Well, this had to be the longest weekend I've lived through in a long time.
It was great to see all my old pals up in Fairbanks again.  But 700 miles
and two feet of snow (it's still falling, BTW) made the weekend a bit more
harrowing than I'd have liked.  Still, seeing friends and hob-nobbing with
the fairthful here following the second game was a lot of fun.  I finally
got to meet Jeff Partnow and Eric Carlson in person, to boot!
 
On the subject of the games, obviously I and 4600 others in the building
would've liked to have seen the Nooks knock off UAA Friday night.  There was
a lot of emotion surrounding the condition of Erik Drygas.  The PA announcer
was noticeably shaken when speaking about Erik listening to the game in his
hospital bed.  Having his jersey spotlighted in the Nanook goal during the
pre-game introduction had a lot of us choked up.  You could really feel the
whole town come together and rally around Drygas and his family.  Although
the final outcome may left UAF fans a little disappointed, I couldn't help
but feel proud of the team and the community and the way both handled the
adversity they faced.
 
As a team, UAF has a long road in front of them.  I'm sure Coach Laurion
would like to have nineteen more Cody Bowtells to suit up.  But instead the
Nanooks are going to really have to lean on their freshmen.  Bowtell really
carried the team; a tribute to the captain's C on his sweater.  He scored a
bonafide blue collar goal on Saturday night, killed penalties all series
long and continually skated rings around the Seawolf defense.
Unfortunately, when he was off the ice, the team could only hope to hold
their own in the absence of on-ice leadership.  Pat Williams and Chris
Kirwan showed some spark and several freshmen (Wynia, Coady, Upesleja,
McNeill) had bright moments as well.  But all in all, there was no sustained
attack, no consistency.  The attrition to the defensive corps (Drygas, Mark
Cotter (split kneecap) and Eon McFarlane's flu bug) is going to hamper UAF
in the weeks ahead.  Goalie Ian Perkins looked big and solid in net but
received no support whatsoever.  All the goals he allowed were either power
play markers when his defensemen were out of position or outright giveaways
deep in the defensive zone, both signs of inexperience among the blueliners.
 
UAA really didn't look that much better than UAF.  Their relative depth on D
made the difference.  Neither Davis nor Teskey looked especially sharp in
goal but neither was severely tested by UAF.  Most of the 29 shots Teskey
saved Saturday hit him right in the chest.  I've never thought much of Davis
from watching him in prior seasons and Friday was no different.  It will be
interesting to see if his poor puck handling skills cost him starts to the
much nimbler Teskey, who on several occasions showed his passing abilities
up ice during transition.  One thing is clear - Coach Talafous has
definitely got his squad focused on their game.  No stupid penalties, no
reckless play as in prior years.  I give them credit for coming into the
weekend as a team and gutting out two tough wins.  If they keep up this kind
of play, I think UAA could turn some heads in the WCHA this year.
 
For the Nanooks to be successful against the powers of the CCHA, they've got
to get back on defense.  Having Bowtell, Williams and Kirwan screaming up
ice and playing dump and chase won't work without some consistent
quarterbacking at the blue line.  Having Tavis McMillan on the coaching
staff won't hurt, but the youngsters are really going to have to grow up in
a hurry, with Miami and Michigan coming to Fairbanks in the next two weeks.
Seeing Tavis behing the UAF bench made me hark back to his and Fedorchuk's
final season three years ago when they tied for the NCAA scoring title.  It
was the last time UAF had a true defensive tandem (McMillan and Don Lester)
who could run the power play, keep the puck in the zone and make the snappy
passes down low to the snipers - all while getting back when they needed to.
Also happened to be the last time UAF took the Governor's Cup from UAA.
Hmmmm.....
 
Mark Sonnier
Anchorage, AK
(but still a Nanook through and through)
 
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