces. I'm talking about people that know the game. If you take the time to compare "NHL prospects" that show up at Sullivan Arena over the course of the season. There are more playing in the WCHA than the ECHL. The college game is faster, more exiciting and doesn't turn into gong show bullshit ever.

_________________________

Best of luck to the seniors leaving the squad. We didn't get to see Kane Lafranchise play this season but he's landed on his feet and is doing well with the Aces since joining them. We will follow with great interest to see what the hockey world has in store for Grant, Parky, Haddad, Vidmar and Wiles. If you missed my Senior Tributes to these guys then click on their linked names above to do so.

_________________________

There's still time for you to lend your voice to the efforts to have Mike Peluso's #24 jersey retired by the Seawolves program. The HOF committee accepts nominations through the end of the month. Just email committee chairman Chris Green ... chrisgreen@uaa.alaska.edu ... to add your voice. I know many UAA fans have already done so. I know also some hockey fans in Minnesota added their voices to this effort so I want to thank them as well.

Peluso is a guy that added great honor to the program through his accomplishments as a professional. He is the only Seawolves alum with his name on the Stanley Cup and is likely to be the only 4 year UAA player to achieve that for quite some time to come.

Yes, Curtis Glencross, Jay Beagle and perhaps Nathan Lawson might all accomplish it one day; but none of those guys were four year players were they? Beagle and Glencross played for two years each here and hence my pride in them as alums just isn't the same. Nathan Lawson played here for three and so I've got a little bit bigger place in my fan heart for him.

If there is anything that I accomplish through this blog that brings me a higher level of pride than helping to have Big Mike's number retired, I just can't think of it. So please, add your voice to the effort if you haven't.

_________________________

As a follow-up to his piece that ran in the ADN last week regarding putting ice in the proposed new campus sports arena Eric Tuott was on Mike Porcaro's radio show on KENI on Friday. You can listen to the podcast by clicking this link. The show is an hour + in length and Eric's portion begins at minute 34.

Give it a listen. We all know that the best solution for UAA Hockey is to get out of the Sullivan Arena and get our boys playing on the campus. Eric's solution isn't the optimum solution. Honestly, it falls a bit short of what we really need. But that said, it's a big step forward from anything that looks like it will happen as things are now.

The optimum solution was killed off a few years ago. Another good solution was ignored by the UAA administration in favor of whatever grand plan the muckety-mucks see as a future solution. They are happy to maintain the status quo of playing at the Sully until they can politically wrangle their apparently secret grand plan into action.

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I want to take a moment here and once again thank everyone who donated to the effort here on the blog this season. My enjoyment in writing here and maintaining this blog is greatly enhanced when I know that it's appreciated. In general, the numbers of readers I see coming here helps me achieve satisfaction but honestly, getting some compensation for the time I spend doing it is a big deal to me. It's a great gauge for me as to how you readers feel about the efforts.

I haven't decided how best to move forward and may or may not make what I consider major changes going into next season. We'll see, I'm going to try to evaluate how best to provide the content and still achieve some compensatory feedback. I'm considering a number of ways to do that. The "donation model" I currently use has some serious drawbacks in my mind. I'm averse to putting advertising here but I suspect if I did it would have been close to matching the donation total. Of course, putting advertising (depending on the methodology) could be more work for me.

Of the $1167.00 total you see there are a couple of readers who made up more than 20% of the total with their dual generosity. I like the "community mindedness" of the donation effort but am less than thrilled with it's results. Don't get me wrong, I am deeply appreciative of every penny that was contributed. But only 29 people "chipped in". I assume that there are at least 200 regular daily readers here. So does that mean 171 people just don't care? I guess I'm not sure. I read stuff on the internet that I'm thankful for and don't click donate buttons either ... so there's that.

I hope none of that sounds ungrateful. I'm thrilled with the overall community as it's grown this season. The number of different folks participating here is great. Any changes I make in the future will take into consideration maximizing reader participation. I recognize that the current structure of posting here sometimes interrupts the flow of that participation. One new post often kills a conversation on the previous post so I'll make some sort of effort to alleviate that.

________________________

Lastly today, I want to thank JJ for coming on board and bringing us the nightly post game interviews. Just from my perspective as a fan, it's great to get to see what the guys and the coach have to say after a game. As far as I'm concerned he's a natural at the interviews. It adds hugely to the blog content and for that I'd like to find some way to more personally thank him ... and I will do that for you JJ; you have my word.

Thanks also to the staff at the UAA Atheletic Dept for their assistance in making the blog go well this season. In particular Dallas Baldwin, Jane Pallister and Dr. Cobb for their information and help whenever a question needed an answer and/or some special arrangement for "this or that" was needed.

And as always, thanks to Richard Leary for all his efforts in supporting me and JJ. Richard is "The Man". Thanks also to all those other volunteers that make things go at the rink. The Blueliners as usual did a great job with their end of things.

Season Ends With Tough 4-2 Loss To CC

2011-03-17T19:59:00.001-08:00

A perhaps forgotten bit of a plague from the first half of the season overtook the Seawolves tonight early in their Final Five game against CC. Then later they found themselves playing against some sort of mirror image of themselves. Scoring chance after scoring chance went unfulfilled for more than a few guys.

Great efforts, smart passing and creative plays resulted in only a goose egg in a 1st period where they virtually tilted the ice in their favor. But with a 2-0 lead CC was able to play a bit like the Seawolves in their own end and for the game blocked quite a few more shots than UAA especially in the later stages.

Not finishing might not have doomed the boys except there was this other team on the ice that used opportunism (a strength for the Seawolves in so many games this season) to build a 2-0 lead. Mind you, the game certainly wasn't over at the end of the 1st period. And even when a shot that would have sailed wide otherwise clipped Craig Parkinson's skate 12 inches off the ice and bounded into the net making it 3-0, the game wasn't over. The Seawolves played valiantly all night long and deserve so much credit for not giving up on the game.

At the 14:57 mark of the 2nd they finally got on the board when Mickey Spencer sweetly tipped a Quinn Sproule shot on the power play to make the score 3-1. Much like the 1st period the Seawolves efforts in the 2nd gave them some territorial advantage as well as nice scoring chances. Alas, none of those quality chances found their way into the back of the net. Then came the back-breaker. With just 18 seconds in the period, CC scored their first "honest" goal of the night to make it 4-1. The Black Bears first two goals weren't flukey, so by not labeling them "honest", I just mean that they were the result of good bounces and opportunistic positioning by the scorers.

That's hockey though. Sometimes no matter how hard a team plays and/or even outplays their opponent the result doesn't favor them. Credit CC for getting the job done on their scoring chances. This year saw the Seawolves in that very same position leading to some victories. It is what it is. The game of hockey. There's at least 5 Seawolves sitting somewhere right now who'll have nightmares about not finishing some really glorious chances.

Chris Kamal and Rob Gunderson (in relief) did their jobs well enough. Neither can be expected to be a superman. I wouldn't want to use some trite phrase like "they were just human". Their play was good. But the game sort of "got away" from the whole team tonight. Not in the sense that they were out of contention but instead just that because they lacked finishing a comeback just wasn't going to happen.

It was a valiant effort. I'm very comfortable saying that. Brave would be apt as well. I could see how much of their hearts they were pouring into out there tonight. Sad blogger is pretty sad but I'm also proud of their character. I'm proud of what they accomplished in the 2nd half of the season. I'm proud of the growth they had from the beginning of the season when inconsistency and flashes of brilliance were intermixed. They learned to play within themselves exceptionally well and live up to their potential as a team and showed important progress game by game. It is something that should serve them all very well next year.

It's goodbye to Tommy Grant, Craig Parkinson, Nick Haddad, Sean Wiles and Luka Vidmar for us fans. We'll all miss each of these guys in our own different ways next season. Yet at the same time, there's got to be lots of optimism about 2011-2012. Congratulations to all for building something you can be proud of as well as build on next year.

I have some things planned to wrap up the season here on the blog that I normally do each year. I'm not in any particular hurry to wrap things up here but that said, I am ready to step away from the keyboard. I so plan for my off-season posting to be pretty light. Before I take a pause there'll be some report cards, blog awards and a staff evaluation. I'll of course let everyone know about any news worthy events.

Game Day: WCHA Final Five versus CC

2011-03-17T11:37:00.003-08:00

Here's a video from the UAA Seawolves Hockey Facebook page that was just posted by Dallas Baldwin. I "ripped" it from Facebook and uploaded it to YouTube so I could embed it here. Today's lines are posted below. Make sure you follow the above link to the Seawolves Facebook page to see the two other videos Dallas posted today including Campbell Blair talking about the team. And keep checking it (as I will) throughout the weekend as the Seawolves progress through this tournament.

Go Seawolves!!!

Game One Of WCHA Final Five: A Preview

2011-03-16T16:35:00.000-08:00

I have mentally struggled today to gain a handle on writing this preview; for a number of reasons. The first being that every regular reader here has pretty much got to be up to speed on tomorrow's opponent. There really isn't much that I can offer in the way of new information. Secondly, nobody really needs me to say that this game is a big deal.

Also, what more needs to be said about the tactics and strategy that the Seawolves will utilize tomorrow? Even less than full time readers here should know what's up with that. And I'm not going to go out of my way to write something for the 400 extra people reading this who've suddenly become fascinated with the Seawolves. And yeah, the audience here is double this week what it might otherwise be. But, I'm writing for you guys that have been here all year.

So this will just be what it is.

College Hockey News has a feature on Chris Kamal. Had I not seen, linked to and posted the vastly superior one from SI last week then I would have made an explicit entry regarding it. As "White Beard" mentioned in the previous comment string. Chris' story is a natural for media outlets. Too bad CHN writer Joshua Berhow didn't read the SI piece though; if he had then a couple of errors might have been avoided. Otherwise, it's good press of course for the program.

USCHO "writer" (loosely used term) Tyler Buckentine has for the first time this season strung together more than 3 sentences in a row regarding the Seawolves in this preview. I can't imagine I'm wrong in assuming this dude is as much a Mankato fan as I am a Seawolves fan. Not only did Mankato get an excessive amount of play in his column this year, note the complete exclusion of that recent and crucial series in the current entry describing UAA's run to this tournament.

I'm trying to not be too critical here. But some cursory familiarity with this program at times other than when they've become some sort of "media darling" should be expected from these alleged "national" outlets. Well, I suppose it shouldn't be a big surprise to me when we can't even get the local media guy to get behind the program. That all said, here's a another submission from Kurt "on-the-spot" Haider who's knowledge of, perspective about and dedication to the program exceeds mine.

Hi Donald-
Day-before-the-game-update:

After an upbeat, spirited practice this afternoon at the Ridder, the Seawolves are now in St. Paul at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, just a few blocks from the Xcel Energy Center.

After practice, it was a short bus ride from the UM campus, then the team dropped off their equipment at the Xcel and had a look around. Lots of picture-taking from the benches. I told some of them the story of the 2004 team...the upset of Wisconsin in the first round, then knocking off Colorado College in the Thursday play-in game.

Curtis Glencross, Chris King, Chris Fournier and the gang. Told them about the Glencross goal against Duluth that pretty much sealed the deal for his departure to the pros. (Remember? Deep slot, turn-around clapper that went top-shelf and left the crowd with dropped jaws! At least I think I remember it happening that way...?!)

The crowd here in St. Paul kinda adopted the Seawolves...and it was fun. Hope they do again this time.

Anyway, good to be here. Running into familiar people already as this is "tournament central". Big game tomorrow...boys are narrowing the focus, and I have a good feeling about this. We are playing so well as a team.

They'll get 45 minutes of pre-game ice at noon (MN time) tomorrow...gametime 7:07pm. (4:07pm AK)
That's it for now-
Kurt

Kurt's memory of Glencross' jaw dropping ripper from the high slot is also mine. I'm dead curious to hear/see the exact mix of the crowd tomorrow in terms of adopting our boys. I'm quite sure though that it will be sufficient to keep them energized. Maybe we'll even hear a U-A-A, U-A-A, U-A-A chant or two eh? Should be exciting. My deep appreciation to Kurt for the submission. I say he'd be the perfect addition to the blog and that we should draft him to become a regular here.

In closing today, I am managing to keep my keel even as best as possible here. I'm dying to write some flowery inspired piece about being a fan of this program and how this group of players is this and that to me and all of the other dedicated UAA fans. I'm tempering such a thing though in quiet hopeful expectation that it will be more appropriate next week.

So give em hell guys. Play with the maturity and confidence we've already seen. Give it up for the guy next to you and stay focused. Support each other and be the "TEAM" that you have become and I have every reason to expect to see you playing UND on Friday night.

Go Seawolves!!!

On The Road With Kurt Haider

2011-03-15T16:33:00.000-08:00

We're graced with another excellent and unsolicited contribution this afternoon from the man with the best play by play call and voice in the WCHA, the inimitable Kurt Haider. Thank you Kurt for the update about the goings on.

I encourage everyone to read the submission below with Kurt's voice inside your head. I did and it' was wonderfully eerie.

Hi Donald-
Thought I'd toss you a quick note from Minneapolis since I'm killin' and chillin' before we head to St. Paul tomorrow. Like the team, I stayed outside too because of the unbelievably expensive airline ticket prices. Did I hear 1,800 bucks RT? Got my ticket to Mpls just before the Mankato series and it was already 1,200. My son is in Europe this week...his RT was 650 dollars. Just sayin'...

Just got back from watching practice over at the Ridder Arena (next to and attached to the Mariucci) and the boys look good...lots of focus, lots of intensity, lots of fun. The coaches are fine-tuning for the weekend, and they've got a captive audience. Bailey is here and practiced today...I don't know if he'll be in the lineup Thursday.

Absolutely no fluke that UAA is in the Final Five (games, that is...six teams). The Seawolves in those two first-round games against Minnesota were well-prepared and the better team. Down the stretch, the 'Wolves have played great hockey.

Should be a great game Thursday with Colorado College.

Speaking of that game, a reminder that 550 KTZN the Zone will be broadcasting the game live from the Xcel Center. I say that because Doyle has blogged that the game will be available on live TV, but made no mention of radio. I'll be on with the pre-game show around 3:45pm or so...puck drops at 4:07pm AK time.

Nice to hear you today on the conference call...you sounded like a real journalist! :)

That's it for now-
Kurt Haider

I obviously misinterpreted Coach Shyiak's reference to practicing on campus as skating at Mariucci so I don't think any "real journalists" are in any danger of me usurping their vaunted profession any time soon.

I know I don't appreciate Kurt's efforts here on the blog enough nor do I get the chance to listen to his call of the game as frequently as I should. That's just my laziness at being so willing to accept whatever the TV is spewing at me. It's also just plain dumb for me to sit there and listen to some of the grotesquely homeristic announcing from some of these other WCHA cities.

Looks like I'll be having to retire my ancient Motorola Flip Phone in the next week or so. So I'll look into the "radio" feature that some of them have and endeavor to maximize my exposure to Kurt in the future.

Now for a word about my picture selection with this post. I did this post back in 2007 here which was an email Q & A with Kurt. I couldn't find a pic of him on the Internet or at the radio station website; so I just used that one since I had it and was waiting for any excuse to use it. Now, if you go to Google and use the image search feature and type "Kurt Haider" ... this is the very first image returned.

I doubt Mrs. Haider finds that humorous but with apologies to her, I'm finding it quite funny. I have relabeled the picture this time though in an effort to dissuade the Google search engine. It is now titled "Not Kurt Haider.jpg" instead of "hockey04.jpg".