Friday, February 20, 2009

UND 2 - UAA 1 OT: Whatcha Gonna Do?

Often a theme emerges for these posts while I'm driving home. Tonight all I could think in that 10 minutes was "What more could they have done?". The Seawolves excelled in all phases of the game tonight bar one. Of course scoring goals is the most important phase of the game. But sometimes another teams defense does a good job and the opposition goals plays well enough. And you find yourself facing an opportunistic team in OT only to give up a quickie. It happens ... Whatcha Gonna Do? It was an honest loss.

Eidsness was solid for UND making pretty much every first save. And his team picked up the rebounds and/or disrupted UAA's chances with regularity. At least two Seawolves will be having nightmares tonight. Kevin Clark had a clean chance while stationed at the top of the crease. He was wide open and when the puck came it skittered a bit and he missed. 9 out of 10 times Kevin would bag that. Sean Wiles is going to have nightmares as well. In on a 2-on-1 rush Sean could see a huge gaping hole on the right side of the net. Somehow his shot couldn't find it's way into the net.

Bryce was strong and confident between the pipes all night. As has been the case over his last few starts he came up big when called on. Lunden Bales and Clark were reunited and put together a number of sweet rushes. Brian continued his stellar play in the neutral zone creating turnovers. Josh was "johnny on the spot" with his goal. Clarkie needs to stop picking on little Joe Finley. I really liked what Jade Portwood brought tonight. Perhaps his best game of the season. He was good with the body, strong with the puck and showed passion. Luka Vidmar turned in a noteworthy performance playing his first game of his collegiate career at center.

I liked seeing a return of a dominating cycle game. It was the epitome of "the best defense is a good offense". I think UND had one real shot in the 2nd period (stats says 4 but that's generous) including a 2 minute power play. That was primarily due to UAA's efforts in UND's zone. And when they needed to be sharp in their own zone they were.

My assumption is that Shane Lovdahl and Craig Parkinson were sitting their suspensions tonight. I'm fairly certain that is all behind us after tonight.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

honestly couldntve-?a word?- said it better

Anonymous said...

yep, the drive home hurt, but your right, that was a damn good game against a damn good team. lets get em tomorrow night.

Dan

Anonymous said...

I liked the lines tonight. Everyone played well. Grant will get back his confidence as he tested that shoulder well tonight. Portwood is getting stronger each game. Nice game, a few more bounces and we could have had Susie on their heels, big time. We had way more scoring chances than they did. We also didn't take any stupid penalties. Some matching minors and for the most part the refs let them play, except for the overzealous linesmans - jeeeesshhh! - whistle happy there.

puckdangler said...

Great effort. Keep on skating hard. Crowder is going to light the lamp with a big game tomorrow. Bring home the win saturday. Go Seawolves!!

Anonymous said...

Good game last nite. This may be the first game since the curfew issue we will have our team at full strength. uaa 4 und 0.
This could be our most important game of the year.
Go get them seawolves.

Fan

Highway 2 and 35 said...

I fully expect the real Sioux to show up tonight. Last night was similar to Tiger beating the field with his C+ game, and then letting the whole world know about it. So, UND 4 UAA 1. I would have predicted a shutout, but UND does not get too many of those so I can't go that far. That was a major pinch in by Genoway last night. What was the Sioux fan count versus UAA fan count?

Anonymous said...

There was a decent number of Souix fans in the building last night. Hoping for a 5-0 win for UND tonight. Time for one of the models in the WCHA to put the fat girl (UAA) in their place again.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, UUA has that effect on all WCHA teams lately. Funny how they all have C games against us. Gee, maybe, just maybe, time to give the Seawolves some credit. I know it hurts dirty Boy named Sioux fans, but you ain't that great. Canadian boys is Canadian boys. And don't let little Hextall's birthplace fool ya.

Anonymous said...

There were Siox fans in the arena, but you wouldn't have known it by their cheering.

UAA and Wisconsin are the only two teams to beat the Sioux in their own arena, UAA has their number, and they will win tonight.

Anonymous said...

Hell, UND bring your D game... we'll take 2 points from you. I would like to see Robinson drill Trupp tonight... just cause.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations and when did you beat UND at the REA Suze? In the first half of the season when UND is well known to play maybe average or hell even below average hockey. But I guess a win is a win. And I'll admit UND seems to have a hard time playing against UAA for whatever reason. Maybe it's how UAA plays who knows.

And yeah how can anyone cheer when there is freaking cowbells being wrung all the damn time to flood out cheering? Only time there not wrung is when UAA fans decide to boo.

Gotta say Christianson(sp?) played very solid in net. He made some big saves and just like Eidsness was giving UAA a chance to win the game as well. I watched him play in the UMN series and he played great then to.

Should be a good game tonight. I'm thinking UND will pull out with this one. UND 4 UAA 3

Anonymous said...

a couple Dak Rat fans where behind me yelling Odz! Odz! Dzi!

Seawolves hit'm a little harder I want to see a couple bug’s on the windshield.
The Dak Rats will be tired tonight put it to them.
Go Seawolves

BrettB in STL said...

lol, great read...

So in your opinion Donnie, Alaska had way more scoring chances, and shots then UND, but still lost...

But it's honest..???


ps What's with the comments being about Canadian players, and peoples birthplace?? Like it matters if a player is from czech republic, california, canada, alaska, or russia? I guess I enjoy seeing people choosing to get an education, rather then playing for money in a different league..

Anonymous said...

Donald, normally your pretty accurate with your observations but I dont think there is any argument on your take of Last night. (I figured I would pump ypour tires). What really impressed me was that North Dakota played well and we gave them absolutely every thing they could handle. Did you see North Dakota go bonkers at the end after chenoways OT goal. Thats because THEY KNOW it was THAT CLOSE between those teams last night and anybody could have won. Tonight will be another Total DOGFIGHT between the two biggest teams in the league. Although it didnt look like it there was a real 3500 that got treated to big time College. Hockey

Anonymous said...

had to miss the game last night but gave my tickets away so my seats were filled. Lets hope we get 4,000 fans there tonight. That would be SWEET! Keep ringing those cowbells, Seawolves Fans, and bug the crap out of the Sioux. Players, you'll get the "W" tonight. Just keep wearin' them down. Crowder, Clark and Parkinson are gonna put the goal in the net tonight.
Woo Hoo - GO SEAWOLVES!!!!

Anonymous said...

How about if Wiles scores that almost empty netter..We Win. They also beat us on the special teams so it was definitely a game of Micro inches. We have to have secondary scoring like Wiles, Hadad and Clarke is Due. 3 Goals and we Win.

Donald Dunlop said...

For those of you who thought that last nights game was boring ... you should probably give up on watching hockey. I doubt you'll ever actually learn the game. Last nights game was tight checking in spots, it had a number of 3on2 and 2on1 rushes, goaltenders playing well and some tension between players.

Most likely reason you thought it was boring was because your team got worked for large portions. Sorry that UAA held the puck in the UND zone so well.

Anonymous said...

Cant make the game again tonight but have given my tickets away COMPLETE with 4 cowbells!! Why the heck is that such a problem for you Sioux?? We may not have the numbers at our games but I like hearing we are annoying the hell out of our opponents.

GO SEAWOLVES!!!.....Tonight is your night to let everyone in the WCHA know what we've known all along.

Anonymous said...

A win tonight and a MSU three-game skid and we've got 8th place tied up!

Anonymous said...

uaa scored twice actual score would have been 4 to 2, und goalie played well tonite. It is to bad we had the curfew issue the last couple of weeks. Never did get our lines in place. Win the govenor cup, beat minnesota-duluth, and stay healthy and get ready for the playoffs. Good luck guys in the next three weeks.

Fan

Anonymous said...

Good series UAA. Looks like the Sullivan might becoming a bit more of a friendlier place for UND :p

I didn't understand though why Christianson(sp?) got replaced by Olthuis. He couldn't do much on the three goals. I thought he was playing good once again. =/

Seemed like UAA played UND's style of play(which was the opposite last night). And UAA simply got burned tonight.

Good luck the rest of the season UAA unless the Sioux and Seawolves meet again in the WCHA playoffs of course ^_^

Anonymous said...

Hey Donald, Sorry UND swept your team so well again.

Anonymous said...

So well again? Ummm, UND did NOT sweep UAA at the Ralph. Sheesh. Where did you graduate from, UND?

Anonymous said...

again meaning it happens so much its easy to lose track of when you guys actually beat us. Where did I say that we did sweep uaa at the Ralph. And no I have not graduated from UND yet. Smartass.

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