The Dude Abides: Bobby Mo 5 - UAA 3

Dude!?!¿!?!¿! What the fuck?!¿!?!¿!?

If you're as disappointed and frustrated as me at the result of this afternoon's "hockey" game then click play on the video above. It helped me. I say "hockey" game primarily because it was really a weird penalty fest of hitherto unknown proportions. It was a nightmare of a game. I heard Kurt mention that the result would make for a long plane ride home. If I was Shyiak, they'd all be going home on a bus ... in silence.

I don't want to put it completely on the team for taking 10 penalties (only 10? Seemed like 40 to me). The referees in this one definitely had an odd interpretation or five. But good teams are supposed to overcome that sort of thing. The Seawolves did themselves NO FAVORS tonight. If you edited the video for UAA's best parts of the game ... you'd get about 6 total minutes. Sigh. It wasn't that guys weren't trying for most of the game. But you can't play shorthanded for 24 minutes out of 60 and expect to win a hockey game ... especially when 5 (or so) mins of that was 5 on 3. One or two mistakes get amplified hugely by these marches to the box.

I fully expected RMU to be a tougher test than RPI. The Seawolves by no means played their best hockey game versus RPI. Today, they never really gave themselves a chance to play their best. The first excuse I suppose is that Luka Vidmar was out injured leaving the squad with only 5 regular defensemen. If you make the referees an excuse then the grand total of all excuses for this awful loss is 2.

No disrespect to Bobby Mo here. They definitely played hard. They cashed in at important moments. And their goalie "Oyster Guard" (I kid ... because I love Ostergard) was pretty solid between the pipes. Bobby Mo is my new favorite 2nd favorite Division 1 team eVaH. They came up here a couple of years ago and stuck it to BU. Now they come up here and stick it to UAA? What's not a good story about that? Nothing. It's all "peaches and cream", "coming up roses", "their shit doesn't stink" for them.

If you looked at the score sheet you'd think that UAA played ok in the 2nd period. It's when they scored all three of their goals right? The 2nd period was an absolute nightmare though. I can't recall ever seeing a bigger clusterfuck of a period in my life. Maybe once ... I saw the Chicago Blackhawks come back to tie a game after being down 7-1 versus the Colorado Rockies. That was a nightmare of a 3rd period. In the 2nd ... there were 6 penalties called on UAA and 1 called against RMU.

I'd been hoping this season to see a fast start to the season. But from what I've seen so far, we Seawolves fans will be better off hoping for steady improvement and a progression to playing their best hockey at the end of the year. Neither of the wins we've seen had particularly stellar play and both losses could be best characterized as brutal. I'm generally unable to supress my high hopes (character flaw?) and usually translate them to high expectations. But perhaps it's good that my expectations get a dose of reality.

Not a single UAA player's name shows up in this recap. I didn't do so by any design or forethought. But it is reflective of the fact that this loss is on the WHOLE team. Yes, more than a couple of players deserve to be mentioned for their hard efforts throughout the game. But I'm not gonna mention anyone. They lost as a team.

I hope a couple of cheeseburgers for dinner will soften the bitter sharpness my disappointment. I hope the players can find the resolve and/or character to be competitive against a UND team that is playing uncharacteristically strong in this early season.

Here is the boxscore. And if you want to read a recap that is 1000% better than this then click here for the story from UAA's Assistant Sports Information Director Dallas Baldwin. She's got all the relevant information there, which I've completely left out here.

Wes McLeod Named to WJAC Canada West Team

UAA Seawolves 2010/11 recruit, 19 year old defenseman Wes McLeod of the BCHL's Prince George Spruce Kings was named to the Canada West roster for the World Junior A Championships to be held November 1st - 8th in Summerside, Prince Edward Island.

The six team Junior A championship tournament features Canada West along with teams from Canada East, Russia, Sweden, Belarus and the United States.

11 players from the BCHL made the squad with just 4 named from the AJHL.

Congratulations to Wes on this nice accomplishment. McLeod has 5 goals and 9 assists in 15 games so far this season for Prince George and is 3rd overall on his team in points and is the 2nd leading blueline scorer in the BCHL.

Seawolves Handle RPI 3-0

Freshaman Alex Gellert experienced both the highs and lows of college hockey this afternoon in his 3rd Division 1 game. Gellert opened UAA's scoring with his 1st period game winner just 2:44 into the game. After a strong rush deep into the RPI zone the puck found it's way back to Kane Lafranchise would fired a heavy shot from the top of the slot, Mickey Spencer picked up the rebound from that shot and fired a wrister, RPI goaltender York made the stop but gave up a fat rebound to the right ... Gellert was in perfect position and just had to pop the puck into the open side. On Alex's 2nd shift of the game he picked up one of the now famous marginal D1 checking from behind penalties and was shown the gate.

It was the only goal UAA needed as RPI wasn't able to get any pucks past Jon Olthuis who was solid in net for the Seawolves.

The Seawolves killed off the 5 minute major without giving up many serious chances and even manufactured a couple of short handed situations that created some danger. UAA dominated some nice portions of the period with good possession in the RPI end. At 14:41 Josh Lunden made it 2-0 off the rebound from another Kane Lafranchise shot. Shots in the period were 14-9 in UAA's favor at the break.

RPI's CJ Lee was tagged with less marginal CFB penalty and shown the gate at 6:37 of the 2nd. UAA gained and held possession in the RPI zone regularly throughout the 2nd period. It wasn't quite a dominating performance overall but did have some dominating possession by the Seawolves.

At 17:31 Kevin Clark's great effort made it 3-0. The Seawolves had the puck deep and were forcing it toward RPI's goal with Clarkie skating left to right across the crease, he picked up the puck and after being held and mauled went down to the right side of the net. The play wasn't over for him as he bounced up to his knees and chunked the puck home. Nick Haddad and Tommy Grant picked up the assists. Shots in the 2nd period were even at 9.

The third period was relatively quiet with the Seawolves performing well but not challenging offensively as hard as they seemed to in the first two periods. They definitely pushed the game forward but didn't generate many chances. RPI outshot the Seawolves in the period 7-4.

Overall Jonny Olthuis played a solid game. Only about a half a dozen shots were real threats and he was up to the task on all of those. Defensively, the team was solid. I saw only one bad blown assignment defensively but RPI muffed that chance; good positional play and a quick glove hand by Jonny O kept them off the board. Only one RPI player (Jerry D'Amigo) ever seemed to generate any dangerous looking plays.

All the forward lines played well for the Seawolves with each of them being able to manufacture chances off the cycling game. The Seawolves transition game looked good but didn't generate any goals. They did generate chances. Finishing those chances looks to be something that needs continuing work. I can't say enough good things about Lee Baldwin. Once again he looked like a veteran and we saw a couple of heavy one timers from him. The Portwood-Parkinson-Crowell line deserves mention for their hard work. A couple of times I was impressed with the hard work that all of them did along the boards.

I think Josh Lunden's maturity will be a real asset in the development of Naslund and Bruijsten. He certainly set a good example tonight especially with his skating and play away from the puck. With Gellert out, Sean Wiles and Mickey Spencer filled in where possible and I thought both had solid outings.

Leinweber and Lafranchise are going to be an ongoing offensive threat as the season progresses. They showed bits of that today for sure. Jared Tuton was solid and steady as usual. I don't like to criticize players here (and this is a small but important observation) ... Luka Vidmar needs to find more focus I think. Too many pucks come off his stick too easily sometimes. He always looks good going forward but a fumbled puck or two by a blueliner can be really costly.

Drew Darwitz had his most solid outing as a freshman. I saw no defensive mistakes (which I'd seen but tried not to focus on in earlier games) today from him and he continued to show promise moving the puck forward. When Backstrom and Hunt come back, Coach Shyiak is going to have some hard choices to make with regard to which blueliners dress.

My player of the game for UAA would be Kevin Clark. He scored the "best" goal but moreso because as usual he was creating a bit havoc in all areas of the game. I know ... not giving the nod to Olthuis for his shutout is questionable on my part. He did have 25 saves. But honestly (and I'd hope Jonny would agree), not many of those were really quality chances. He's worked lots harder in lots of other games over his career.

It was a solid win but not great. RMU will be an interesting test tomorrow night especially depending on their result versus UA_, which starts in about 5 mins. Congrats to the team. The W is the most important stat tonight.

Click here for the boxscore.

UAA Has Nearly 1/4 of Euro D1 Players

The University of Alaska Anchorage has perhaps one of the most diverse set of nationalities participating in NCAA athletics (see list at bottom). The current roster for the Seawolves hockey team includes 5 players born in Europe out of a total in Division I of 22.

Foreign born hockey players are nothing new to NCAA hockey. Oftentimes, half (or more) of a team will be comprised of Canadian born players. European born players however are less frequently seen on NCAA ice rinks; in fact, they're almost a novelty. That isn't the case at UAA. It's unique geographic location puts it about the same distance from hockey-playing Europe as the most eastern parts of the U.S.

This season UAA added 2 new Euro players to it's existing stable of three. Senior defenseman Nils Backstrom (Stocksund, Sweden), junior defenseman Luka Vidmar (Ljubjana, Slovakia) and backup goaltender Dusan Sidor (Poprad, Slovakia) were already in the fold when freshmen Daniel Naslund (Nykoping, Sweden) and Mitch Bruijsten (Njimegen, Netherlands) came to the school. Next year's incoming recruits includes Gustav Bengtson (Stockholm, Sweden).

When I asked UAA Athletic Director Dr. Steve Cobb about the mix of athletes he noted that he was surprised to learn that UAA was such a large percentage of all of college hockey. He also said,

"We know that good coaches are interested to find good talent and good students. Where those student/athletes come from is a non-factor in our office."

He went on to say,

"Foreign-born athletes often seem to appreciate the opportunities that studying in the U.S. gives them. They can be more interested in making it a success. "

"When (former women's basketball player) Dasha Basova showed up here from Moscow, she was convinced she was here to play basketball and nothing else. By the end of her career she explored every option to live here."

Dr. Cobb speculated that if the total mix were to be 2/3 Alaska and Pacific Northwest and 1/3 the rest of the world that'd be ok with him. He's proud of all his coaches and how their progressively succeeding.

My count through the current 58 NCAA D-I hockey rosters revealed: 10 from Sweden, 3 from Finland, 2 from Norway, 2 from Slovakia, 1 from Slovenia, 1 from France, 1 from Denmark, 1 from the Netherlands and 1 from Germany. The same perusal showed there are only two other D-I programs with multiple-Euro players on their rosters.

Maine has 3 Swedish born players and Vermont has 2 from that same fine country. So comparatively speaking, UAA's five total Euro players is certainly remarkable. The other twelve schools with one Euro player each? RIT, Bowling Green, Notre Dame, Alabama-Huntsville, Bemidji St., Clarkson, Cornell, Union, Merrimack, Denver, Michigan Tech and SCSU.

Longtime Seawolves hockey fans will recall the list of former European players who have worn the green and gold since 1990: Martin Bakula, Petri Tuomisto, Mika Rautakallio, Thomas Kraft, Vladimir Novak, Pavel Hlavacek, Martin Stuchlik, Petr Chytka, and Ales Parez. They were all colorful in one way or another even if a couple didn't stay for all 4 years.

Bakula was the ultimate puck carrying/scoring defenseman; it seemed to me that Tuomisto couldn't stay out of the penalty box; Rautakallio was a buzzsaw who finished his career here with only one kidney; Kraft was just a huge guy; Novak was a great penalty killer; Hlavacek was hit by a falling piece of the Sully scoreboard; Stuchlik barely played for his first 3 years, then had a dream season as a senior; Chytka had loads of attitude; Parez had a great backhand often making a living behind the opponents net.

A look through the other 7 Seawolves rosters finds the following 24 non-Canadian/non-American born athletes:

Volleyball:
Marie Borowikow -- Eberwalde, Germany
Women's Basketball:
Viki Wohlers -- Wolfenbuettel, Germany // Hanna Johansson -- Gothenburg, Sweden
Men's Basketball:
Kevin White - Manly, Australia // Steve White - Manly, Australia // Bryce Arnott - Clyde, Australia // Liam Gibcus - Lysterfield, Australia
Cross Country/Track & Field:
Micah Chelimo - Kapkoi, Kenya // Marko Cheseto - Kapenguria, Kenya // Alfred Kangogo - Eldoret, Kenya // Paul Rottich - Kapsabet, Kenya // Mary Chepkoech - Kapsabet, Kenya // Ruth Keino - Kapcheno, Kenya // Miriam Kipngeno - Kapcheno, Kenya
Skiing:
Andreas Adde - Osteras, Norway // Halfdan Falkum-Hansen - Oslo, Norway // Egil Ismar - Baerum, Norway // Christopher Kollenborg - Haslum, Norway // Michael Schallinger - Oberndorf, Austria // Ida Bjerka - Tromsoe, Norway // Petra Gantnerova - Kezmarok, Slovakia // Steffi Hiemer - Krun, Germany // Kristina Repcinova - Banska Bystrica, Slovakia // Laura Rombach - Neukirch, Germany

Only the Gymnastics squad lacks someone that was born across an ocean. But hey ... they have a Canadian. And of course, UAA loves it's Canadian neighbors; being from the same continent and/or hemisphere is a good thing too.