Wisconsin 4 - Seawolves 0

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.  

UAA/MTU: Friday Night Photos and Recap

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

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 Take Game One 4-3 Over Gophers

Tonight's game had a little bit of everything for a Seawolves fan.  A great opening period and a half where they built a 3-0 lead by playing a great defensive game had me pumped and full of confidence for a win.  Then 16 seconds changed everything and I was about as anxious regarding an outcome as I have ever been.  When the Gophers tied it at 3-3 that anxiety ramped up another notch.

Kamal Featured In SI: Young Goaltenders

Seawolves goaltender Chris Kamal is featured today at the Sports Illustrated website in this article by Darren Eliot in his "View From The Ice" column.  Darren details Chris' achievements this season as well as his pre-UAA goaltending background with which you may or may not be familiar.

Chris Kamal: 2nd WCHA Rookie of the Week Award

Seawolves goaltender Chris Kamal was honored for the 2nd time in 5 weeks as the WCHA Rookie Of The Week award winner.  This past weekend Chris led the Seawolves in a regular season ending series sweep of Mankato.  He also earned the honor back on February 1st following his shutout of this weekends playoff opponent the Minnesota Gophers.  Chris shares this weeks honor with Gopher rookie Nick Bjugstad to complete an interesting circle of synergy. 

Seawolves Sweep Mankato With 4-1 Saturday Win

Tonight's game looked much like last nights in terms of energy and flow.  The Seawolves though overcame a poorly played 2nd period tonight.  Chris Kamal came up big more often tonight than on Friday in my view.  He may have given up a goal tonight but at least there's a nice backstory on that one.  I'm posting this now and will continue to update as the outcome of the DU and SCSU game is still in question and UAA's playoff trip is still in doubt.

Mankato "Dominates" Seawolves And Loses 4 - 0

A good drinking game tonight while watching the game would have been to take a shot everytime the Mankato TV announcing crew referenced how MSU was "dominating" the Seawolves.  If it wasn't for my Dad getting pissed off about such references it would have been funny; and of course we both would have ended up drunk as monkeys.

Step Two: Tied For 6th Now, Eh?

Sean Wiles scored a couple of pretty goals tonight for the Seawolves.  It was a nice way for him to get back into form after a fairly long goal scoring drought.  Wrapping up the sweep and getting the 4 points was good news for the Seawolves.  Again, tonight's game was an all-around team effort.  Everybody on the ice for UAA contributed positively.

Chris Kamal Named WCHA Rookie of the Week

Coming off his stellar Saturday night performance, Chris Kamal today was named the Western College Hockey Association's Rookie of the Week.  Chris' performance keyed a 1-0 victory over the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers and was the first shutout of his career.

Seawolves Frustrate Gophers To Win 1-0

Well that was quite the different game from last night wasn't it?  At 1:28 of the 3rd period, Matt Bailey buried one of the few really unchallenged shots that the Seawolves got tonight by beating Patterson clean and high on the blocker side.  The Seawolves had opened the 3rd with excellent energy at one point outshooting the Gophers 7-2.

Seawolves Win In OT 3-2

Mitch Bruijsten somehow found a ping ponging puck in a mess of bodies with 1:26 left in OT to give the Seawolves a much needed win tonight.  It was the Seawolves first real chance in the overtime as St. Cloud had prevented them from getting deep in the zone while manufacturing their own attempts to win the game.

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.