(above) Jon Olthuis leads the Seawolves in goalby Andrew Hinkleman
It's rare to find an easy stretch of play in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, but the last three weekends have been particularly unkind to the UAA Seawolves.
Since Thanksgiving, the Seawolves have hosted first-place Colorado College, traveled to third-place Minnesota-Duluth and are now hosting second-place Denver.
Nothing quite like a baptism by fire, eh?
But UAA should feel pretty good about itself. The Seawolves played CC awfully tough, even though they got swept, and took three of four points from the Bulldogs.
"We're focused on this weekend," UAA coach Dave Shyiak said. "We're not looking at what we achieved in the past."
Maybe, but everybody else is.
Twice the Seawolves rallied from a goal down at Duluth, first to forge a 3-3 tie in the first game, then as part of a four-goal outburst -- three from center Paul Crowder -- for a 5-3 win in the rematch.
"Everybody contributed," Shyiak said. "There wasn't a whole lot of passengers, the upperclassmen and underclassmen did a good job.
"It came down to a group effort, timely saves and timely goals."
Now UAA shifts its focus to the fourth-ranked Pioneers, who are coming off a pair of 3-2 road wins over St. Cloud State.
Goalie Peter Mannino has played every minute this season for Denver and has a 1.70 goals-against average for his efforts.
"What they don't get credit for is they're outstanding defensively," Shyiak said. "It's very tough to get quality shots on this team. They do a real good job around the net. Obviously that'll present a challenge for us."
So far this season, while they may not have been equal to every challenge, the Seawolves haven't been too far off the mark. A year ago at this point UAA had suffered through two lopsided losses with more on the horizon in the second half.
Through 14 games this campaign, UAA has been close in every game, and the worst defeat has only been by three goals.
"The guys have been patient and stayed the course," Shyiak said. "We haven't always gotten the results we wanted. We've just got to continue to do what we do.
"With a young team you're going to see peaks and valleys, but we've been fairly consistent, and to me that's a good sign."
Since Thanksgiving, the Seawolves have hosted first-place Colorado College, traveled to third-place Minnesota-Duluth and are now hosting second-place Denver.
Nothing quite like a baptism by fire, eh?
But UAA should feel pretty good about itself. The Seawolves played CC awfully tough, even though they got swept, and took three of four points from the Bulldogs.
"We're focused on this weekend," UAA coach Dave Shyiak said. "We're not looking at what we achieved in the past."
Maybe, but everybody else is.
Twice the Seawolves rallied from a goal down at Duluth, first to forge a 3-3 tie in the first game, then as part of a four-goal outburst -- three from center Paul Crowder -- for a 5-3 win in the rematch.
"Everybody contributed," Shyiak said. "There wasn't a whole lot of passengers, the upperclassmen and underclassmen did a good job.
"It came down to a group effort, timely saves and timely goals."
Now UAA shifts its focus to the fourth-ranked Pioneers, who are coming off a pair of 3-2 road wins over St. Cloud State.
Goalie Peter Mannino has played every minute this season for Denver and has a 1.70 goals-against average for his efforts.
"What they don't get credit for is they're outstanding defensively," Shyiak said. "It's very tough to get quality shots on this team. They do a real good job around the net. Obviously that'll present a challenge for us."
So far this season, while they may not have been equal to every challenge, the Seawolves haven't been too far off the mark. A year ago at this point UAA had suffered through two lopsided losses with more on the horizon in the second half.
Through 14 games this campaign, UAA has been close in every game, and the worst defeat has only been by three goals.
"The guys have been patient and stayed the course," Shyiak said. "We haven't always gotten the results we wanted. We've just got to continue to do what we do.
"With a young team you're going to see peaks and valleys, but we've been fairly consistent, and to me that's a good sign."
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