Maybe the game-changer for UAA's hockey team is something as simple as one more hustle job on the backcheck to break up a scoring chance.
Or the odd power-play goal here.
Perhaps an additional penalty-kill there.
Could be that just one more guy crashing the net one more time delivers the difference.
In Seawolves' minds, getting two points from a game instead of one or none is within their reach, possibly just a stick blade away.
On the face of it, their 5-10-3 overall record and 4-8-2 mark in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association doesn't spotlight them as a dangerous crew. But the way the Seawolves reached midseason gives them legitimate reason to think they can forge a breakthrough for a program that has endured 17 straight losing seasons.
After all, 16 of the 18 games they played before their prolonged holiday break -- 34 days, which seemed like, oh, 340 -- were essentially one-goal games or ties.
Victory so often seemed so close.
"We got a sniff,'' said senior winger Tommy Grant. "If we can build off one thing from the first half, it's consistency. We had two games, in our opinion, where we didn't give our best effort. But other than that, we were in every game, so we can learn from that and build off it.''
The Seawolves open the second half tonight, when they entertain No. 17-ranked Colorado College at Sullivan Arena in the opener of a WCHA series that basically starts the drive to the playoffs.
Their long layoff isn't something they are using as a crutch.
"We like to think of it as being well-rested instead of rusty,'' senior forward Nick Haddad said with a grin.
UAA sits tied for ninth in the 12-team league, one point ahead of 11th-place Bemidji State, yet just four points below sixth place, where Minnesota and Wisconsin are tied. Sixth place is a critical dividing line in the standings because the top six teams at regular season's end secure home ice for the first round of the playoffs.
Given the tight state of the standings, the Seawolves' hopes are more about possibility than prayer. (Granted, UAA has never earned playoff home ice since joining the WCHA full-time in the 1993-94 season).
Five of UAA's 10 first-half losses were true one-goal losses and three others came by two-goal margins that included an empty-net goal, making those essentially one-goal games too.
Instead of succumbing to frustration, though, the Seawolves have remained encouraged -- they see the net half-full, as it were.
"It's a credit to our seniors and our leadership group,'' said UAA bench boss Dave Shyiak. "I keep telling them they're doing a great job, and because of all the tight games, we've got a pretty good belief system.''
Haddad said he and his teammates don't see any reason to be anything other than optimistic.
"We were playing good hockey before the break,'' he said. "We have to keep working hard and we'll be rewarded. You have to look back on your mistakes and learn from them, but you can't dwell on the past -- that doesn't do anything for you.''
With a very young team -- it's not unusual for Shyiak to have eight freshmen in his 20-man lineup -- it took the Seawolves a few weeks to begin finding their identity as a grinding group that must rely on sustained resolve to succeed.
"We went through a learning process with such a young team, and to take the positive out of playing so many close games, guys got to learn to play in pressure situations,'' Shyiak said. "Our next step is to string some wins together and get over the hump.''
The Seawolves were helped in the latter stages of the first half when freshman Rob Gunderson emerged as their go-to goaltender. He started the last six games before the break and generated a .911 save percentage in that span.
Haddad credited Gunderson's first-period work on the road against Colorado College as a turning point for the team. Gunderson stopped 17 shots in the opening 20 minutes that night, when freshman Matt Bailey scored in the waning second of regulation to force overtime. Grant delivered the OT winner.
"There's no doubt we have a ton of confidence in him,'' Haddad said of Gunderson. "That first period against CC, they outplayed us terribly. It should have probably been 5-0 or 6-0, but he held us in there.''
Tonight, the Seawolves get back to work, eager to forge ahead and see what they can accomplish. They don't care about what might have been in the first half -- nary a word about how a bounce here or there might have brought prosperity.
"You make your own breaks in this game,'' Grant said.
This column is the opinion of Daily News reporter Doyle Woody. Find his blog at adn.com/hockeyblog or call him at 257-4335.
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