Frick

Well this seems familiar, I was saying to myself after MSU scored the first goal of the game. But then fate reared its ugly head and we just got outplayed. Moving on. 

Our best bet to finish in 11th place is to sweep Michigan Tech later this season and at least gain an additional three more points than MT. So in ten league games left we would have to go at least 5-4-1 against Bucky, CC, MT, UNO and Denver, and this would be assuming MT goes 2-7-1 ( against UNO, UAA, MSU, SCSU and CC). Could we still do it? Ummmm.........yes? This season's version of the Seawolves is not consistent, I would like to think we could pull off a split with Bucky, maybe even CC, then if we could sweep MT that would leave us a record of 1-2-1 against UNO and Denver assuming of course MT falters and goes 2-7-1 to end the season. Looking at Bemidji's schedule, it is fucking rough: UNO, SCSU, Bucky, MD, ND, and Minny. Now I feel a little bit better, looking at MT's schedule and Bemidji's we have hope.

[Bold and italicized indicates home series]

Must have goals
• Split with Bucky, either win and loss or tie and tie
• Same with CC
• Sweep MT
• Then coast a win and tie out of the UNO and Denver series

Simple right? But alas, even with the best of laid out plans, something very unexpected arises. Maybe Brett Cameron will come back and lead the charge from out of the cellar. Maybe Robby or Kamal will steal the end of the season with some fantastic goal keeping. Maybe Matt Bailey will go on an absolute scoring spree and catapult our team, we all know he is capable of this. 

With Bemidji and Michigan Tech, surely one team must royally screw up right? If I had all of King Midas' gold, I would bet on Bemidji. That is an absolute hell of a way to end your season, unless of course they can somehow split there way to a .500 record here down the stretch. And if Bemidji does do poorly, we could potentially end up in 10th or tied for 10th. I don't think we could catch up to CC (currently in 9th place), they have the easiest of schedules between these four teams and are at 15 points.

On a side note, the 2013 Division I Rulebook has been passed and there seems to be a lot of money now available to student-athletes, whether it be financially, performance based, or medically based. I think it's in the right direction, this will help some less fortuante student-athletes and will help cut down on illegal payments made to student-athletes across the board. Link is here.

Hmmm yes, well

Yes there was no Wednesday post because I'm am getting used to my new schedule for this college semester, that Monday off was absolutely amazing. By next week, things will run hopefully more smoothly. Last weekend started off well, then it started going to crap, and then it hit the fan by the end of the Saturday game. We played well Friday and in my eyes deserved the win, but this was not the case. Saturday night we started out sluggish and perhaps tired, then it all went to shit.

We need to salvage something from this season, whether it be an 11th place finish or perhaps playing Minnesota whatever way possible in the playoffs. How frickin' sweet would it be if for the last real WCHA playoffs, we beat Minny in the John? It would be sooo sweet, that the original Cookie Monster would be put to absolute shame. Normally I would not condone maybe laying down low in order to finish in a more desirable place for the post season, but this would not be the first time a WCHA team did this and would not be the last. Michigan Tech is currently in 11th place with nine points (16 GP), we are 12th with five points (16 GP).

"I wanna believe that there is still hope, 

Now I'm hanging in the balance alone,

I don't wanna be the last to know"

This weekend we are playing a streaky Minnesota State hockey team, evidenced by a seven game win streak, a four game win streak, and only once did they lose only one game in a row. They recently got swept by Wisconsin in back-to-back OT games, but they still are getting great play by there freshmen goaltender Stephon Williams (a 1.84 GAA with a .925 save percentage and a 11-6-1 record). 

We need to play smarter, don't try and make the plays that don't need to be made. Keep it simple, dump the puck, cycle, and hang onto the freakin' puck. When we were doing this against the #1 team in the nation, we were winning. Man I'm starting to sound like Dave Shyiak....don't know if that's a good thing or not. But please rest assured, I do smile more than Dave.  Okay, now that I'm done tooting my own horn, let's talk puck control. A previous comment from the last post nailed it on the head, " UAA needs to have more puck poise. They often ping pong it around the ice when there is an open guy they could pass it to, and they aren't seeing it". Here is the whole comment. As I have stated before, teams don't give us respect when we possess the puck. Look at the tournament games we play to start the season, those teams generally don't know us and back up off the puck controller. This gives the guy time and space to make a good play, whether it be a pass, dump, or a shot. Now look at our current games, opposing players hound our puck controllers and do not give us respect. We can still play well, by well, dumping the puck, cycling, and hitting. All this in my eyes is to combat our opponents aggressiveness. It does well and if we stick to the game plan and don't take too many penalties we are competitive. We stay out of the box and we are dangerous, evidenced by Friday nights previous game.

• Also of note the Skate the Seawolves has been moved to the Wells Fargo Sports Complex, it is at 1-3 AKST this Sunday. 
• And the Green & Gold Friday Promotion is still there
• Students you do get in for free by the way

Round-Ups

ADN's Piece (Don't know if it will work though due to the new subscription crap but I can view it here at UAA)

Tommy Grant Traded

UAA's Release

WCHA's Release

MSU's Release

USCHO Thread

UAH Coming to the WCHA

This Week in the WCHA

Calling out the Ref's

A Goalie doing his time (Guess who it is)

No Sound for Autism

Things to point out, and watch for

• Senior Jordan Kwas is now a Junior, via goseawolves.com
• Junior Chris Kamal is 2-2-0 against MSU
• Junior's Kwas and Brett Cameron both have totals of 2-3-5 in eight games against MSU, Brett is still on the Inactive List I believe
• Senior has achieved numbers of 1-5-6 vs. MSU
• Sophomore Kory Roy has yet to register his first collegiate goal, 0-9-9 in 40 GP
• Sophomore Andrew Pettitt is one game from his 25th
• Matt Bailey is one goal away from his career 25th goal

• Junior Brett Cameron is one strike from his 10th career goal

• Senior Daniel Naslund is one assist away from getting his 25th

• Senior Alex Gellert needs two more assists for his 25th

• Matt Bailey needs one more point for his 50th career point

• Jordan Kwas needs two more points for his 50th career point

• Alex Gellert the only Seawolf who is positive in league games +1, and in all games +4 (Freshmen Ben Matthews is even in his one tourney game appearance though)