Sunday morning quarterbacking - shot charts game 2

Last night the University of North Dakota and the UAA Seawolves played to a 3-3 ties. Since the Ralph Engelstad Arena opened in 2001, UND has a 5-7-25 record in overtime.

They say that a tie is like kissing your sister. One could say that there has been a lot of sister kissing at the REA.

UAA Seawolves head coach Dave Shyiak was pleased with his team’s effort in last night’s game.
“I think that was probably our best 60 minutes of the year,” Shyiak said. “ It was a hard earned tied It was a great hockey game. What we learned as a hockey team tonight is how we have to play. I thought we pressured the puck well, I thought we executed our game plan, we got good goaltending and we got contributions from everyone tonight.”

Senior forward Corban Knight was again dominate this weekend in the faceoff circle going 31-14, winning 68 percent of his draws. On the other end of the ice Matt Bailey was solid for the Seawolves.

Through four periods of hockey, UND senior forward Danny Kristo had four points (0g-4a—4pts). That streak ended in the second period of Saturday’s game. Freshman Rocco Grimaldi (2g-2a—4pts) and senior Danny Kristo (0g-4a—4pts) lead UND in points. Kristo has played two fewer games due to his two game suspension.

Bless their little hearts but... (RW77 Rant)

Student Organizations should not be allowed to run cameras at fast-paced sporting events.

Seriously, thank goodness for the UAA announcer calling the game very similarly to that of a radio commentator... or maybe he was the radio commentator overlaid with video?

In any case, I cannot tell you how awful it was watching the games this weekend where we'd see closeups of players while the puck is off screen (and the player close up didn't even have the puck!), or when the puck is shot into the zone and the camera focuses in on the ref... or the best? In Saturday's game Aaron Dell makes two great, close in saves.... BOTH of them off camera. Heck, apparently Aaron Dell had a fabulous glove save. I'll take the announcer's word for it.

It was a downright MIRACLE that Kristo's goal was on camera instead of perhaps one of the 50 fans on the bench side of the ice.

Look, everyone learns sometime but it was beyond unbelievable how poorly they were able to track the puck! It's almost as if they were trying to disguise their $10 Gear Head Webcam they bought from a discount online retailer by trying to be creative with zooming in every minute or 2 and on every faceoff. It also seems like they had no idea where the camera was facing at times and while checking on its position, lost track of the puck.

The most important thing on the ice isn't the players... it's the puck! The game cannot be played without a puck!

So, here's what I'd do to help them out: First, lose the zoom button entirely. Forget it exists. If you wish to have zoom capability, buy a second webcam and have that zoomed in all the time. Then, if they capture something while zoomed, go to it on replay. With the camera zoomed out permanently, there will be the best chance of keeping the puck on the screen. Second, run a fundraising campaign to purchase decent equipment. Namely a web-broadcasting capable REAL camera like the ones that almost all other schools use. Look at the webcams UND uses at the Ralph.... or maybe those are web broadcast directly from the TV feed. If that is the case, perhaps they can outfit a real video camera with a similar system. It will improve the quality of the broadcast big time.

There are more drastic suggestions I have, but they defeat the purpose of a student run broadcast.

Best of luck and remember: If the cameraman can't follow the puck, he ain't worth a F***!