What a luxury for Wildcat fans to see their goal light illuminated 8
times.  Shades of 1990-92 and Beattie/Drake/Hiller et al.  As you know
thanks to Randy's post-game message, in some ways it was the Greg Hadden
show.  The senior Wildcat center's four goals doubled his previous
single-game best.
 
The first period was amazing; the Wildcats scored five unanswered goals
to go up 5-0 by the 14:03 mark.  Newcomer Jason Welch started things
early when he got away on a nice two-man breakaway, skated right in on
UAA's Lee Schill's left side and backhanded one over Schill's left arm
into the upper corner of the goal.  Five and a half minutes later during
a Wildcat power play Hadden
got his first of the night as he one-timed a good pass from Mike Harding
across the slot to where Harden was set up in the right wing faceoff
circle.  Hadden scored again two and a half minutes later when Brent
Riplinger fed him in the neutral zone and he let go a long slap shot
from about ten feet inside the blue line on his right side; Schill got a
piece of the puck but not enough.  It was 4-0 when Brian Barker finished
a very nice play in front of the UAA net as he tipped in a pass from
Harding which caught Barker just outside the crease on Schill's right
three plus minutes later.  The NMU barrage concluded at 14:03 when Mike
Hillock got a strange (soft?) goal; he was battling for the puck near
the boards beyond the right wing faceoff circle, close to the blue line,
got control, partially turned toward the net and threw the puck.
Hillock didn't even look directly at the goal but somehow it went in; it
clearly deflected off something, either Schill's stick or a defenseman's
skate.
 
UAA scored on a power play at 18:31 when Paul Williams took a very hard
shot that actually missed the net.  Kochan stretched out his left leg in
an attempt to block the shot, but it went by his skate harmlessly.
Unfortunately for Kochan and the 'Cats, the puck rebounded straight back
from the back boards and hit the back of Kochan's leg, now fully
extended, and deflected back into the goal.
 
The second period the Wildcats seemed affected by their big lead, while
the Seawolves played much more aggressively.  UAA controlled play for
the first two-thirds of the period, and narrowed the score to 5-2 early
when David Vallieres scored on a rebound during a power play.  Oddly,
though 'Cat fans felt like the period was pretty overwhelmingly UAA's,
the Seawolves only had 9 shots on goal.
 
The third period saw a return to NMU dominance.  Hadden scored almost
immediately to complete his hat trick when he reprised his first goal of
the evening, scoring again on the one-time play from the right wing
faceoff circle off a cross-slot pass, this time from Kory Karlander, at
00:55.  Bobby Stewart matched that for the Seawolves at 2:46 when a
poorly considered Wildcat pass in front of the NMU net was easily
intercepted by Stewart and flipped past the helpless Kochan.  At 9:33
Hadden took a very hard slap shot (looked more like a Jason Hehr than a
Greg Hadden shot) from the top of the right wing faceoff circle and just
overpowered SChill, who got a pretty good chunk of it but still couldn't
keep the puck out of the net.  Rookie Aaron Cain finished off NMU's and
the night's scoring at 17:30 on a shot I frankly don't recall very well
at this point, fourteen hours later (well, OK, only eleven hours after
seeing the taped delay replay).
 
Rick Comley was very pleased with the scoring (weren't we all!) and the
overall level of play of his team, but was very concerned by the large
number of penalties the 'Cats took.  UAA had 14 power plays!  The up
side was that, obviously, NMU did a pretty good job of penalty killing.
Kochan was very good in goal; he certainly couldn't have done anything
about the third Alaska goal, so he in effect held UAA to two scores,
which is what Comley said had been his own goal for the game (Comley's,
not Kochan's).
 
Interestingly, in the postgame interview remarks reported in today's
Mining Journal, UAA coach Brush Chistianson seemed relatively
unperturbed.  "It didn't seem like we played all that bad of a first
period," he said.  "We had some bad breaks and they capitalized, but I
thought we could have scored at least tow more goals in that period
ourselves.  I'm pleased that our guys are working hard.  But you have to
put the puck in the net when you get that many chances." Christianson
may have been talking about power play opportunites; certainly there
weren't a huge number of UAA shots on goal (especailly compared to what
MTU goalie Caravaggio faced last night!).  However, it is true that
Kochan did make some really good saves on what few good shots the
Seawolves got off, especially in that first period.  In his post game
radio interview remarks Comley made it clear he believes penalties are
being called more closely in the WCHA this year, especially in the
neutral zone, and that his team had better adjust to that.  He noted
that giving up fourteen power play opportunities to a more efficient
scoring team would have been a real problem.
 
Interesting side note: Greg Hadden and Lee Schill are good friends and
close neighbors, both being residents of Coquitlam, British Columbia.
In the postgame interview Hadden noted they skate and hang out together
in the summer, and that "For now, I've got bragging rights back home
this summer.  But he still has three games to redeem himself." Hadden
noted "Lee is a very good friend, and I wanted to have a big game
against him."  Gee, with friends like this, who needs . . .
 
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 *  Steve Christopher, NMU    [log in to unmask]    GO 'CATS!!!         *
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