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UAA at Wisconsin preview
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The Seawolves are coming off a great weekend at home in which they outscored national contender Denver 9-6. The Seawolves proved once again that they can compete with the best teams in the nation and Saturday night's game was one of the most enjoyable games I've attended in recent memory. However, it's now time to get back to reality.
Experienced fans of the Seawolves know that they've always had the potential to compete with the best teams on any given night. It's the lack of consistency that Seawolves fans have suffered year in and year out. Without sounding too pessimistic, I'm not yet convinced this year's team is any different. History and early season losses to teams like Robert Morris are not favorable. Looking inside Saturday night's big win, the Seawolves were able to capitalize on Denver's backup freshman goalie, and although the Seawolves finally scored two goals on the power play, both came with Denver having only three players on the ice. This all being said, the Seawolves have a great oppurtunity to move up in the WCHA standings this week and gain some much needed momentum on the road. I for one, look forward to being proven wrong.
The Wisconsin Badgers are sitting at 4-3-1 on the year and 2-3-1 in the WCHA. This gives Wisconsin 5 points in the conference, one ahead of UAA. Standings Last weekend the Badgers earned a split at home against Minnesota. The Badgers are a good offensive team who've been playing stout defensively so far this season as well. They average 3.4 goals a game and 39.4 shots per game. Fortunately for the Seawolves their power play is struggling at 14%. Their penalty kill, however, is an impressive 92%. This doesn't bode well for a Seawolves squad who's power play is only converting 12% of their oppurtunities and only killing 82% of their penalties against. The Badgers will also have a strong hometown crowd behind them. So far this season, the Badgers have averaged over 12,000 fans a game at the Kohl Center. This equats to double the capacity of the Sullivan Arena.
A few of the Badgers the Seawolves will need to keep track of include:
- Senior forward Blake Geoffrion. One of three captains for the Badgers, Blake is a power play specialist. He leads the team with 5 goals and last season became the first Badger since Joe Pavelski to score 10 power play goals in a season. Blake also comes from a distinguished hockey family. Both his grandfather and great grandfather are Hockey Hall of Fame members. His great grandfather, Howie Morenz, won three stanley cups with the Montreal Canadians and has his number 7 retired by the team. Blake's grandfather, Bernie "boom boom" Geoffrion, won six stanley cups with the Montreal Canadians and is credited with popularizing of all things, the slap shot. Blake Geoffrion was drafted by the Nashville Predators 56th overall in the 2nd round of the 2006 NHL draft. Blake's bio
- Junior defenseman Brendan Smith. Leads the Badgers with 9 points on the year. Drafted 27th overall by the Detroit Red Wings in the 2007 NHL draft.
- Junior defenseman Ryan McDonagh. One of the three captains for the Badgers, Ryan has 6 points in 8 games so far this season. He is a former Minnesota Mr. Hockey (2007) and was drafted 12th overall in 2007 by the Montreal Canadians. His uncle is Steve Walsh, former NFL quarterback who also led the Miami Hurricans to the 1987 NCAA championship.
- Junior defenseman Cody Goloubef. Cody leads the Badgers with a +7 rating this season and scored the game-winning goal in both games against UAA last season. Drafted in the 2nd round (37th overall) by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2008.
- Senior forward Ben Street. Ben is the third Badger captian. A senior last season as well, Ben was forced to redshirt last year due to a season ending injury. Although he only has 3 points so far this season, Ben leads the team with 33 shots on goal and recorded 30 points in his junior season with the Badgers (2007-2008).
The Seawolves will look for their offense to pick right up where they left off against Denver. The Seawolves are averaging 2.5 goals a game and 23.2 shots per game. Before Saturday night's offensive explosion, however, the Seawolves had only scored 6 goals in 5 WCHA games. Scoring won't come easy against Wisconsin's duo of junior goaltenders, Brett Bennett and Scott Gudmandson, both of whom post a save percentage over .900. Kevin Clark and Tommy Grant still lead the Seawolves in points with 8 apiece. Interestingly, freshman defenseman Lee Baldwin is third on the team with 6 points. For the Seawolves to contend with the talented Wisconsin squad, they will need to continue to get balanced scoring from defenseman Lee Baldwin, Curtis Leinweber, and Kane Lafranchise. One key to the victory over Denver was the unexpected scoring from players such as Sean Wiles, Daniel Naslund, and Mickey Spencer. If the Seawolves can get production from sources other than their top line it will go a long way in ensuring victories as the season goes on. UAA statistics
Goaltending is obviously critical to any teams success. Junior Bryce Christianson has shown flashes of brilliance this season and would be expected to start one or both of the games down in Madison. Both Bryce and Senior Jon Olthuis helped their stats with their performances against Denver last weekend. They both post identical 2-3 records while Jon Olthuis actually has slightly better numbers. Olthuis has a GAA of 3.23 and a save percentage of .873 with the only shutout earlier in the season against RPI. Christianson's GAA is 3.80 and his save percentage is .861.
A look at the new rankings show last season's runner-up, Miami (Ohio), still holding the top spot and received all but one of the first place votes. That solo vote went to North Dakota who has worked their way back into 2nd after their loss to UAA dropped them a few positions. Denver fell from 2nd to 4th in the rankings after the 7-3 thumping they suffered at the Sullivan Arena Saturday. UAF jumped from 13th to 9th in the rankings and are sitting at 6-1-1 on the season. UAA's foe this upcoming weekend, Wisconsin, fell out of the top 20 in the rankings due to their home split last weekend against unranked Minnesota. National Rankings
Finally, I'm encouraging everyone (except WCHA referees) to check out Donald Dunlop's site. He's a funny guy who's been writing about the team much longer than I, and he goes into great depth on the Seawolves. http://uaafan.blogspot.com/
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