Seawolves need more hockey fans

I would like to think I have a pretty good eye for a quality hockey game and a quality hockey team. Ladies and gentlemen, the Seawolves offer both.

As I sat there watching the Seawolves finishing a very solid weekend sweep of Michigan Tech recently, I looked around and pondered, "I thought this was a hockey town? Guess not anymore." A hockey town loves to watch quality hockey by future NHL hockey players. A hockey town goes to the games regardless of wins and losses, just to marvel at the ability of the players.

During the game that Saturday, other than the deafening horn that is announcing to the crowd to wake up because a new period is about to begin, you couldn't tell if you were at the Loussac Library or a WCHA hockey game.

Don't get me wrong. This isn't a stab at the fans who consistently do their part filling seats every Seawolves home game. Personally, I would like to thank those people. It is more of a challenge to the people out there who love the game of hockey to come out and support their hometown team with the passion only hockey fans have.

My childhood memory of the Seawolves goes like this: Once I would finish my practice at a local ice rink on a Friday evening, all the parents and players from my team would race over to the Sullivan Arena to attend the big game. Once there, we would climb to the very top of the Sullivan Area, not because we could have an entire section to ourselves, but because that was where the only seats were available on late notice. Once you got to the nose bleed seats, you would engage in cross-arena battles of who could shout "U-A-A'' the loudest. I would then go home and dream of being a Seawolf some day, a dream that came true.

Now I have a son who is learning to love the game that has brought so much to my life. I have spent weekend nights taking him to Seawolves games, only right now his memories are not of a packed crazy Sullivan Arena, but of a nice quiet night at the rink where he gets to work on his math by counting empty seats.

Hopefully this changes and my faith in Anchorage being a hockey town will be restored. Hockey fans, you have the power to make the Sullivan Arena electric once again. We just need to represent what we think we are -- true hockey fans.

Matt Shasby was a second-team All-WCHA defenseman for UAA and a second-team All-ECHL pick for the Alaska Aces. He played six seasons of pro hockey and helped the Aces win the 2006 Kelly Cup. Shasby teaches social studies and language arts to seventh- and eighth-graders at Northern Lights ABC School in Anchorage.