As the team lined up on their respective goal lines, The Boys are Back hit the PA, and for me it finally settled in -- Hockey is Back! And it feels phenomenal. Always nice to have something to look forward to on the weekends.
Box Score
 |
| Freshman Joey Davies takes a faceoff for the Blue team. |
The story though for the night was the newcomers. For starters, Jared Larson was a difference maker on the ice tonight. He's got good vision and one hell of a pair of mitts. His stick skills are smooth. Joey Davies and Josh Erickson both are also going to be fun to watch this season. Seems like Erickson got a bit shaken up in the second half tonight, but it didn't seem serious. In my previous post, I also mentioned Marcus Basara as a threat as well, but I didn't see as much from him as I would have liked to tonight. Part of that being he was matched against some of the veterans, but he has some good potential to emerge as a top player for us.
And Colton Parayko, what a difference. you can tell the guy put on 15-20 pounds of muscle just by looking at him. And coaches are telling me that during preseason strength and conditioning testing, Colton hit a 40" standing vertical jump. Nanooks legendary strength and conditioning coach Mike Curtin is evolving this kid from a hockey player into a physical beast man child. He is going to dominate this season.
On the game front, if you're looking for a recap of the game, check out the News Miner's new sports guy Tim O'Donnell's recap article over at newsminer.com. I'm going to try to stick more to analysis tonight and through the season. I know that'll make for some shorter posts, but I want to do more than just recap plays, I want to focus more on the Nanooks' systems and strengths, while analyzing opponents and the matchups.
So with that, not much to analyze here. We'll get a better perspective next weekend versus UBC when the coaches can get guys settled into some steady lines and they start to develop some chemistry with one another. The exhibition next weekend versus UBC at the Carlson Center will be at 5:30, a bit earlier than normal, so mark your calendars.
Also of note, the photo up above was taken by Mike Fisher, a great photographer who volunteers his time and efforts to take photos for the blog and for fans around the country to enjoy. Thanks a lot Mike for the great work. Check out the rest of his Blue/Gold album for some stunning photos.
Tonight's Rosters for each squad
Gold Team
6 Michael Quinn
7 Josh Erickson
9 Marcus Basara
11 Alec Hajdukovich
17 Jared Linnell
18 Trevor Campbell
20 Matt Friese
22 Josh Atkinson
23 Nolan Kaiser
24 Nolan Huysmans
Blue Team
2 Justin Tateson
4 Colton Parayko
5 Richard Coyne
8 Justin Woods
10 J.D. Peterson
12 Garrick Perry
14 Brandon Morley
15 Shawn Hochhausen
16 Joey Davies
25 Nolan Youngmun
27 Tyler Morley
29 Jared Larson
The goaltenders rotated between each team to keep the playing time balanced.
3 comments:
Great intro. Any chance that can get cranked up and pumped out on the video board once or twice a game at the Carlson?
Before all the bloodletting begins, I wish your team good luck in the nWCHA. Just not against us. Cheers since now you're the only Alaska (Statewide) College Hockey Blog.
Same to you, Andrew. I think I speak for everyone when I say we've all waited a long time for our teams to be in the same conference. Now our games will actually count for something, and they have something else to play for besides pride.
Sorry to hear that you're closing up shop. I was happy that someone else picked up what Donald had started. Just because he posted 3 times a day some times doesn't mean that you should have held yourself to the same standard. We do what we do because we enjoy it. Although I think my life might be threatened if I stopped...
Post a Comment