Anchorage Daily News

Anyone remember the Seawolves?

Hockey team. Bunch of guys in their early 20s. Wear green and gold gear. Represent UAA. Play down at Sullivan Arena. Racked a No. 15 national ranking at one point this season.

Any of this remotely ring a bell?

Even if your synapses are firing just fine, you're forgiven if the Seawolves have fallen off your radar. Or, for you very casual fans of the game, if you thought the college hockey season was over.

After all, when the puck drops tonight on home ice against No. 17 Wisconsin, 34 days will have elapsed since the Seawolves last played a game.

Thirty-four days isn't a holiday break, it's a leave of absence.

In pro golf and tennis, they call that the offseason.

And the 34 days represents the longest midseason break in the 30-season history of Seawolves pucks, crushing the previous mark, held by many teams, of 27 days off between tilts.

The Seawolves have been off so long that Wisconsin -- that's the last team UAA played, in Madison way back on Dec. 6 -- had a whopping three weeks off and still had time to get in four games before it flew north for this weekend series.

That month-plus off no doubt will leave some measure of rink rust clinging to the Seawolves tonight, but look on the positive side: The home team is No. 1! Um, no, not ranked No. 1 -- the Seawolves dropped out of the rankings after the Badgers swept them last year. UAA ranks No. 1 in the sense that its 34-day break between games sandwiching the holidays was the longest among the 58 teams in Division I.

Holy hockey hiatus.

"It seems like an eternity,'' said freshman defenseman Curtis Leinweber. "You're anxious, itching to get back on the ice.''

Almost seems like a new season, really.

"It feels like summertime,'' said sophomore winger Tommy Grant, the team's leading goal scorer with 11 in 16 games.

To clarify, given our current cold snap, Grant said that while standing outside the team's locker room at Sullivan Arena after practice on Thursday afternoon. Like we were gonna have that conversation freezing our pucks off in the Sully parking lot.

"You come back, you have training camp,'' Grant continued. "But I think it was a good thing. Injuries healed, guys were refreshed. We're ready to go.''

Seawolves coach Dave Shyiak said some rink rust is inevitable -- no practice or scrimmage can duplicate the speed and intensity of an actual game -- and his players will have to engage their brains tonight until their legs catch up to game pace.

"It's going to take awhile to get your game legs,'' Shyiak said. "Your timing is going to be off with the puck. Nothing replaces games.

"But the guys have done a real good job in practices. We're going to have to be smart and manage the puck, and keep the game simple.''

For those of you with long-term memory loss -- look, 34 days off takes short-term memory out of the equation -- the Seawolves enjoyed a strong first half of the season. That's particularly so for a team pegged by Western Collegiate Hockey Association coaches to finish last in the 10-team league for the fourth straight season.

At 7-7-2 overall and 4-6-2 in the WCHA, the Seawolves sit tied for eighth place, three points out of sixth place and five points out of fifth. Of their seven losses, six were essentially squeakers -- two one-goal losses, a pair of two-goal losses in which opponents padded the margin with empty-net goals, and two legit two-goal losses. Only Wisconsin's 7-2 win in the last game of the first half was a blowout.

"We lost a couple close games,'' Grant said, "but the difference between this year and last year is we won a few close games. We found a way to win.''

The Seawolves' consistency is what most encourages Shyiak. He cited the first period of a 6-4 win over Mercyhurst -- Mercyhurst raced to a 3-0 lead in the opening 13 minutes -- as his team's only stretch in which it didn't seem prepared to play. Effort wasn't lacking in the Wisconsin blowout, he said, just execution.

One pitiful period in 16 games isn't a bad rink resume.

"To me, that's a pretty good showing,'' Shyiak said.

Now it's up to the Seawolves, who have lost three straight, to duplicate their strong start in the first half of the season. And remember, this program still needs to prove it can flourish in the second half. In Shyiak's first three seasons, his teams went a combined 21-29-8 (.431 winning percentage) before New Year's Day, but a mere 5-40-6 (.157) after the calendar turned.

"We're always looking to be better,'' Leinweber said. "We had a chance every night (in the first half), and that's all you can ask. Just a bounce here and there is how the game is.''

Ah, actual college hockey games.

Nice to have those back again.

Find Doyle Woody's blog online at adn.com/hockeyblog or call him at 257-4335.

no. 17 WISCONSIN BADGERS

10-9-3 Overall / 7-5-2 WCHA

at

UAA SEAWOLVES

7-7-2 Overall / 4-6-2 WCHA

WHEN: Tonight and Saturday night, 7:07

WHERE: Sullivan Arena (cap. 6,251)

RADIO: Live AM-550 KTZN

TV: Both games same day tape delay, 10:30 p.m., GCI Channel 1

TRENDS: Badgers sophomore defenseman Cody Goloubef (No. 27) helped Canada win the World Junior Championship on Monday, and his plus-10 rating ranked second in the tournament. Wisconsin sophomore blueliner Ryan McDonagh (No. 17) played for the fifth-place Americans, tying for the team lead at plus-5.

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