2010 Kendall Hockey Classic - Quest for a 3'Peat

The reigning Kendall Hockey Classic champions will defend their title against two formidable opponents this weekend in Air Force, and the #2 ranked North Dakota Fighting Sioux. Previews for both are coming, I just wanted to help get the word out early for those that may plan on being in Anchorage this weekend (it is PFD-weekend after all).

For those that won't be in Anchorage, both games will be broadcast on GCI Channel 1 and KFXF Fox 7 in Fairbanks. While Saturday's game will be live, Friday's game will be tape delayed until 10PM due to programming conflicts. Also, the radio feed from Bruce Cech is on 91.5 KSUA, and streaming online at http://ksua.uaf.edu.

Both games will obviously be at the Sullivan Arena. Friday's game against Air Force will be at 5:07PM AKDT, and Saturday against NoDak will be at 4:07PM.

As far as pre-game activities,

Thursday

7:15 pm the Kendall Hockey Classic banquet will be held at the Anchorage Marriott Downtown.  Cost is $35 and reservations can be made by calling Jane Pallister at 786-1225.

Friday

11:30 am the Kendall Hockey Classic luncheon will take place at the Anchorage Sheraton.  Cost is $30 and reservations can be made by calling Rhea Caldwell at 786-1250.

I've also gotten some questions about hotel deals for the classic. The Hilton Garden Inn is offering a special of $99 per night including their breakfast buffet.  The Hilton has a shuttle service that has in the

past gotten people to/from the Sullivan and their website indicates that they will attempt to accommodate the local shuttle needs of guests.

If you are interested, please call the hotel directly at (907) 729-7000.  In the past, the people at the desk aren't always told of this special, so if they aren't able to find this - the rate was arranged through Kymberly Flores, Sales Manager at the Hilton.

Nanooks Rout the Lancers, 9-0

Pre-game social.

Frustrations running high.

Putting the score aside for a moment, the key point to touch on here is special teams. These Canadian teams hit hard and they keep going. They eventually forced retaliation from the Nanooks and penalty after penalty (15 total for 41 minutes against UA) was called. After UA dug their own hole, they were able to pull themselves out of it. Granted, Windsor had a few chances, but they shut the door quick enough to keep it out of the net. I'm not one to appreciate a hockey game turn to a boxing match, and I'm not gonna put anyone down for it, but the guys responded to Windsor's tough play, and handled themselves. That said, they wound up put a lot of pressure on their special teams to perform, and they did. Windsor wasn't able to really get many quality chances with the man advantage, but they really didn't get any angles, since our guys moved faster than their passes... Our speed and their offensive zone mistakes set up 4 or 5 short handed chances, including a 2 on 1 that came up just short.

Sather gets the first Nanook goal of the season.

That said, Coach Ferguson has put a very well rounded team on the ice this season. Our freshmen look like they will be very productive, and positive contributors to the team in all facets of the game. The guys worked very well together, more conducive to team play than a game of individuals. The guys cycled the puck very well in the offensive zone, held the puck in for what seemed like hours, very fast on the breakout, forechecking was great, backchecking was good (and I think that's what pissed off Windsor, aside from the score). Both Steve Thompson and Scott Greenham were great in net. Granted, they didn't really get tested, but after the 'Nooks went up 5-0 in the second, Thompson got his shot and kept the goose egg going.

Peto roofs one in, 4-0 'Nooks.

One thing I paid attention to tonight was line combinations. The top line of Sather-Yaremchuk-Taranto will be very interesting. Last season, Yaremchuk and Sather traded duties on the top line with Taranto and Dion Knelsen. Now that Dion has gotten his degree, the three remaining unite. With Yaremchuk centering that line, my only concern was faceoffs, and it didn't take long for that concern to settle. For the night, Nik was officially 15-7 on the draw, but he should have gotten the W for a few more of those but control went the other way. Absent from the lineup tonight was Justin Filzen, who lead in faceoff win percentage last season with over 70%. I've been curious where he will fit in the lineup this season, but I didn't get a chance to see that tonight. Anther notable line, which I believe is the second line was Peto centering for Kunyk and Beck. Both of the freshmen wingers were scoring machines in their respective junior leagues last year, and with Peto healthy, I would expect to see both of these top lines score some points. The other two lines that rolled tonight have strong potential too. Ronnie Meyers and Chad Gehon centered by Derek Klassen spells positive things here as well. Gehon and Klassen had some good chemistry towards the end of last season, same with Ronnie Meyers. The two hooked up on that goal in the Governor's cup series against ACC. You all know which goal I'm talking about too... where Gehon embarrased their poor captain, and got the pass to Meyers who buried the 'Nooks 2nd (of 7) goal of the night. Anyway, getting sidetracked, there is some pre-existing chemistry here that produced an even strength goal tonight.

Finucci's Shorthanded Goal. 8-0

Speaking of goals, Alaska got 9 of them tonight. There is no way in hell I can recap them all, but both Yaremchuk and Kunyk officially lit the lamp twice. I thought Yaremchuk's second belonged to Sather (which would have been his second), but was a close call either way. Kunyk's second of the night was a thing of beauty. Beck catching a rebound, and Kunyk getting a shot in, and followed his rebound through for the score, that was a spectacular play. Gehon's goal came on the rush with a very accurate shot through traffic over the blocker side. A goal that makes me wish we had cameras in the nets. Carlo Finucci put up a shorthanded goal towards the end of the third period on a developing play, set up by Beck and Kunyk. It was right at the tail end of their last shorthanded endeavor, so after getting close quite a few times, punching a shorthanded tally on the board on top of everything else is satisfying.

Well with that said, take a look at the box score from tonight's bout. You can definitely see how the penalties shaped out.

The Windsor Lancers will take on UAA on Saturday in my old stomping grounds in Soldotna, which should be an interesting match. Anchorage has historically been a very physical team, so I'm pretty sure Windsor will be up to it. I might actually tune in for it...

Photos by mmf. Check out more awesome photos at mmf's online gallery.

Scouting the Lancers

Tonight, the Lancers from the University of Windsor come to the Patty Center to face off against the 'Nooks. This is the Lancers 5th game on the schedule, so they've got some time under their belts so far to get their season rolling.

Last season, the Lancers took on a pair of the 'Nooks common CCHA foes in the Michigan Wolverines and the Miami RedHawks. That trip to the states didn't fare so well, with back-to-back 2-6 losses. I don't expect much different here.

Coach Ferguson has said recently that Scott Greenham may be given a run for his money for his time between the pipes. Last season, Greenham racked up the 2nd most playing minutes of any D-I goalie in the nation. Backups Steve Thompson and Colin Rundell have clearly put in some work to improve their games, and tonight is a perfect night to give one of these guys some game time.

I'm sure you all saw my thoughts on the Blue/Gold game, but that still holds true. I'm sure we'll still see Dallas shake the lines up a bit throughout tonight to look for some more chemistry. Also, I anticipate the freshmen getting a lot of ice time tonight to continue to get used to the game plan and the strategy with the upperclassmen leading the way.

Should be a good time tonight. The game is at 7:05 here at the Patty Center Ice Arena tonight here on campus. The circus is still going on at the Carlson, so the game will be in a smaller venue (and, subsequently, on smaller NHL-sized ice). Tickets will be available at the door.

Tonight's prediction, 7-1 'Nooks.

See you all at the Patty... Can't make it to the game? The Voice of the Nanooks, Bruce Cech calls the games live over the radio on 91.5FM in Fairbanks, or via the online stream at http://ksua.uaf.edu.

Quotes From The Conference Call

The CCHA Head Coaches, along with the Commissioner Anastos met this morning via conference call with the media. Here are some quotes from Coach Ferguson.

On the difference of going into the off-season after having qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the first time

Going into the summer and now I think it’s important we talked about keeping a level head about last season because that is behind us. Once the dust settled I think we all realized that we wanted to learn from the experience and realized that’s what we want to get back to this season. With that being said, there’s a lot of work that has to go into it and our focus going into the summer was everyone doing what they needed to do to get better so that we could hopefully give ourselves an opportunity to be successful again at the end of next year.

On strengths and areas of concern going into this season

I think that it seems like we have good depth at all positions. I think it’s real competitive and I’m just looking to see where everything is going to shake out here when we play our first game as far as the line-up. I’m real happy with some of the decisions we have to make, being that we have some tough decisions to make on who’s going to be in the line-up every night. I really like our senior class and our guys that are going to be looked upon to lead us. I really like our leadership and our depth going into this season. I think that one of the things we want to focus on is just making sure we’re being consistent on everything that we’re doing in all facets of the program.

On candidates to pick up the offensive slack created by the departure of Dion Knelsen, and Andy Taranto’s line mates to start the season

Dion was obviously a great player for us at a bunch of different levels. He played in a lot of different situations and he was a good leader. I don’t know if we are going to have one guy just step up and be Dion Knelsen and take up his minutes. I guess it’s going to be by committee that we are going to fill up some of those minutes that Dion leaves behind. At the same time I feel good about our team and guys jumping up and taking advantage of that opportunity.

As far as Andy goes, right now we are mixing things up and trying to find some chemistry in there. I know that at the end of the season last year him, Dion and Dustin Sather had a real good run there going the last ten games going into the playoffs. So Dustin and Andy have been playing quite a bit together here in practice. We have been mixing some guys in there, trying to see where the chemistry is at. We are going to have a few opportunities coming up here in the next couple weeks with the tournament in Anchorage and our tournament to be ready to go for Michigan State to open up the CCHA.

On Nanooks being picked 3rd in coaches poll 

It’s nice to be recognized, but at the same time everybody right now is 0-0-0. We are not going to worry about preseason polls or what’s behind us and some accomplishments we’ve had. We have to focus in on moving forwards and getting better every day. I told them two years ago when I came back from the meeting in Grand Rapids and we were picked 12th, our approach is going to be the same way. We are not going to focus in on those things. We are just going to focus in on getting better every day and being a strong group and I think if we do that it will give us the best opportunity to be successful.

On meeting the three ‘Big Ten’ teams four times

To be successful within the league throughout the regular season, you need to be successful in your cluster. We have a strong cluster, but every night you play in the CCHA is strong. You need to play your best every Friday and Saturday to be successful. Our approach needs to be the same. We can’t get up for some teams and not for others because if we do that we are not going to be successful at the end day. From our approach, it’s kind of the same every day for us. We know that it’s a battle. We aren’t a team that takes any team for granted and if we do we are not going to be winning very many hockey games. We are excited about the opportunity and we feel it’s a strong cluster but we tie that into the fact that we are in a great league and we need to be prepared every Friday and Saturday.

You can read quotes from the rest of the coaches here.