Photo credit: Golden Gopher Hockey
Tag Archives: hockey
Throwback Weekend
They are promoting this weekend at UAF: “Throwback Weekend”, as the University of Alaska Fairbanks takes on Minnesota State University at the Patty Ice Center on campus.
It’s been three years since Alaska has played a D-1 game at the Patty Center. This year with MSU having a conflict with their Verizon Center and the Carlson Center here in Fairbanks being booked with the Alaska Federation of Natives Conference, the hockey games have been moved to the campus rink, the original home of the NCAA Nanooks.
This year begins the celebration of the University of Alaska’s 100th Anniversary, and the University is starting that kickoff with the hockey team returning to campus to play the #9 ranked Mavericks of Mankato.
The puck drops at 7:07 both Friday and Saturday evening. Tickets are extremely limited.
Alaska Goal Rush
D-1 Hockey returns to Fairbanks with the annual Brice Alaska Goal Rush. Anchorage joins Fairbanks as the two Alaska programs take on Canisius and the University of Nebraska – Omaha.
The puck drops at 4:07 on Friday afternoon for game one.
Graphic courtesy of Alaska Nanook Hockey
Puck Art
The Puck ‘A’ was awaiting Alaska at their bench Sunday afternoon. Sadly, there was no ‘M’ waiting for Minnesota players.
Hockey at The Sully
Friday:
The Anchorage Seawolves vs Minnesota Gophers
If Friday night was any indication, 2016-17 will be a very long season for the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves. Minnesota outplayed UAA from the opening puck drop, and the Gophers cruised to a 6-0 win. UAA averaged only 4 SOG per period in the loss.
Saturday:
“Down in front, Doc!” The Nanooks take on the Seawolves
Life didn’t get any easier on Saturday night for UAA, as Alaska took it to the Seawolves in a 4-1 win for the Nanooks. The tone was once again set early, as Alaska held UAA to only 3 SOG in the first period. So far so good for my two teams, as both Minnesota and Fairbanks won round one. Now they would face each other.
Sunday afternoon:
Minnesota and Alaska during warmups
I didn’t know what to expect when Minnesota and Alaska took to the ice; it had been quite a few years since the two teams had met.
I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all.
I grew up watching the Golden Gophers, but I’ve been attending Nanook games for over 20 years now, and I know this team and see the players throughout the year in Fairbanks. I was torn, so much so that The Curator told me to “Stop cheering for both teams; it’s confusing!” A Nanook win would be huge for the program, but a Gopher loss would be bad for rankings down the road. All I could do was hope both teams played well, and try to just enjoy the game. It didn’t help that we were surrounded by Nanook parents. The mother of Justin Woods warned me that I better not be cheering for Minnesota in front of her.
Alaska takes on ranked Minnesota
I expected a small crowd on Sunday, since UAA was not playing, but this was absolutely pathetic. There were some transplanted Minnesotans at the game, as well as a fair group down from Fairbanks, but overall I thought there was about 700 people in the stands. The announced paid attendance was 1900 and some change, but there sure as hell were not that many people in the seats.
Alaska played Minnesota tough. The Nanook defense played well, and I thought Jesse Jenks played well in goal for UA making 21 saves, but Minnesota was always a step ahead and an outbreak away. Minnesota tallied 2 SHG’s and an ENG on the way to a 6-3 win. Alaska twice cut the Minnesota lead from 2 to one, but the Gophers found a way to rally each time. Eric Schierhorn, the Minnesota goal tender made 17 saves and had an assist on the first Minnesota short handed goal.
According to The Curator, Minnesota is now #2 in the pairwise rankings.
The Puck Drops Here
Hockey is back.
The Alaska Anchorage Seawolves host the Kendall Hockey Classic at the Sully this weekend. Friday night has the Minnesota Golden Gophers taking on the home team Seapuppies at 7:07pm. The Curator and I will be in attendance.
Gopher goaltender Eric Schierhorn returns home to Anchorage for the first time since middle school.
Minnesota coach Don Lucia is also on a return visit. Lucia’s first head coaching gig was with Alaska-Fairbanks from 1987-93. He was also an assistant coach with both UAA and UAF prior to those years.
MN vs UAA: That’s 7pm ADT/10pm CDT.
Farewell Mr. Hockey
Hockey Legend Gordie Howe passed away early Friday. Born in Floral, Saskatchewan, Howe was in skates by the time he was 4 years old, and was playing in an organized hockey league before he was 10. Howe joined the Detroit Red Wings in 1946. He played there for 25 seasons, many on the “Production Line”, with team mates Ted Lindsay & Sid Abel. As a Red Wing, Howe led the league in scoring six times, and was a Hart Trophy winner as the the League’s MVP six times. He finished in the Top 5 in scoring for 20 consecutive seasons, and still holds the record for having 22 seasons in a row with at least 20 goals.
Howe even had his own hat trick: The “Gordie Howe Hat Trick” consisted of a goal, an assist and a fight in the same game.
Gordie Howe, Wayne Gretzky and Phil Esposito at the 1980 NHL All Star Game at JLA
Howe retired from the Red Wings in 1971, was elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972, and was back on the ice with the Houston Aeros of the World Hockey Association in 1973. With the Aeros, Howe was able to play alongside his sons, Mark & Marty. All three of the Howes went on to the New England Whalers in 1977. Then the WHA folded in 1979 and the Whalers went on to join the NHL, putting Gordie Howe back in the NHL when he was in his fifties.
Over his career, Howe was a 23 time All Star.
Gordie Howe and a very young Wayne Gretzky
One of the NHL’s most prolific scorers, Howe was also know as “Mr. Elbows”, for being one of the toughest men to ever step out onto the ice. Off the ice, Howe had the reputation of being one the nicest guys one could meet, and was hockey’s greatest ambassador.
Howe played 2421 games including playoffs over his pro career; He is second on the NHL list of career goals at 801 (behind Gretzky’s 894); He is fourth the total points list at 1850. Howe is still the only man to play in the NHL after he was 50.
The Detroit Red Wings, to this day, still have lockers at Joe Louis Arena for Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay.
Mr. Hockey was 88. Rest in Peace, Mr. Howe.
BB&T Center
Game One Stanley Cup Playoffs:
Miami, Florida
Walking up to BB&T
This comes under the heading of: Since I was in the neighborhood…
The Florida Panthers are hosting the New York Islanders in round one of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and I found out that tickets were fairly affordable by NHL standards.
Main entrance into BB&T. The green alien discs glow at night
As this will probably be my last hockey game of the season, I was looking forward to it.
The view from inside B&T
BB&T is a very nice arena. I was impressed. If Miami put in for the Frozen Four some year, I would certainly think they’d get the event from what I’ve seen. This is not quite the hockey town that Tampa has become, but it has come a long way.
Center ice before warm ups
I received a free t-shirt at the game, and the Panthers have become my adopted team this year. Nick Bjugstad is a former Golden Gopher, and I’ve followed his career since he left Minnesota. Jaromir Jagr was playing in his 204th playoff game! That is insane.
The Panthers during warmups
The Panthers put on pressure all game, ending up with 46 shots on goal. They got things started with a goal by Teddy Purcell, but by the end of period one it was tied 2-2.
The aisles were jammed packed when Panthers Reilly Smith scored to take the lead, but once again NY sent it to intermission tied.
NY scored twice in the third, and Smith scored his second goal, but it was not enough for Florida as the NYI went on to a 5-4 win. Game two is tomorrow night.
John Tavares had a goal and an assist for NYI for the #1 Star of the game. Reilly Smith was the second star. Bjugstad had an assist for Florida.
Hopefully, the series will be tied up when it heads north to Brooklyn.
NCAA: $ vs. Wisdom
Outside Amalie Arena between the two semifinal games.
In between what was two very good semifinal games at the Frozen Four this year, was a situation of NCAA manufactured chaos. At the end of game one, it was announced that every fan inside the arena would have to leave, stand around for 30 mins or so, and then reenter. It was met with an attitude that suggested this was the dumbest thing any of us had ever heard.
Out on the balcony, the Frozen Foursome ran into an arena employee, who made it clear that the arena personnel had argued against the insanity, but the NCAA had insisted. In fact, the employee was taking pictures to send to the NCAA asking, “Is this what you wanted?”
None of us could figure out what kind of mushroom the college officials had been eating.
“NCAA: Is this what you wanted?”
It turns out that the NCAA didn’t have any answers, so they placed the blame on fans who attend the tournament every year:
“We get feedback from this group of fans quite a bit,” said Kristin Fasbender, associate director of championships for the NCAA. “That’s part of the reason we did what we did last night by emptying the building. We’ve heard from our fans over the years a lot that they don’t like being stuck in the building in essence for six hours.”
When I first started to attend the Frozen Four, there was enough time between the two Thursday games, to leave the arena and find a nice local place to have a meal before the second game began. But ESPN didn’t like the delay, and the NCAA likes to keep their financial backers happy, so they changed the setup so that there was one hour between the two games. Not enough time to go out and get a beer, let alone a meal, so fans have been stuck paying the outrageous prices for crappy food inside of the rink.
Let’s be honest Ms. Fasbender, and get down to the nitty-gritty. Up until this year, four sections in the corners have been for the students and fans of the four teams competing in the tournament. But that is such a waste, after all, this tourney is not for the fans or the students. So some pencil pushing, cubicle dwelling NCAA official, came up with the bright idea that they could get by using only two sections for those fans, therefore selling tickets to the other two sections for more money. Since the NCAA has not reached the point of putting two people in one seat yet, they had to force everyone outside and reseat those in the two student sections.
As stupid as this whole incident was, other than some grumbling and mocking of the NCAA, I would have let it go, but I took exception to Ms. Fasbender placing the blame for this on 20 year priority customers. I, for one, would love to go back to the time when we started Game One in the early afternoon and we had several hours between games, but television rights will never allow us to go back to that. With the second game puck drop scheduled for 8:30pm, which was late enough, it’s inconceivable that anyone thought they could empty 18,000+ people out of an arena and get everyone back in and seated in an hour. There was no time to do anything but stand outside and wait to reenter. With 18,000+ people headed outside, did the NCAA really think a couple of food trucks and a few soda stands would be enough to take care of everyone?
After talking to members of the Amalie Arena staff, and even a couple of Tampa Bay police officers, I am confident that they could handle letting those fans who want to go outside to do so, and then reenter in what would have been an orderly fashion, if your intent was to let fans go outside.
But that wasn’t really your intent, was it?
When you hire experts to host your events, maybe the NCAA could put a little trust in their ability to do their jobs, and listen to the advice they offer.
And NCAA, next time don’t blame your most loyal customers when you screw up.
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