Game Day 1/12/2013

That one really hurt, we more than needed that win. Nonetheless we can still split with a win tonight. We played very well against the #1 team in the nation, and we were one penalty kill away from a win. Long story short, regardless of whether or not Tyler Currier deserved a five minute major, that was a hit that he didn't need to make. He had backup in Chris Crowell, if he had just pressured Zach Budish, who knows we could've went to overtime at the very least. I'd hate to be so hard on Tyler Currier because I like his style of play, the grit and nastiness of his game. But:

Dude you are a senior, you are from Anchorage, and we could've made the push to OT or won. 

Upon watching this again and again, in all honesty that was a bone-headed play by Tyler Currier. Chris Crowell had Zach Budish all tied up, and occupied. Tyler just got way too excited, and in this one conference win season so far, makes it even worse. Just try to get the puck or skate over to the defenseman and clog up a passing lane Tyler. Here's the video:

And a little breakdown.

Somewhere in the middle of the 2nd period to around the start of the third period, Kurt Haider on air called out Chris Crowell and Tyler Currier. I don't remember his exact words but it went something along the lines of "Currier and Crowell should know better, there are currently taking the bait from Minnesota and should stop biting". Boy was that foreshadowing or what, but I digress.

Feel free to vent your frustrations here, but this is the last time I will bring this up this season.

We need a win badly, and how do we do this you ask? By playing exactly the way we did in the first period last night. We had the #1 team in the nation on its heels, we scored first and got the crowd out of it until Minny scored. Again, Minnesota only scored one even strength goal. We are hard to score against five on five, Don Lucia brought this up in the Golden Gopher's Preview Interviews. If we can stay out of the box, come out fires a blazing and play smart hockey the whole game, ladies and gentlemen we have a split series.

I thought Gundy played very solid last night, the game winner you knew was going in though. Doesn't matter if we had Dominik Hasek or Jacques Plante in net, that baby was going in. I say stick with the rotation, Kamal is 3-4-0 against UM and maybe he can help work some puck luck to the boys. As for the Gophers, it will be interesting to see if there stud Adam Wilcox will start tonight, he has already played two games this week (Notre Dame on Tuesday then us). According to College Hockey News, Adam will get the nod again from Head Coach Don Lucia.

Things to watch for
• The whole score by committee was in full action last night as nine different Seawolves registered a point, nobody had more than one last night
• Blake Tatchell had an assist last night and is the current leader in points 3-9-12 in 19 GP

And the drop of the puck is 4:07 AKST tonight and on 650 KENI for us locals listening in on the great Kurt Haider.

#1 Team in the nation

This weekend we will face the #1 team in the nation, and to be honest I'm glad it's Minnesota. We haven't had consistent success against them, but we have beat them in their barn before. We are currently the only team EVER to beat them in their current arena in the WCHA playoffs. We have done this three times, and swept them in the 2010-11 Playoffs. It seems there program has been bettered by the firing of John Hill, and good for them. We will forever have ties to the UM program as long as Don Lucia is head coach and Kurt Haider is our play-by-play guy. Kurt is from St. Cloud and it's great to hear his stories when were in Minnesota, and of course Don Lucia was an assistant under Brush and was the coach of UA_ for awhile. But when the puck is dropped, all that is forgotten and it is game time.

Minny has done very well for themselves thus far. Yes they are only in sixth place in the WCHA, but there are 8-0-0 in non-conference play that includes a trashing of BC (8-1) and a win against #2/3 Notre Dame (4-1). In non-conference play Minny has outscored their opponents 37-6, in eight games that averages out to be 4.6-.75. Scary offense outside of league play, but in league play they average a very solid three goals per game, while giving up 2.5. In their past 14 games there are 10-2-2, but in our home league opener against them we lost Friday night, but tied a game we should have won Saturday night.

Much of our season rides on this weekend series, if we split that could go a long ways towards confidence and some inspiration to salvage something from the season. Right now I will classify this as our most important weekend of the season. I don't want another tie, unless that is coupled with a win. Our team does not need a tie, our boys need some confidence to keep grinding.

We will have to play tight, minimize mistakes and strike when given the opportunity. We will have to do our best to take care of the puck, if you have the puck always have a back up plan. Minny is very dangerous again, and they have more than a few guys who can snipe. Unfortunately we will have to dump the puck and work our forecheck. Cycle the puck, as teams do not give us respect whenever we control the puck. Teams are very active around our guys that have the puck, puck control is a must. And if in doubt, just give the puck to Blake Tatchell. He is my favorite freshmen, kid has been a very pleasant surprise so far.

I'd hate to project another split, but I see our guys winning Saturday tight 2-1, after a 4-1 loss. I'd absolutely love to hear some "Overrated" chants Saturday night from some of our fans that I know will be there.