UAA's New Arena Takes Shape

Ok then ... this is the first off-season breaking of my self-pledge to not post anything here until August 1st. I don't think there's a lot of commentary I need to add since a picture is worth a thousand words right? That being the case here's four-thousand words you won't have to read from me. Click your mouse on the pictures to get full sized versions. It's a good looking plan at first glance. And it's sure nice to see this process moving forward. This new arena will make UAA a perennial powerhouse in the WCHA!


My understanding is the hockey seating is 10K. I don't see any balcony so the sightlines should be very good for everyone in the rink. I looked for me on the entrance picture and while lots of the people are in short sleeves there sure isn't anyone wearing short pants. Sigh.

Lastly, all credit for acquisition of these pictures goes to UAA's biggest fan in Shreveport, USCHO's "Wolfman" (pictured below ... left).

UAA's Season Done

First things first. This will be my last post until the beginning of August. This blog and all that it takes to keep it halfway decent takes a fair bit of time. If I were organized etc ... then it might not be an issue but since I'm not; I'm going to take the summer off so that I can focus on some non-hockey and personal things. There'll be some news here and there between now and then but I won't be posting any of it here. Check the Seawolves website, USCHO and the ADN for any news.

Congratulations to the Seawolves on finishing the season with pride and effort. They played some good hockey but in the end the Gophers had more legs in the third period. The stretches of zone dominance we saw all weekend from the Seawolves were fewer as tonights game wore on. It was however a real nice showing from the team and each player can be proud of their efforts. I'm proud. Best of luck again to all the seniors that played their last games this weekend. You guys are all "The Shit" in my book and I'm honestly sorry to see each one of you go. I think we've all got to be pretty optimistic about next season. The seasoning that UAA's freshman class got this year should pay lots of dividends next year. Congrats to the staff on a job well done also. Now go get us a couple of "blue-chippahs" for 08-09.

I wouldn't change being a Seawolf fan for any other team. If 5 national championships means a half empty arena and tons of rube-like bandwagon fans moaning about how crappy their 28-9-3 team is then give me the basement every year. Few Gopher fans appear to really appreciate their team. They withstood a Herculian effort from a pretty decent young hockey team this weekend. They deserved the win. The least you'd expect is more than 2 people on this big series of tubes to say something nice about the Seawolves. Instead, it's the usual "we sucked" excuse for having close games from most of them. Minnesota ... State of Hockey? That's a laugh. Hockey fans have class and that characteristic is missing from TOO MANY of that state's residents to earn the nickname. They don't deserve the 6th National Championship that their team is likely to win this season. But what else should we expect from the Dallas Cowboys of Divison 1 hockey?

I'm happy to not have to listen to MazzaTaco again this season. His disgusting condescending bullshit use of "seapuppies" has earned him my permanent ire. I promise that if I ever have the opportunity, that I'll confront the prick about it. He's an embarassment to the profession and a useful example of the ignorance of so many Gopher fans. So Frank ... Fuck you again ... you petty little bitch. And don't bother commenting here that Frank was somehow using the term affectionately. He wasn't.

So that's that for me this season. Enjoy the offseason. I plan to. Check back after August 1st.

Seawolves Force Game 3

Bonus. The Seawolves outplay the Gophers and get to come back tomorrow and play again instead of sitting on a plane tonight. I couldn't be any more pleasantly surprised than I am right now. After the Friday game I certainly didn't have much to say and hence didn't write. I figured the next post would be on Sunday morning when I wrapped up the weekend and the season. But this group of kids definitely had something else in mind tonight. Congratulations to them for the tremendous effort. That was a great third period (even if Doug and Frank missed most of it with all their mumbled prattling-on about minutia) and of course a great effort in the OT.

The penalty killing in the third period has as much to do with that win as anything else in the game. Back to back penalties at 9:46 and 12:23 could have been devastating for the Seawolves. But they did the necessary work to keep the score 1-0. Hat's off to Tassone, Lowe Kronschnabel and Beagle in that stretch ... who's penalty killing was all excellent. I think it was the turning point of the game. The first penalty was on Lunden and the second on Clark. But both guys would get redemption combining for the game tying goal at 16:25. The Seawolves never gave up the momentum either. They denied the puck to the Gophers in all three zones whenever possible and challenged for everything. It was a great team effort that happened because every player on the bench put out the necessary individual effort. The team should be nothing other than confident going into tomorrows game. I loved Josh Lunden's answer to the LaP wannabe that asked him what the game plan for OT would be ... "Win the Game ... eh?" I thought Charlie showed some good attitude during his post game interview as well.

Now onto the media criticism. On Friday night Wooger blamed Jon Olthuis for UAA's loss. I have no idea what he was watching. Jonny O had one bad moment where it looked like maybe he caught an edge moving left to right and then rest of the night Woog dissed him. I guess he thinks there are goalies in the league that could have stopped that Barriball snap shot to put the Gopher up 4-2? None of Minnesota's goals could be blamed on Olthuis. And Woog dissing him that stiffly was uncalled for and lazy color commentary. Then later Frank called UAA the Seapuppies? Fuck you Frank. Would you call UMD the Bullpups on the air? Would you call UND the Susies? Would you call MSUM the Landcows? No you wouldn't.

Also thank you to the genius at FSN who came up with the blatantly homer question of "Who's the only Seawolf coach to ever win a playoff game?". I'm drowning in the irony of that question making it to the TV screen in the third period. And lastly of course congratulations to Coach Shyiak on getting his FIRST playoff win.

Friday there was some "give-up" on the Seawolves bench. The two quick goals were tough on the squad and they never managed to get their hearts back into the game. There was no "give-up" on Saturday night and as I said I think the back to back penalty kills was the difference.

WCHA All-Conference Predictions

There is always lots of chatter on this big series of tubes prior to the official announcement of the leagues All-Conference teams. Why not have my say? I mean ... it is why I started the blog. So ... here's what I say:

1st Team:
Ryan Duncan
Mason Raymond
Andrew Gordon
Alex Goligoski
Steve Wagner
Bobby Goepfert

2nd Team:
Travis Morin
Andreas Nodl
T.J. Oshie
Mike Vannelli
Matt Niskanen
Brian Elliot

3rd Team:
Ryan Dingle
Kyle Okposo
Jonathan Toews
Chris Butler
Lee Sweatt
Matt Zaba

Rookie Team:
Andreas Nodl
Brock Trotter
Kyle Okposo
Erik Johnson
Jamie McBain
Alex Stalock

WCHA Coach of The Year: Jamie Russell
WCHA Player of The Year: Bobby Goepfert
WCHA Defensive Player of the Year: Alex Goligoski
WCHA Rookie of the Year: Andreas Nodl

My Honorable Mentions: Rakhshani, Ruegsegger, Wheeler, Bourne, Kilpatrick, Lasch, Barriball, Crowder, Sweatt, Chorney, Meyers, Anderson, Bina, Connelly and last but not least ... one half an honorable mention each to Fisher and Mannino.

Lemme know who you think I missed and/or why you think they should be on the list.