Roster Updated; Two New Players

The official roster on the Seawolf website was updated today and it has a few surprises. There are two new additions; an Anchorage kid back from the CCHA and a local goalie. Brian Bales skated 7 games for BGSU as a freshman. He played in 5 as a sophomore before leaving the team. I'm unsure why he had so little success there since he had a solid USHL career (6th on the league scoring charts in 04-05) including at least one Player of the Week award. With the exception of his time at Bowling Green it is an all around nice resume. My assumption is that he'll be a Junior but won't be eligible for at least 5 games? The second addition is a third goalie (and another local kid) Aaron Mayo. Aaron played for South High School but I don't see where he played midget or junior hockey so I've got no links. At some point I'd expect the school will have some sort of release making these announcements.

The third surprise is two recruits whose names are absent from the roster. Chris Rengert and Jeff Carlson do not appear on the updated roster. Whether this means they didn't make it through the NCAA clearinghouse or changed their mind or the school changed their mind would all be speculation at this point. Their names don't show up on the LOI list at the GNAC conference website but that really isn't indicative of anything in particular. My assumption here is that not being on the updated roster means that they won't be in school.

I'll probably have the Jr. Class preview up sometime before the weekend is done. Hopefully, between now and then I'll have more information about Brian Bales. Know anything? Email me.

Paul Crowder Profiled on INCH

As part of Inside College Hockey's A-Z series this pre-season, Paul Crowder has been profiled. INCH seems to be doing a relatively good job writing these A-Z player profiles. It has got to be substantially more work than it first appears so I'm not going to be critical in any way. But I can certainly add some information.

Crowder's 24 points last season were the most by a Seawolf rookie since 1992-93 (Alaska Anchorage's first go-round in the WCHA) when the immortal Petri Tuomisto scored 26 points.

Nice information. It's likely that I wouldn't have tracked down that nugget. Potentially more interesting is that two other rookies trailed closely: Josh Lunden at 20pts and Kevin Clark at 17pts. Having three rookies perform well enough to be close to a 15 year old statistical high bodes well for the next three years eh?

Mike Eidelbes (pronounced IDLE-BUS ... and by the way a perfect name for writing about hockey) goes on to characterize the team positively:

Despite a 10th-place finish in the WCHA last year, the Seawolves have plenty on which to build. UAA won the season-opening Nye Frontier Classic, beat rival Alaska thrice to capture the Governor's Cup, swept a series from eventual Frozen Four participant North Dakota, and sat two games above .500 on New Year's Day before losing 13 of its last 17 games.

One team accomplishment he missed was the win on Gopher home-ice during the WCHA playoffs (a first for any WCHA team since they started playing at Mariucci). But a tidbit like that is usually only embraced by folks like us that follow the program closely. The highlight of the article for me is the summary of Shyiak's plan for Crowder this year.

Crowder, naturally, will be crucial to the Seawolves' continued growth. Specifically, Shyiak would like to see the forward, who typically looks to pass first and shoot second, to take the puck to the net and fire away. He'll also encourage Crowder to use his skating ability to gain more speed through the neutral zone on the rush, forcing defensemen to make a hasty decision — either step up and have Crowder run you over or sidestep you, or drop back and give him the time and space to create scoring chances.

And finally Shyiak's direct comments about Paul:

"His greatest attribute is consistency, and he's very, very coachable. He's great on faceoffs, is a good penalty killer, has solid defensive awareness and is an effective fore-checker. He can play the finesse game, but he also likes to hit [and] play a physical brand of hockey."

All in all (as I said before) a very well done profile which exceeds what I'm capable of doing due to my lack of "media" credentials. I'll just continue to hang my hat on my observations of Paul's excellent use of a tool that seems to be missing from many young players; a quality backhand shot. Pretty close to half of Crowder's goals last year came on the backhand.

Sunday Potpourri

No hockey content here today. I'm pretty sure it's the first time. In any case, I've sometimes been desirous to spew about a few things I think or what I find cool. I have been previously hesitant to do so for a number of reasons but finally decided that you don't have to read it if you don't want to. Anyhow, for now I'm just going to point out a few places that I go on the Internet when I'm not surfing hockey sites.

When I grew up I wanted to be an Astronomer. Didn't happen. The next plan was to be the amateur version since Astronomy is the one scientific pursuit where it is possible (and amateurs have made many great discoveries). Then I ended up in Alaska. When the weather here is good enough to stand outside there isn't enough darkness to do any observing. So I'm left to be just a fan. I think we'd live in a better world if the people involved in the activities I'm about to describe (and so many like them in other scientific endeavors) were compensated as well and admired as much as our professional athletes.

There are a number of telescope sites I visit regularly. The Hubble Space Telescope is my first stop for pictures and discoveries about the heavens in general. The picture on the left is from the Hubble's Deep Field collection. They pointed the telescope at a small dark patch of space then pointed it at another small dark area in that patch and snapped the picture. I encourage you to click on the picture for the larger version to appreciate just how many galaxies are beyond the single dark sport they originally focused on. Click on this link to the 1 meg version of the picture. Should be enough to remind us of our true place in the Universe. The bigger fascination I have with regard to Astronomy is the search for extrasolar planets. So far the catalog includes 212 planets orbiting nearby stars (typically they've search stars from just a few to over a hundred light years away). I'm a believer that Mankind is wired for exploration and settlement, so ultimately we'll have colonies of people living on some as yet undiscovered extrasolar planet(s). It may take some sort of generational ship to get there but it will happen. With little or no technology man spread over the face of this planet 5,000 years ago with huge obstacles. 40 or 50 light years distance isn't going to stop us now that we have technology. As yet though the astronomers haven't found any earth-like candidates. To rectify that problem NASA is planning a mission called the Terrestrial Planet Finder Interferometer. It will be a telescope located in space which will be able to cancel the light from the star it is searching and for the first time see the planets orbiting distant stars. It is the tool which will find "Earth 2" or whatever it gets named where some of our descendants will be living someday.

There are several big "space" stories I've followed since before their launches; the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and the series of probes and landers sent to Mars over the last half-decade in particular. In 2004 the Cassini-Huygens craft arrived at Saturn. It's trajectory for orbital insertion included a 25,000 mph dive through a small gap in Saturn's ring. Since arriving in the neighborhood it launched the Huygens probe to the surface of Titan where it found a frozen hydrocarbon wasteland.

Probably my favorite picture from the catalog is Enceladus in the picture to the left. Enlarging the picture you can see some distinct topographical features on the lower right which regularly expel large quantities of water vapor. There is an absolute ton of great pictures in the Cassini-Hugens gallery. Including this great picture of Jupiter when Cassini flew past. Then there is this cool pic of Saturn's southern region and pole. Or there is this great ring picture. I like this picture of Titan and Enceladus together. Here is a set of pictures of Titan taken in different wavelengths. And here is a great picture of some of the terrain on Titan. The Cassini mission is unprecedented in the amount of data and science discoveries it has provided.

I can't imagine a human being that in some sense doesn't share a fascination to some degree with our neighbor Mars. 2 mission with 3 spacecraft have given us more information about Mars in the last 5 years than all previous missions combined. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has the ability to image surface details down to just a few yards in size. It's been in orbit for less than a year and has returned enough data to fill 2000 CDs. It is currently monitoring one of the occassional (every 5 or 6 years) global duststorms that envelope the planet. I have spent more than the ocassional otherwise bored hour or two on the Mars Exploration Rover pages. Originally expected to last about 90 days the twin MER's have been going at it for about 3 years. The images below are two of the many incredible panorama's available in the Rover galleries.


Click either of the images to see each (about 350k) image. The coolest thing about the MER site for me is the availability of 200/300 megabyte images that I've saved to CD. I plan to edit them and then have graphic quality framed images made. The idea of having some cool panoramas of Mars hanging nicely on the walls appeals to me for some reason. I suppose it makes me imagine being there and what an amazing experience that would be. I know it won't be so for me but it will be for someone in my daughter's generation and I'll love watching it happen.

Science is my primary fascination outside of writing this blog. I intended this post to be longer and include discussion about things like Emergence. I would have enjoyed mentioning my head spinning but ultimately inept interest in all things Quantum. But I didn't really find the time this evening (since I was busy saving another bloggers life) to add some of my other fascinations. Maybe another time. I hope I've properly defined these interests of mine as more than just passing and certainly much less than expert. I am just a fan.

The 07-08 Senior Class

Left to right, Luke Beaverson, Peter Cartwright, Chris Tarkir, Blair Tassone and Merit Waldrop are the Seawolves 07-08 Senior Class. As a group these guys will be pretty easy to thank at the end of the season because regardless of the success they help the team reach this year they've each already contributed handsomely during their previous three seasons. First, here's a breakdown of what each guy brings to the table. Following those descriptions will be my assessment of what this group needs to deliver on the ice in 07-08.

Luke Beaverson's career at UAA occurred as a result of North Dakota asking him to play another year in juniors before attending; after 2 years in the USHL Luke said he wasn't interested so UND freed him from their bondage. Then UAA offered and Luke accepted. If I haven't misread things he's said in the past, he couldn't be happier with his choice; "love it here" should be an accurate quote. And speaking for UAA fans we're damn happy to have him. He is a huge presence (6'5" 228lbs) in the defensive zone. His hitting and defensive work have always been a keystone of his play but he's steadily increased his offensive contributions. As a senior I expect Luke to carry the puck confidently when he has a chance. His decisions with the puck have gotten better each year and I expect we'll see very mature play from him this season. Luke has a heavy shot which has been under-utilized and hopefully he'll get more opportunities to unleash it this season. As a fresman Luke tallied 2 assists in 37 games. As a sophomore he netted his 1st collegiate goal and added 3 helpers. Last season Luke put 5 into the twine with 4 assists.

Peter Cartwright is a four year local boy success story. As a freshman and a sophomore Peter competed hard to earn every minute of ice time. During his rookie campaign he played in 28 games and came away with 4 goals with 6 assists in only 20 shot attempts for the season. In his second year he played just 25 games adding 2 goals and 1 assist. Last season was his best to date with 5 goals and 7 assists in 37 games. Peter can be characterized as an energy guy or even (god forbid) a grinder ... someone's gotta be it. At 6' 1" 200lbs he brings good size into the corner and/or in front of the net. He's capable of the more than occasional nifty play to either set up a linemate or finish himself. Last year he led the team in shorthanded points.

Chris Tarkir's career at UAA had a nice start with 6 goals and 5 assists as a freshman. His second year say 8 goals and 6 assists. As a junior though Chris only managed to bury 1 puck with 4 assists. The 76 penalty minutes last year are a small signal of what kind of frustrating season it must have been for him. Chris is clearly capable of burying more pucks. He has a good shot and skates well with both speed and control. Perhaps he was bearing down a bit too much and/or gripping the stick a bit too tightly. His size (6'2" 200lbs) and maturity though should serve him well as a senior if he remembers two words from his freshman year; Martin Stuchlik. Before his senior year Martin was ready to walk away from hockey. He was ready to hang his 4 career goal total on the wall. Coach Hill encouraged him to stay and told him to just go out and have fun. Stoolie promptly did so and banged in 12 goals as a senior contributing to UAA's playoff win versus Wisconsin and first Final Five appearance.

Blair Tassone is nothing less than a spark plug. He hits much bigger than he actually is (5'11" 193lbs). Blair has skated a lot of 3rd and 4th line hockey over his first three years and has often been paired with Peter Cartwright. His energetic play can singlehandedly raise the level of play by the team during a game. In his first two seasons Blair managed to get into just 31 games and contributed 3 goals and 2 assists, all of which came during his freshman year. Last season Blair skated in 23 games and scored 1 goal with 2 assists. Blair is an excellent penalty killer and not shy about standing up for his teammates.

Merit Waldrop has been one of my favorite players since he was a freshman and he's another local boy done good. His speed and skating are a valuable asset. He's a bit gritty. He is a very adept puck handler and more than a few times I've seen him do marvelous things with the puck though, he is probably the all time career leader in posts and crossbars at UAA. If not that, it's some goalie pulling something huge out of his ass to rob Merit. As a freshman he notched 5 goals and 9 assists. His sophomore season he scored 7 goals and added 1 assist. Last season he put 5 away with 14 assists. Merit has the skills to potentially double his output from last year. He would certainly deserve it too.

So what do these 5 guys need to contribute this season to help the team succeed? The first and most obvious is leadership. They need to set a good example to the underclassmen both on and off the ice. They should be fostering a great attitude among the team. This is a pretty good group in terms of that sort of leadership. I mentioned the Martin Stuchlik story earlier and its a lesson that is probably applicable to all 5 of these guys. Play the game this season for the love of the game. If they can each slough off whatever distractions arise (yes yes ... other than homework) and enjoy playing their last year in a Seawolf sweater then it will be a season well spent. I believe that sort of positive attitude will pay big results on the ice for both these guys individually and the team as a whole. Aside from those generalities the team will need more production from all five of these players. As a group last year they managed just 18 goals (only 11 percent of the team total). Bettering that total to 30 is certainly something for which this group has the potential and doesn't seem to be an unrealistic goal to shoot for overall.