Kozun Rookie of the Week; Cameron Suspended One Game

It's a mixed bag of good and bad news today for the Seawolves.  The WCHA announced it's players of the week and Tad Kozun got the nod as Rookie of the Week for the league.  The WCHA also announced that Brett Cameron is suspended for one game for his hit on Wisconsin's Tim Davison.  Both of Kozun's goals and the Cameron hit can be viewed on the previous post here.

Seawolves vs. Western Ontario Recap

It was a big scoring night for the Seawolves in their exhibition versus Western Ontario tallying 8 goals. Brett Cameron and Hayden Trupp led the way with 2 each.  Zach Rassell, Austin Azurdia,  Scott Allen and Anthony Conti all added one each.  It was a real crisp performance all around from all the guys on both ends of the ice. Passing was clean, everything looked pretty sharp.  There was a lot to like and not much to not like.  

What I Love About Our Seniors

As is almost always the case in NCAA Division 1 Hockey, upperclassmen are the key to success for each program.  Every team of the 59 will live and die based on the performances of their returning players.  Once in a while a Thomas Vanek shows up and destroys the paradigm I've just established.  But that's so so rare as to not consider it a real factor.  This year's Seawolves' success will be based on what our veterans produce.  And as a whole, I'm pretty stoked about the potential.  Lemme splain why and how I love our vets …

2011-2012 Sophomore Class

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.

Seawolves 4 - UAF 1

The Seawolves tonight came out with the fire and emotion that is necessary to win a game against their biggest rival.  For the first 20 minutes of this game they were super sharp.  They executed pinpoint passing and scored three beautiful goals to leave no doubt as to which team would come out with the W.

Seawolves 3 - UNO 2

The Seawolves tonight hit nearly all the targets in their gameplan that were necessary to get an important win over UNO.  They got the scoring they need from Tommy Grant and Sean Wiles who both hadn't been producing at expected rates.  They held UNO to under 25 shots for the game by blocking shitloads (20) of shots.  They got solid goaltending from Rob Gunderson.  They won the face off battle 33-27 led by Craig Parkinson who went 16-11 on the night.  Their penalty kill delivered.  And finally their execution was mostly solid in all areas of the ice.  When you put all those factors together you get success.

Seawolves Take 1st Game With Bemidji 5-4

Naslund looks for a rebound ... photo credit BSU Website ...

Don't let the score fool you.  The Beaver's scored two goals tonight.  A crazy fluke goal just 27 into the game gave the Beaver's their first goal of the night.  Just 15 seconds later they scored their first goal of the night.  Thirty-five seconds later the Seawolves scored their 2nd goal of the night to make the score 2-1 in favor of the Beaver.  Um ... Whut?

The 2010-2011 UAA Seawolves Freshman Class

This group of freshman players is one of the larger classes of rookies that we'll typically see coming into our beloved program.  At this hopeful time of year, there are a couple of positives that could or should come out of having this many freshman players.  The 1st is simply that every one of these players will be competing for playing time.  The 2nd is that the bigger stable you have the more likely you'll find a horse that can really run.

Which of these guys could be one of those horses is hard to predict.  Maybe they can all really run.  Odds are though that not all of them will shine right away, if at all.  There is a lot depending on finding some gems here.  On any given night, the Seawolves goaltender is going to be a freshman.  And let's face it, the seniors, juniors and sophomores are going to need some assistance in the scoring department.