Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Goon goes five hole.

This is my weekly blog post that I wrote for Sean Leahy's Going Five Hole
UND VS UAA

I will also be sitting in the stands this weekend to watch the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux play the University of Alaska Anchorage on Friday and Saturday night in beautiful Ralph Englestad Arena. College hockey fans can watch the game nationally on the NHL network this Friday night starting at 7:30 p.m. central standard time, that is 4:30 Alaska time.

So far this season the Fighting Sioux have been inconsistent and have struggled on defense and between the pipes. After leading the Fighting Sioux in goal Jean-Philippe Lamoureux has since graduated and moved on and is now playing in Anchorage of the ECHL. Now starting in goal for the Fighting Sioux, is rookie Brad Eidsness, who has a 3-3-0 record. His goals against average is 3.52, with a save percent of .883. The much heralded Eidsness has been inconsistent so far this season; at times Eidsness has looked great, at other times has also let in some soft goals. Contrary to some of the naysayers I think there are many reasons why UND Fighting Sioux fans should be excited about their young goaltender.

On the other side of the ice the UAA Seawolves are kind of an enigma. The Seawolves finished the past three seasons dead last in the WCHA and were seen by some WCHA fans as an easy win. This season the Seawolves who were picked to finish 10th again in the preseason poll have played better this year and have a conference record of 2-2-2 is tied with the Fighting Sioux and MSU-M for fifth in the WCHA standings. The UAA Seawolves have 5 forwards with ten or more points in ten games; Paul Crowder (6-7-13), Brian Bales (1-11-12), Tommy Grant (7-4-11), Josh Lunden (6-4-10) In goal the Seawolves have had to goalies split time Jon Olthuis and Bryce Christianson. Bryce Christianson has the better of the record and stats 3-0-2 record of the two goaltenders, his goals against average 1.94 and save percentage of .903.

Goon’s Weekly top 10

1.) Boston University
2.) University of Minnesota
3.) Colorado College
4.) Denver
5.) Boston College
6.) New Hampshire
7.) Notre Dame
8.) North Eastern
9.) Minnesota State Mankato
10.) Michigan

No comments:

Post a Comment