Seawolves Give Blogger Heartburn

The experience of watching UAA defeat defending champion Wisconsin tonight gave me heartburn. If every game turned out like this one I'd have to pony up for some Prilosec but luckily I've got a phat bottle of Tums Ultra here at home. The squad played well in most every facet of the game. Lawson was very solid in the crease and got excellent support when he needed it. Justin Bourne not only got a game winner in the 3rd period on a wraparound he also made a save on a Wisconsin wraparound chance in the 2nd period. Those two plays alone would have made him the 1st star of the game but just as he did last night, Justin contributed at both ends. There were no even strength goals in the game as the Seawolves did an excellent job limiting Bucky to 1 of 5 and managed 2 goals on their 4 power plays.

In the 1st period the Badgers managed just 6 shots on the chart but I only counted 5 (4 on their 3 power plays; 1 at even strength). UAA dominated the first period. It was just that simple but found themselves down 1-0 when Wisconsin scored at 19:00 while Kevin Clark was in the box for slashing (Coach Shyiak called it a selfish penalty). As a result he spent the rest of the night opening the gate on the bench. The 2nd period was much more even with both teams generating periods of dominance in the others zone. Cap'n Kronch's goal at 11:35 on the PP was a beaut beating Elliott high on the glove side from the top of the slot. Bourne's game winner came :33 seconds into the 3rd when a good wraparound effort resulted in a soft trickler through Elliott's five hole. UAA didn't sit back to protect the lead until there was about 5 minutes left in the game when the forecheck was lessened and three players stayed on the blueline. UAA killed off the 2 power play chances that Wisconsin had in the 3rd. Looks to me that Campbell Blair's efforts are paying dividends. The PK was excellent all night.

This victory was keyed by the upperclassmen. Justin Bourne, Peter Cartwright, Nick Lowe, Charlie Kronschnabel, Chris Tarkir and Merit Waldrop all led with their nonstop efforts. Ken Selby saw the most action he's seen as a freshman this weekend and accounted well for himself. Jared Tuton dished out more punishment with big hits all night and created much havoc in the Wisconsin zone. Josh Lunden and Paul Crowder continued their excellent play. Once again there was much to rave about in the defensive effort but I'd single out Chad Anderson's offensive contributions as special. There was a noticable change in UAA's power play with two defensemen manning the blueline vs. the forwards we've seen there so far this season. Chad had a rush tonight from deep in his zone taking the puck wide around a Badger defenseman then cutting in for a tight close effort on Elliott. It was the sort of play that was reminscent of Martin Bakula and easily could have turned into a goal. Up 2-1 late in the third UAA had a glorious chance to jump to a 3-1 lead but a Kronschnabel shot (on a big rebound from a Tarkir shot) rung solidly off the post after beating Elliott low on the glove side. Wisconsin pulled Elliott with just about a minute in the game but were never able to mount a close chance as UAA was good on faceoffs and scrambled to block shots and clear the puck. Tom Gorowsky threw a really cheap elbow at 19:54 of the 3rd that would earn him a night in street clothes if I were coaching the Badgers. I'd bet money (any takers?) he won't be sitting in the stands next Friday though. It was the same sort of late cheap shot I've seen over the years when Bucky has lost a game against UAA.

On the whole it was a good weekend for UAA. Though they lost on Friday in OT; but they scored a goal with an extra attacker to get the game to OT. And of course the victory tonight secured a couple of very important WCHA points. UAA sits in a tie for 9th with 5 teams above them having up to only 3 points more. A sweep down in Mankato could bump UAA as high as 6th place depending on other results next weekend. A sweep on someone else's rink is always a tall order but it will be important for UAA to get something down in Mankato against a Maverick team that got swept by Bemidji State this weekend.

EDIT: Here's a link to Andrew Hinkelman's story in the ADN ... oh wait. No it's not. Their website doesn't have one. A glitch I imagine. So for those of you without a paper version I'll retype a coupla things:

"That sent Wisconsin into a time wasting, no unecessary chances style of play, apparently content to see if the 1-0 advantage could hold up. After almost 10 minutes of trapping, mucking and grinding hockey to open the second period, the likes of which would put an insomniac hopped up on espresso to sleep, the Badgers took a penalty. That changed everything"

The rest of the story is the generally utilitarian (but good nonetheless) style typical of what you find in a newspaper account of a sporting event. But those three sentences above are deserving of a big pat on the back to our new UAA hockey reporter.

NUTHER EDIT: At 9:23am AST the ADN corrected the situation I described (@9:20) above and got the story onto their webpage.

A Brief Review of the 3-2 Loss

I was too disappointed to write anything last night. I watched a game that I thought UAA was more than capable of winning. I wasn't enamored. There were enough minor execution errors that even just a 50% reduction could have resulted in a win. Obviously, credit has to be given to the Badgers who pulled out a victory. No doubt there was a big sigh of relief on their part. They made substantially fewer mistakes with the puck and I think more than anything else that was their key to victory. I didn't think the Seawolves played their best game in the "collective" sense.

Paul Crowder was solid all night and it was nice to see Coach Shyiak say some of the same things I'd been saying about his strength on the puck. Josh Lunden showed more physical play that I think I'd seen so far this year. He had a huge hit in the first period deep in the Wisconsin end that was impressive. Jared Tuton played all night on the #1 line with Beagle and Waldrop and while his play was impactful in a physical way (lotsa good hits) I didn't think the line was particularly dynamic. It looked more like three guys playing hard individually since there's no way I could characterize Waldrop or Beagle's play as poor. Justin Bourne got to a lot of pucks with his hustle and certainly led the team in # of shots attempted. I thought Chris Tarkir played a good game. I'd thought he'd been less than visible in a couple of games this year but last night his play was impactful. Matt Robinson was noticably the best player in the defensive end. And that's not taking anything away from the rest of the defensemen who all did a solid job in their own end. Nathan Lawson played well enough in the net that I'd expect him to play again tonight but getting beat high on his glove side on the first goal was a surprise to me. Overall he did what he was supposed to do in terms of giving his team a chance to win. Kevin Clark looked good in places but also had a couple of times where he was awkward. I would credit him though with breaking up a couple of 2-1 rushes when he found himself the last player. He also made a couple of good plays in Bucky's end as well as getting two Badgers to foul him in the 3rd to gain PP's. I didn't look at the faceoff stats but I thought that the Seawolves won more than their share. The one stat for UAA that is a big positve is that 3 times now this season they've scored a goal while playing with an empty net.

I thought the flow of the game was a bit choppy but I guess that was just how and where the penalties were called. UAA had more PP chances and in the 3rd period had about 90 seconds of a 5 on 3 where they were unable to convert. To me that was the pivotal part of the game. Converting at that point would have given the team a huge turn in momentum. I thought UAA was overall the faster team. Perhaps my expectations are too high but I can't help but feel that last night was another 2 points that got away.

Friday Poetic Prognostication

I'll give this a try this week. If I like how it goes then I'll consider making it a weekly feature. The caveat is that I really don't know much about poetry (which will be obvious momentarily).

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A cete of Badgers comes to town,
Red and white on skates,
Not the Tupolev 16.

Yet Engels and Marx are honored,
A collective on ice,
From each according to his abilities.

A great contest ensues,
Some Seawolves await,
Then back to Madison,
Sporting a frown.

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UAA 4 - UW 1
UAA 6 - UW 3

UAA vs. Wisconsin Preview

There are two possible ways to beat Bucky this weekend in my view. First would be to beat them at their own game. Their game is to play a flawless (or as close to flawless as possible) defensive game combined with great goaltending. Coach Eaves has basically perfected this game plan over the last couple of years. If you take the puck behind the net to set up when you break out you'll find a a nice box in the neutral zone designed to deny you all parts of the ice. If you get into their zone you'll find a regimented dedicated and highly effective team defense that limits shots. I'd think trying to beat them at their own game would best be left to teams like St. Bob that already play the neutral zone trap. Brian Elliot is nothing but solid solid solid in his net. He's positionally very good and always squared up to the puck. His D gives him a good look at the puck and if he gives up a rebound they are on top of it. The offensive losses the Badgers had from last year to this, left many a Madisonian scratching their heads wondering where their goal scoring would come from. So far this season Jake Dowell has been THE guy scoring 6 of the Badgers 17 goals. They'll be without Jack Skille who is their most dynamic player; senior forward Ross Carlson is also injured. But with 5 other NHL draft picks it isn't like UAA won't have to play a solid defensive game.

I said there were two possible ways to beat them and since UAA isn't going to begin to match something that it's taken Eaves two years to perfect the other option is to play the uptempo game that Coach Shyiak has put in place; but it will have to be played at its highest level possible. Passing will have to be crisp and accurate. UAA will have to outwork Wisconsin on the boards and win more than their share of pucks in the open ice. The Seawolves size advantage isn't as great as with some other teams they've played but they'll need to make that pay dividends this weekend. UAA will have to be excellent in their own end and zero goaltending errors will be necessary.

There's not much chance that Eaves will have a real good scouting report on UAA so a couple of guys might be surprises and hopefully UAA can gain some advantage there. The first guy I'd look to surprise this opponent would be Kevin Clark. I don't think UAA fans really have seen what I believe this kid is capable of doing. One reason for that of course is the fact that twice now Kevin has taken himself out of games by hitting someone from behind. Even if he can't read a players name he still oughta be able to see the big numbers on their backs and not repeat that mistake again this season. Twice is enough. Next surprise for Bucky would be Paul Crowder who often surprises me with his excellence when the puck is on his stick. He reminds me of Ales Parez but I think he has more of a nose for the net. He's dynamic, strong and talented. Another surprise for Bucky is how good UAA has been bringing the puck up the ice. After the last couple of years I think this is the biggest turnaround for the 'Wolves. Smith, Anderson, Robinson, Hunt, Backstrom and big Luke are all more than very capable skaters and have all contributed to this new valuable asset for UAA. It's clear at this point of the season that there is zero quit in the upperclassmen this year. Props for those efforts should go to Bourne, Kronschnabel, Tarkir and Waldrop who kept hitting and competing for pucks regardless of the score last weekend. They'll all have to continue that sort of play against Wisconsin for UAA to earn some WCHA points. Lastly, a good PK and a PP that clicks will (as always) be important this weekend.