Re: UAH Hockey 2014-15: The 30th Varsity Season
Well, here's my take:
1. UAH has not played very well on the road this year (and are winless on the road in 2015), with just two road wins and only one in conference.
2. As cpp notes, LSSU is coming back from a trip to Fairbanks, and that's tough, because you have to go from the interior to Anchorage and then to the Lower 48, which apparently adds a couple of hours and is, well, another travel headache. I have no idea whether they fly into MSP or DTW — I'd guess DTW — but doing those three flights and then the bus is a hard trip.
3. It's a minor legend that Defiel got new contact lenses over the holiday break and has been lights out since. Well, we all know that goalies don't score and can't, as such, win you games, but they can steal them. Sure,
Defiel shut out UAH 1-0 in November, but UAH looked like crap that game during one player taking two majors in the same game. Defiel looked awful the next night.
4. If you want to talk about resilience, let's consider this:
a. UAH bounced back just fine from a
butt-
kicking in Bemidji to handle Northern
reasonably well.
b. UAH has bounced back from really tough losses this year, tying NMU after a terrible
series in Mankato (
including a 41-9 SOG disparity in the Saturday game), the whole
Omaha series, and the
Alaska OT game after a tough series against Tech at home.
c. The Chargers have had only one truly dreadful two-weekend stretch (BG at home and Mankato on the road — early for a young team and against two of the top three teams in the league), and the only other multi-game stretch of terror is the
Ferris-
Tech-
Tech series.
The Chargers
have to split and
really could use a sweep. UAH won't be idle the rest of the season (vFSU, vUAF, @BGSU), while the Lakers will next weekend. You can figure that Tech is going to handle the Seawolves another pair of losses this weekend, so getting at least two points from the Lakers puts the Chargers four clear with six to play, and what a six: @BSU, vBGSU, vUAF.
Two wins this weekend puts UAH a lot closer to a playoff trip. They'd be 8-12-0, a mark that could tie Ferris if their woes against the league's elite continue. (They're winless in six straight against MSU and BGSU, with the final two BGSU games this weekend.) At that point, they have the chance to really make a move.
I think that I concocted a way for UAH to make it to 5th. But all of that starts with wins this weekend. I don't expect a sweep on the road, but I sure want it, and I expect a split.
GFM
