Kendall Classic, Michigan,Mercyhurst,UA_, Uaa

[Rms123]

Re: Kendall Classic, Michigan,Mercyhurst,UA_, Uaa

Great weekend for the Nooks!

[Ralph Baer]

Re: Kendall Classic, Michigan,Mercyhurst,UA_, Uaa

Goal Rush thread: http://board.uscho.com/showthread.php?t=85578

[wolverineTrumpet]

Re: Kendall Classic, Michigan,Mercyhurst,UA_, Uaa

Tonight was what I was expecting from this Michigan team. Sometimes it still looks scary, but they looked faster tonight and there were plenty of different players putting the puck in the net.

Thanks to everyone that said "hi". My friends and I had a great time up here. Flying back tomorrow.

[Suze]

Re: Kendall Classic, Michigan,Mercyhurst,UA_, Uaa

Tonight was what I was expecting from this Michigan team. Sometimes it still looks scary, but they looked faster tonight and there were plenty of different players putting the puck in the net.

Thanks to everyone that said "hi". My friends and I had a great time up here. Flying back tomorrow.

Congrats to Michigan. From the moment both teams stepped on the ice, Michigan looked fired up and UAA looked ho hum. Pretty depressing game if you are a UAA fan. I hope they learn from it and that us fans don't have to sit through another game like that this season. Too bad too, because the Sully was pretty full. Gotta give those fans a reason to return, and they didn't get one tonight.

[Tundra]

Re: Kendall Classic, Michigan,Mercyhurst,UA_, Uaa

Congrats to UAF for winning the kendall classic and Michigan for the victory.

I'll give us D+ for losing to Wolverine. good effort but I think we need a new strategy when playing against faster team speed. The slight speed differential hurt but the transition totally killed us. We need faster transition.

positive: limited shots 25, low penalty 2-3

negative: lousy penalty kill, lousy powerplay 0-4 (2shots on goal) poor defense: (giving too much distance/time) partly due to speed differential. Very poor/slow transition.

I'll give UAF A- (minus for being Fairbanks). total domination of Mercyhurst with faster wheel and transition... that looked like a carbon copy of the trashing we got from Michigan. I think we can kiss the governors cup goodbye

[alfablue]

Re: Kendall Classic, Michigan,Mercyhurst,UA_, Uaa

I'm not trying to be "smart" but out of curiosity, why did many of you think that UAF would have struggled and UAA would have done well against UM??

Not that you Seawolves should be all that bummed- it IS early in the season afterall. But it's interesting that many of the predictions were exactly backwards. You are ALL more familiar with both programs, so I'm just looking for more insight.

Playing UA every year- I know they give us a very strong game every time, and if UM is *barely* off the offensive game, it's basically over at the face off. I guess I'm curious to find out what didn't happen that you expected to happen for UAA. It *sounds* like they just came out flat, other than that, no major problems.

Good luck for all teams for the rest of the season! I'm looking forward to hearing wT's stories of the games. And of Anchorage.

[Suze]

Re: Kendall Classic, Michigan,Mercyhurst,UA_, Uaa

I'm not trying to be "smart" but out of curiosity, why did many of you think that UAF would have struggled and UAA would have done well against UM??

Not that you Seawolves should be all that bummed- it IS early in the season afterall. But it's interesting that many of the predictions were exactly backwards. You are ALL more familiar with both programs, so I'm just looking for more insight.

Playing UA every year- I know they give us a very strong game every time, and if UM is *barely* off the offensive game, it's basically over at the face off. I guess I'm curious to find out what didn't happen that you expected to happen for UAA. It *sounds* like they just came out flat, other than that, no major problems.

Good luck for all teams for the rest of the season! I'm looking forward to hearing wT's stories of the games. And of Anchorage.

UAA did come out flat, and Michigan was a more physical team. Too many times UAA went after the player rather than the puck. They got beat to lose pucks and lost the battles in the corners. Bryce is normally excellent with the puck, but the game went sour right from the start when he mishandled the puck and it ended up in his net.

Passes were terrible, and Michigan was always there clogging the lanes. I watched most of the UA_ and Michigan game on Friday, and I honestly thought that Michigan was much better, they outshot the Nanooks by a large margin, but gave up two soft goals. Greenham was the difference maker.

I believe UAA has the talent, and I think they will give the Nanooks a run for the cup this season. They need to learn from their loss last night, put it behind them, and refocus. From what I saw last night, they didn't play very inspirational hockey.

[alfablue]

Re: Kendall Classic, Michigan,Mercyhurst,UA_, Uaa

Thanks, Suze.

[Suze]

Re: Kendall Classic, Michigan,Mercyhurst,UA_, Uaa

I didn't want to let this thread die without mentioning the positive changes we saw this weekend. The music was great, and entertainment between periods was fun and different.

The folks at Kendall should be thanked for the great job they did as well! I love the UAA pull out banners! The Kendall keychains in velvet boxes was a classy touch. Thanks Kendall Motors.

Thanks also to the boosters and all their hard work, the bagged caramel corn that you let us take from the booster rooms was great. I do have one suggestion, can you switch the booster rooms? The line for food in the Kendall room was soooo long, it was packed! There was not enough room for everyone in there, way too crowded. It seems like it would be better suited to switch the booster rooms. Just a suggestion.

[Tundra]

Re: Kendall Classic, Michigan,Mercyhurst,UA_, Uaa

I'm not trying to be "smart" but out of curiosity, why did many of you think that UAF would have struggled and UAA would have done well against UM??

Not that you Seawolves should be all that bummed- it IS early in the season afterall. But it's interesting that many of the predictions were exactly backwards. You are ALL more familiar with both programs, so I'm just looking for more insight.

I didn't ... expected UM to defeat both Alaska teams. Everyone thought UAF had too many question marks with goalie, scoring etc..unlike us returning most of our key players, But after UAF defeated UM I actually thought Seawolves had a good chance. Because:

Seawolves h2h against Nanooks have been very good for several years and if Seawolves can defeat Nanooks defeats Wolverine = ergo Seawolves might defeat Wolverine. I'm not sure this will be true this year, it seems like team speed has increased for nanooks. I think the problem might have been the flow and not enough hitting but UM is bigger and more skilled on the PP than UAF so that option really wasn't there.

I'm not sure if UM came out flat friday against UAF but they were evenly matched, team speed, transition (o2defense2offense), didn't really see any difference. offense based on speed was neutralized maybe 1 oddman rush. And UM never had quality scoring chances except on the powerplay.
Wolverine reminds me of the Gophers except your D actually play defense.

[1/2 nook]

Re: Kendall Classic, Michigan,Mercyhurst,UA_, Uaa

I'm not trying to be "smart" but out of curiosity, why did many of you think that UAF would have struggled and UAA would have done well against UM??

Not that you Seawolves should be all that bummed- it IS early in the season afterall. But it's interesting that many of the predictions were exactly backwards. You are ALL more familiar with both programs, so I'm just looking for more insight.

Playing UA every year- I know they give us a very strong game every time, and if UM is *barely* off the offensive game, it's basically over at the face off. I guess I'm curious to find out what didn't happen that you expected to happen for UAA. It *sounds* like they just came out flat, other than that, no major problems.

Good luck for all teams for the rest of the season! I'm looking forward to hearing wT's stories of the games. And of Anchorage.

I think what sums up the UAa-UM game is one play I saw where the UM forward with the puck pulled away from the d-man.

[Rms123]

Re: Kendall Classic, Michigan,Mercyhurst,UA_, Uaa

I was just concerned with an "un-tested" (although good) goalie, and the lack of scoring last year for UAF. UAA returned most of their offense, and I thought they would match UM physically, which I thought would be the key to UAA winning (and exceptional net minding). So far so good for the Nooks! Some questions appear to have been answered. As far as UM completely out playing UAF................not true. UM took the first, they split the second, and UAF took the third. It was an evenly matched game from my point of view, and apparently many others. I know it’s tough for a wolves fan to do, but give a little credit.

[wolverineTrumpet]

Re: Kendall Classic, Michigan,Mercyhurst,UA_, Uaa

UAA did come out flat, and Michigan was a more physical team. Too many times UAA went after the player rather than the puck.

My friend noticed this too. In fact his comment was, "we're just letting them hit us, which takes them out of the play and then we take the puck" It happened a few times.