Saturday, January 22, 2011

Nanooks Blanked by Michigan - A Series of Unfortunate (and partly hilarious) Events

I have to admit, taking a 0-2 loss is kind of disheartening, but at least I had fun watching some of it. After Michigan's first goal of the evening, tempers seemed to be running pretty high as one of Michigan's players skated by the Nanooks bench after the ubiquitous goal celebration and supposedly provoked some of our guys. Needless to say, a bit of a scene developed there in front of the bench, but my attention quickly shifted from that. While the officials were trying to sort everything out, one of the members of Yost's infamous student section chucked a bright orange ball on the ice over the netting in front of Scott Greenham. Many may remember my recount of the shoe incident from last year ("Who throws a shoe? Honestly...!"). Any how, this time around its a ball, and kudos to Scotty for having fun with this. After about 4 attempts and playing with the crowd, he had enough, and motioned Michigan forward Matt Rust over, who shot it up into the stands, pumping the crowd and getting them into it.

Here's a video of the whole thing going down last night.




Any how, kind of a fast paced game. To sum it up shortly, the Nanooks had their chances. Petovello flubbed a golden opportunity with a 2 on 0 chance and had an open net to shoot at from the back hand, but he waited too long and got the outside of the net.

Nik Yaremchuk had a good opportunity to bury one as well off a rebound, but it went off the post.

Some unfortunate bounces the other way, but that's hockey. Tonight, the game will have to be a bit tighter.

Sorry for the brevity. Game 2 is on now! Little late getting this up...

8 comments:

Matt said...

Huge alaska fan from michigan. i will stay up until 2 to listen to the games on ksua. anytime alaska is in town i make every one. Alaska had so many chances to take control of both games. Hopefully the nanooks can rebound and get a good final spot in the ccha

Matt said...

Huge alaska fan from michigan. i will stay up until 2 to listen to the games on ksua. anytime alaska is in town i make every one. Alaska had so many chances to take control of both games. Hopefully the nanooks can rebound and get a good final spot in the ccha

Jason said...

Just a brutal weekend for the Nooks, both for being so close in both games and also because our postseason chances took a major hit, both in the CCHA and PWR.

If there's any silver lining, we are at home most of the way from here on out. This is a resilient squad...it was this time a year ago that we put together our run to the dance. Hopefully we can get it together down the stretch.

Matt said...

Agreed. Alaska played the top teams in the ccha this weekend. And being at both games in Yost this weekend, that is a hard venue to play in. It was a long tiring road trip and hopefully the Nanooks can turn it on late.

streaker said...

The video only caught the back half of the event. Greenham played up to the student section after the ball was tossed down on the ice. He tried two, three times to lift it back to the student section and failed- but was quite playful and showed mock embarrassment by putting his glove and blocker over his mask like a mascot would do. He finally flung it back into the stands and it was promptly sent back at him. This is when he decided to send it over the glass on the opposite side (where alums/parents sit) and failed. he and Rust were laughing about it and Rust volunteered to help him. That is where the video picks up. It was quite entertaining. As for the little dust up, I don't doubt that an Alaska blogger would point the instigator at U-M. The way I saw it, both teams were at fault, a lot of dooshery and trash talking going on.

Game one was simply blown early chances by UA. Game two, both teams had defensive breakdowns, but UA owned the 3rd period and couldn't take advantage of the gift 5x3 at the end. Credit Greenham with his usually strong netminding, but Hunwick outplayed him this weekend.

Britton said...

Hopefully they can turn it on late. The 'Nooks are in 8th placenow on the conference. The last few series should be set up nicely to make a run. I'm not saying they're gimmies, but we aren't playing Michigan anymore.

It was a good series, just unfortunate outcomes from my perspective. Credit to Hunwick, he played a great series, and definitely earned the shutout and the win. The Nanooks had their chances both nights, but like streaker said, they couldn't do anything with them. Especially Saturday with that 5 on 3. That was just...bad. Then the goal that got waved off. Wish I could have seen that.

As for the scrum, I'm sure that's probably true. The announcers and the cameras kind of pointed the finger at Michigan after UM's first goal, watching the skater
Go by the bench, then the scrum breaks out when one of our guys responds. I wish I could have seen the whole skit with the ball. You would never see that happen up here. Partially because of lack of enthusiasm from the crowd, and second, whoever threw the ball on the ice would probably be immediately ejected and royally cussed out by event staff. I've seen students ejected for much less. Transplant our staff into Yost, and the stands would be empty after the first penalty chant. It's that pathetic.

As a side note, it's games like these where us Nanooks fans really should realize how much a playmaker like Dion meant to our team. His stick skills, and his presence were always felt on the ice and his ability to make plays is uncanny. And our guys have just not been able to find a replacement for him, and you can see how that's affected the team.

The guys have got to rally to make a deep run to have a chance at the big dance again.

Jason said...

Re the Carlson Center staff militia, I think part of the reason is that it's a borough-owned facility that is off-campus. Arenas like Yost are on campus and (presumably) university-owned. I think that makes a big difference. Our Anchorage nemesis has the same problem (and will continue to do so since their new playpen isn't accommodating the hockey team).

To wit, when I was enrolled at UAF, we actually had a competitive basketball team that filled up the Patty routinely (I know I'm really dating myself). That was always a rowdy crowd, much more so than the hockey games, and we are hockey-first athletic program.

I really hope that as the CC ages (it's already 20 years old) that the University gives serious thought to building an on-campus arena to replace the ancient Patty and bring hockey back on campus. It won't happen for a while, though, with the seawolves getting their new building.

streaker said...

Britton:

On the goal that was waived off-
I don't know who it was, but an Alaska player bowled Hunwick over just before the puck bounced into the net. I don't know if the player dislodged the rebound from Hunwick, or if it was a different player that shot it in. (It was right in front of me, but I haven't seen a replay.) Shegos signaled goal, but Sanborn told him to review it. Either way, the call was that the puck did not go in before Hunwick was interfered with. It must have been pretty conclusive, they reversed the call quickly after they went to see it on video. Sova didn't argue it. Ironically, there was no penalty on the play, either- must have been considered coincidental contact. He took quite a lick, though.

Alaska deserved a better fate this weekend, but I have to think that similar efforts will be rewarded in the future. They may also have it even out, not playing well and still winning, too. Good luck anyhow- it appears that Ferguson has the team going in the right direction. Maybe the Nooks can still earn an NCAA berth.