Rivalries Need This Stuff

Extra Extra!!! Goalie Pad Controversy!!!

It appears that the UAA might have "slighted" it's instate arch-rival, the UAF's Alaska Nanooks. Say it ain't so! I considered making a phone call to get the facts of this dramatic breaking story but that would just get in the way by making this post real short. I'd much rather speculate about possibilities.

On Friday when the 'nooks played the U-18's Wylie Rogers had to use last season's goalie pads because the ones that the UAF's Alaska Nanooks had ordered for him were misaddressed and showed up at UAA. Whoever received them at UAA promptly returned them (or just didn't sign for them). And inevitably (as anyone who is familiar with this rivalry would expect) there are rumblings from up north. Rumblings about "bad people" at UAA and "mean-spirited" Anchorage people. Ouch. That hurts.

To think that someone at UAA wouldn't bend over backwards to accomodate their primary rival up the road? I see three possibilities: UAA didn't take the time to give consideration to the UAF Alaska Nanook's needs (I guess UAF knows now what kind of husband UAA would be); UAA did it on purpose (so who do I pat on the back?); or whatever low level admin person that received the package followed whatever established departmental policy was in place and went by the book, like they do with countless other daily transactions (give 'em a raise!). So I don't know about UAF fans but I'm "all good" with any of those three reasons.

There's no doubt now that equipment ordering rivals of UAA should take note and be very careful to use YOUR OWN address in the "Ship To:" box.

1st Exhibition: UAA 9 - USNDT 2

Great to see the team tonight finally on the ice in a competitive game. Oops. I'd written the opening sentence a week ago for this post. Unfortunately, tonight's game was really not that competitive. UAA finished it's chances. U-18's (unlike last night versus UAF) didn't. I expected to be writing about things that the Seawolves needed to work on but based on tonights game that's very difficult to do. Most importantly though to me was confirmation that UAA's freshman class should have some impact this season. Kevin Clark was outstanding all night. Josh Lunden scored an absolutely beautiful goal late in the game. Paul Crowder showed great vision with his passing. Trevor Hunt and Nils Backstrom both looked like veterans.

Charlie Kronschnabel opened up the scoring for UAA with goals at 8:41 from Clark and Backstrom (on a 5min PP as a result of a somewhat soft CFB that earned last nights player of the game Jimmy Hayes a trip to the showers) and then at 14:31 from Cartwright. At 16:47 Merit Waldrop put UAA up 3-0 on Kevin Clark's second assist of the evening. The U-18's answered at 17:07 on a clean breakaway with Ryan Hayes splitting the D and beating Lawson low on the stick side. A minute later Shane Lovdahl scored his 1st of 2 goals on the night with assists from Bourne and Smith. 4-1 at the end of the first.

Josh Lunden scored his first goal as a Seawolf at 4:50 of the second period on a beautiful pass from Paul Crowder and a second assist to Clark. 5-1 at the end of the 2nd period.

In the 3rd period UAA ran up the score against what a Fairbanks fan called the "glorified AAA Midget team" on goals from Justin Bourne at 10:56, Merit Waldrop lasered a shot from deep and wide in the zone at 12:29, Josh Lunden beat two U-18 defensemen to the puck along the boards skated deep into the zone past them along the goal line and stepped out front to easily bury the puck on the prettiest goal of the night at 17:04 and Shane Lovdahl added his 2nd goal of the night at 17:30 with a high wrist shot from the slot. The second U-18 goal was a carbon copy of the first with CJ Severyn splitting the defense at the blueline and breaking in alone to beat Olthuis.

Goaltending for UAA was solid with Lawson facing 18 shots in a just over 31 minutes and Olthuis facing 10 in the remaing 29 minutes. UAA's shot total was a bit low with only 25 shots on goal. In a 9-2 win you'd think all the credit would go to the offense but tonight the defense lived up to it's early billing with a very solid effort. 4 of UAA's goals came on the PP but they didn't give up a PP goal. UAA comitted 9 penalties and the U-18's had 6 total.

It's a decent start and was fun to watch but I don't think it is necessarily indicative of what we'll see this year. It was after all an exhibition game against a bunch of 17 year olds; right? Results next week won't mean a whole lot either as UAA entertains Western Ontario down the road in Soldotna.

The Waldrop, Clark and Beagle line was dominant tonight. Justin Bourne looked like a different player than last year. Merit Waldrop is hopefully taking a step forward to become a feared goal scorer. I tried to notice everyone but it's hard to notice what every player does on every shift. I wasn't disappointed with Jared Tuton but will have to watch him more. Ken Selby's wheels are absolutely as advertised. Nick Lowe was more involved offensively than I've seen since his freshman year. And Cap'n Kronch showed intensity and good finishing skills by picking a rebound out of midair to score. There were UAA players in the slot all night long. They controlled and possessed the puck for long periods 5x5 with crisp passing and smart play. The defense broke up rushes consistently at the blueline both 5x5 and on the PK. Adam Corrin had as good a game as he had all last year both as a penalty killer and at even strength. Mat Robinson was paired with Luke Beaverson on defense and I think I really like that combination. The team never looked tentative. The passing was crisp. The attitude on the bench looked great.

All in all a pretty satisfying start.

It's Too Wet To Plow

UAF's Alaska Nanooks were the U-18's first D-I victim of the year winning tonight at the Sully by a score of 5-3. The U-18's jumped out to a 3-0 lead by playing a crisp focused first period with very very good finishing. The first few minutes were a little bit tentative on both ends of the ice with UAF getting the only real chances that were handled pretty easily as the U-18 goalie was very very steady. The first period also found the U-18 down a man on 4 penalty calls (3 of them questionable). It seemed to me that their better anticipation and skating "off the puck" was a key to that control as it allowed them to be where the puck was going before it got there. I'd give #12 Jimmy Hayes the 1st star of the game. He was able to step around just about any UAF player he was skating against whenever he wanted. Twice in the first Wylie Rogers was taken to five hole school but didn't learn his lesson and was beaten the same way in the second before they rotated to Chad Johnson for the second 32 minutes. The U-18's capped their scoring with a 5-3 PP tally to get to 5.

UAF mounted a valiant comeback about midway through the 3rd that they can take away as a positive but it never looked particularly dangerous. Kyle Greentree was their best performer on the night but I noticed at least one Knelsen and a Lee both doing well.

All that commentary aside, the U-18's finished their chances. The Alaska Nanooks didn't. Lastly, I'd love to understand the ticket pricing for this game. If someone knows the answer email me because around 600 people were shaking their heads trying to figure it out.

I hauled the gear to the game but doubt that I'll go to the effort again. It wasn't cumbersome but there's not that much upside in the process. The camera I acquired seemed promising to me but it turned out to not really be up to the task. If anyone reading this and attending future UAA games wants to email me good pictures of any game action I'll happily post them here and fawn all over you with credit for supplying them.

Linkages

Before I go watch "Alaska" play the U-18s I figured I'd fill the void. I plan to take a sweet-riding Mac G4 Titanium and a digital camera to the game tonight and use it as a test for the season. I'm hesitant because having that gear will mean that I'll have to change my modus operandi as a fan. I can't jump up at a moments notice and scream obscenity filled tirades at the referee's with a computer in my lap. So I'll find out tonight if that is how I want to do this. I don't want to change my experience as a fan so I'm hoping just to use the computer to take notes so I can give a more accurate account of the game.

Now to the linkages. Eric Carlson up in Fairbanks has been posting on his Alaska Nanooks Hockey site much more frequently as the season gets closer. From following their recruits with their junior teams to giving a rundown of all preseason activities to righteously griping about Ticketmaster and getting tickets to tonights game. Eric is "The Shit" when it comes to the Nookies so I'll try to link him often during the season. I know all of us UAA fans are anxious to know the scoop up there. I didn't give direct links to the posts because there's just a ton of stuff you should go read.

In the WCHA; the Wisconsin Hockey Blog has been detailing (and perhaps bemoaning a bit) the losses that Bucky suffered from last year's NCAA Championship run. But Badger Backer has a grasp on reality even if he is sandbagging the teams chances a bit. I feel sorry for them, don't you? Over at Let's Go DU dggoddard recently celebrated the 1st Anniversary of his Blog and has been doing his usual excellent job of tracking alumni, dogging the Sioux, copying/pasting articles from established media outlets and shamlessly plugging the website of some cat named Todd who has turned from hockey fan into Anchorage strip bar critic.. DG's self-admitted thievery is refreshing. Hammy at the Golden Gopher Hockey Blog covered da gophs Media Day. Lucia hates hockey in football stadiums and thinks upperclassman will determine the WCHA standings; me and Donnie are on the same page there (that's a bit creepy for me). The post has details about the players and new positions they'll play this year. The long summer slumber at Colorado College Hockey Blog has ended as cchockey posted his News and Notes a couple of weeks ago. They wake up slowly at 6,000 ft but I'll assume there'll be much more info there soon. Meanwhile MeanEgirl has a series of posts detailing MTU's skating treadmill and interviews with incoming freshman Axtell, Bunger and Vlaisavljevich. Nice to see MTU gives access for such interviews. I guess the Houghton "established media outlets" probably suck at covering the Huskies. Out in Mankato they've been busy covering alumni NHL aspirations. Sadly for them its AHL for all but Backes will probably get some time in a Blues sweater this season. Down in Goon's World there is much consternation over CHN's preseason all-american list as well as some questionable pics of his retriever on his can't wait to see exploding feathers post. RWD has recently totally ignored her blogging responsibilities but appears to have returned to use physics as some sort of excuse for that laziness, practice some text formatting, and detail the qualities of new volunteer assistant Bill Watson; all in one post! Finally, Kevin Allenspach at the St. Cloud Times continues his thorough coverage of St. Cloud.

That's a wrap up of all the WCHA Blogs that I regularly check. Go have a read.