Winning Saturday is the Better End of a Split

Never doubt that your favorite Seawolves blogger knows how to have a good time.  A win or a loss certainly doesn't dictate that eventuality.  That said (yes it's an overused phrase), enjoying yourself after a nice win certainly has it's advantages over enjoying yourself after a loss.  And let's be honest here ... I should have said "another" loss.  Anyway, I'm currently in the first referenced state of mind.

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: Saturday Thoughts

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?

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.

Seawolves 3 - Red Mavs 0

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.

Season Ends With Tough 4-2 Loss To CC

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.

Seawolves Advance To Final Five

The sum of the parts is greater than the whole.  Combined with Friday night's win over the Gophers, tonight the Seawolves have now made that phrase their trademark.  Both wins were created by the selfless defensive play of everyone on the ice.  Chris Kamal was certainly excellent in both of these games but I've not seen a team full of hockey players commit themselves in their own zone in any way shape or form like this years squad has been doing and continued to do this weekend.

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.

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.

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.

Seven Seconds Determine Outcome

No doubt Brad Gorham would trade his first goal in a Seawolves uniform for a win tonight.  But after he tallied just 25 seconds into the game, the team was unable to find the twine again.  Couple that with a meltdown of sorts in the third period and at least the misery of riding home on an airplane after a loss was pretty short.

Dean "Goon" Blais Outsmarts More Referees

Color me completely and utterly lacking in surprise that a Dean "Oggietorp" Blais coached hockey team would be the stick happiest, slashingest hackers that I've seen on a WCHA hockey rink this season.  I thought Friday night's game UNO initiated a fair bit of chippy bullshit ... but tonight that was doubled.

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 1 - UND 6

The Seawolves were hoping to get a foothold on the inside track to a home ice playoff bid but instead they were downed 6-1 in a game who's score both did and didn't reflect the quality of the play on the ice.  UND fully deserved all the goals they scored.  The Seawolves however probably deserved to have gotten a couple more.  Dell came up real solid for UND on multiple scoring chances in the first period.  And UND finished theirs.

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.

Step One: 2 Points On Friday Night

Curtis Leinweber put two pucks home tonight to lead the Seawolves in a 4-1 win over Michigan Tech.  Wes McLeod and Craig Parkinson both added goals to round out the scoring.  The Seawolves had multiple scoring chances early in the game including a Vidmar shot that rang loudly off the crossbar.

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.

Not The Best Outing Ever

The title of this post says a lot.  The Seawolves tonight came out a bit flat and after going down 2-0 early never really looked particularly threatening in terms of getting back into the game.  Mitch Bruijsten did cut the lead to 2-1 on a heads up play pulling a loose puck away from the crease, going behind the net with it and wrapping it around late in the 1st period for the only goal.

UAA Takes It On The Chin 5-1

Tell me that ain't Gwoz ...

It's pretty rare you see a hockey team that basically outworked and outplayed an opponent lose by 5-1.  That's what I saw tonight.  Tonight's game for me came down to a contest of chances finishing.  The Seawolves finished only one of their many many chances.  DU finished most of their chances.  Game over. Nutshell.  Finis.  End of story.  That's all she rolls.  The fat lady sung.