Lance West

The last time the UAH visited Fairbanks, Alaska was December of 1992, when Lance West was a sophomore for the Chargers.

“Those were definitely interesting trips with the guys. We’d go up there for four games, two in Fairbanks and two in Anchorage. I was able to score a shorthanded goal against a good friend of mine (Nanook goalie Jamie Loewen), so that was a pretty good time.”

Lance West fires a shot against the Nanooks in Huntsville.

The Chargers will be back in Fairbanks this weekend to take on Alaska at the Carlson Center, and West will be there as assistant coach — for the Nanooks. This will be the first time his club will face his alma mater, and he had not really given it much thought.

“Guys move around all the time in professional and college hockey. I haven’t really felt any emotion. I may feel different when the puck drops Friday night and I see the other bench. But right now I’m with UAF. I follow what’s been happening wth UAH and I wish them success, but not while we’re playing against them. It’s another hockey game.”

West, a center during his playing days, was captain in his senior season. His 106 points is 20th on UAH’s all-time scoring list, and his 43 goals are also 20th all-time. After graduating in 1995, West served as a volunteer assistant for the Chargers from 1995-1998, when the Chargers captured two Division II national championships. He served as an assistant coach under Doug Ross from 2000 to 2007.

Nanooks love disco: We can’t help but enjoy this video released this week featuring our opposition. It’s a funny video with a serious message about the importance of knowing CPR:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3-weAKXA7Q

Of course, no video featuring Alaska hockey is more outrageous than this famous Carlson Center intro video from a few years back:

Salhany feature: Kevin Pomeroy of the Warwick (R.I.) Beacon wrote a feature on Matt Salhany, who is leading the Chargers with 10 points as a freshman.

Charger family outing: Look who’s been trying out the game this week:

Hockey stick and puck!! Fun times with @UAHChargers athletic staff. Thanks to @Nick_L12 for the experience. pic.twitter.com/QBHV1OCkGU

— Les Stuedeman (@UAHCoachLes) January 28, 2014

By the way, the “bat and ball” games start this weekend at Charger Park. The baseball team plays Kentucky State in a pair of doubleheaders Friday and Saturday, and softball gets started Saturday with two games against Young Harris.

Around the WCHA: There was no movement in the WCHA standings last week, as all four conference series were splits.

On Friday, Ferris State lost its third straight conference game after winning its first 13 by dropping a 3-2 decision at Michigan Tech. The Bulldogs rebounded with a 3-0 win on Saturday, extending its lead atop the standings to four games over Minnesota State.

MSU was in non-conference action in the first North Star College Cup. The Mavericks lost to Minnesota-Duluth in a heartbreaking 5-4 overtime thriller in the semifinals, then fell to St. Cloud State 6-4 in the third-place game.

Third-place Bowling Green couldn’t gain ground at home after a split with Lake Superior, nor could fourth-place Alaska-Anchorage after losing and winning against Northern Michigan. Bemidji State traded shutouts at Alaska.

Ferris State remained ranked sixth in this week’s USCHO.com poll. Bowling Green and Minnesota State each received votes.

THIS WEEK IN THE WCHA
All times Central.
* WCHA game.

Friday, January 31
* UAH at Alaska, 10 p.m.
Michigan Tech at Bowling Green, 6:07 p.m.
Minnesota State at Northern Michigan, 6:07 p.m.

Saturday, February 1
* UAH at Alaska, 10 p.m.
Michigan Tech at Bowling Green, 6:07 p.m.
Minnesota State at Northern Michigan, 6:07 p.m.

To this day, I still see the bemusement in a person’s face when I tell someone not from Huntsville that UAH has a hockey team.

I don’t even get to the part where I say UAH has fielded a team for 35 years.

Considering the relative “newness” of the sport in the South, it’s fascinating that the program has been around this long. It’s had its ups (three club national championships, two NCAA Division II national championships, and two Division I tournament appearances) and downs (well documented), but it has been a staple in the Rocket City since the times of disco.

Some may be wonder, “How did this happen?” How did Huntsville become the “Hockey Capital of the South”? How did Huntsville even get started in this sport in the first place?

Former UAH goaltender Budd McLaughlin (1980-82) wrote an great article for i4sports chronicling the evolution of hockey in Huntsville. It starts with the first youth programs headed by Fred Hudson all the way back to 1962 — 17 years before Joe Ritch got his first club team together at UAH.

Want to know about the history of UAH hockey? It starts there.

Fletcher makes Plays of the Week: Brent Fletcher’s first goal of his UAH career, tallied Friday in the 1-1 tie with Alaska-Anchorage, made the WCHA’s Plays of the Week:

Talbot update: For a couple of days, anyway, Cam Talbot was a league leader.

After a 29-save performance in Ottawa where the New York Rangers won 4-1, the former UAH netminder was the NHL leader in goals against average (1.62) and save percentage (.940).

Henrik Lundqvist started the Rangers’ next game at home — a 4-1 win over Washington — and Talbot no longer had the games played to qualify.

Lundqvist was sick Tuesday, so Talbot got the start against the New York Islanders at Madison Square Garden. Talbot made 32 saves, but allowed four goals — only the third time in 14 starts he’s allowed more than two — as the Rangers fell 5-3. It wasn’t enough to get him back on the leaderboard, although he wouldn’t be No. 1 in goals against average or save percentage if he was.

Still, his 1.78 goals against and .935 save percentage is glowing. And, he’s got a special mask ready should he play in either game of the Stadium Series at Yankee Stadium.

Military Appreciation Weekend was a success at the gate for the Chargers. Friday night’s attendance of 2,6o4 and Saturday’s crowd of 3,614 were season highs. The combined attendance was the highest for a weekend series since November, 2008.

UAH raised over $2,500 auctioning the special camouflage jerseys the Chargers wore in both games.

It will be a while before the Chargers return home. After being off this weekend, UAH goes on three straight road trips: Alaska, Michigan Tech, and Minnesota State. The next home series is Feb. 21-22 against Lake Superior State.

Around the WCHA: A new conference alignment means new rivalries — but where would they come from? We may be seeing one start between Ferris State and Minnesota State.

The Mavericks swept second-ranked Ferris in Mankato last weekend, 6-2 and 4-3, handing the Bulldogs their first two conference losses of the season. But the big news was in Saturday’s game, where a fight in the third period led to the disqualification of two Mavericks (Teddy Blueger and Nashville Predators prospect Zach Stepan) and one Bulldog (Justin DeMartino). Ferris State star goaltender C.J. Motte received a game misconduct but no DQ. A total of 216 penalty minutes were handed out in the contest.

The losses dropped Ferris State to No. 6 in this week’s USCHO.com poll. The Bulldogs remain in first place, but only two points ahead of second-place Minnesota State. Third-place Bowling Green was idle, five points back. With their three points in Huntsville, Alaska-Anchorage moved ahead of Bemidji State (which tied and lost against North Dakota in non-conference action) into fourth.

THIS WEEK IN THE WCHA
All times Central.
* WCHA game.

Friday, January 24
* Lake Superior at Bowling Green, 6:07 p.m.
* Ferris State at Michigan Tech, 6:07 p.m.
* Northern Michigan at Alaska-Anchorage, 10:07 p.m.
* Bemidji State at Alaska, 10:07 p.m.
Minnesota State vs. Minnesota-Duluth, 4 p.m. (North Star College Cup)

Saturday, January 25
* Lake Superior at Bowling Green, 6:07 p.m.
* Ferris State at Michigan Tech, 6:07 p.m.
* Northern Michigan at Alaska-Anchorage, 10:07 p.m.
* Bemidji State at Alaska, 10:07 p.m.
Minnesota State vs. St. Cloud State or Minnesota, 4 or 7 p.m. (North Star College Cup)

The Chargers will be wearing camo jerseys this weekend against Alaska-Anchorage.

The Chargers will honor America’s military by wearing camouflage-style jerseys in both games against Alaska-Anchorage on Friday and Saturday.

The jerseys will be auctioned off Saturday night, and can be bid upon during both games. The initial starting bid will be $100 for each (some may go down on Saturday if they don’t have bids), and the proceeds benefit the UAH hockey program.

All veterans and active military can get free admission to both games, which start at 7:07 p.m. each night.

On Saturday, the first 500 kids 12 and under will receive a kids-size UAH camo hockey jersey, sponsored by SportsMed, Wells Fargo, Torch Technologies, and Jerry Damson Honda/Acura. As with all home games the rest of the season, kids 12 and under get free admission, courtesy of Huntsville International Airport.

On Friday, the first 500 fans receive a set of UAH hockey trading cards.

Cross has critical fall: Longtime UAH equipment manager Robert Cross fell in his home recently and awoke a quadriplegic when he found himself in an Atlanta hospital.  Friends of the program will remember Crosser as the guy who kept the team going at home and on the road until his job situation changed.

If you’d like to help Robert, you can make a donation.

Coaches’ luncheon: The sixth coaches’ luncheon of the season is Friday at noon in the Varsity Room at Spragins Hall. Alaska-Anchorage coach Matt Thomas (not to be confused with UAH assistant Matty Thomas) will be the guest speaker. Thomas has the Seawolves at a 11-9-2 record in his first year at the helm, already well surpassing UAA’s four wins last season. UAH coach Mike Corbett will follow.

Terranova’s will be catering the luncheon, which is $8 at the door and free for Blue Line Club members. 

Salhany’s goal among top plays: Matt Salhany’s goal in Friday’s game at Notre Dame was good enough to make the WCHA Plays of the Week. Check the video below (Salhany’s goal is at the 1:15 mark).

Around the WCHA: Ferris State remained undefeated in league play with a win with a sweep of Michigan Tech at home, where C.J. Motte was the star with a 25-save shutout (1-0) on Friday and a 44-save performance on Saturday (3-2). The Bulldogs, now ranked second in this week’s USCHO.com poll, is 12-0-2 in league play with 26 points.

Climbing into second place is Bowling Green, which notched a win and a tie at home against Alaska. The Falcons got another shutout from Tommy Burke on Friday, his second in three games and third for the season.

The Seawolves took care of business after their crazy odyssey getting home last week and rose to fifth in the standings, while the Mavericks finished a two-week stay in Alaska losing three of four and dropping to third. Meanwhile, Bemidji State’s sweep at Lake Superior propelled the Beavers into fourth.

The big WCHA showdown this week is in Mankato, where Minnesota State, the WCHA pre-season favorite, hosts Ferris State.

THIS WEEK IN THE WCHA
All times Central.
* WCHA game.

Friday, January 17
* Alaska-Anchorage at UAH, 7:07 p.m.
* Alaska at Northern Michigan, 6:07 p.m.
* Ferris State at Minnesota State, 7:37 p.m.
Lake Superior at Notre Dame, 7:05 p.m.
North Dakota at Bemidji State, 7:37 p.m.

Saturday, January 18
* Alaska-Anchorage at UAH, 7:07 p.m.
* Alaska at Northern Michigan, 6:07 p.m.
* Ferris State at Minnesota State, 7:07 p.m.
Lake Superior at Notre Dame, 6:05 p.m.
Bemidji State at North Dakota, 7:07 p.m.

Remember when we posted right before the turn of the year about UAH’s presence in the KRACH ranking?  I looked at it again today because I wanted to create a predictive tool for the remainder of the 2013-14 WCHA regular season schedule.  As a reminder, the WCHA takes eight teams into the playoffs, with the top four team hosting the first round.  That leaves one other school out in the cold with our beloved Chargers.  Who will that team be?  Who will host the first round playoffs?  Will Ferris State remain undefeated in league play?  These are the questions that I sought to answer.

Let me note this: any comparison-based ranking system is rearward-facing.  If UAH knocks off Anchorage twice this weekend, the Chargers would jump in KRACH, probably all the way to 55th.  That’s because KRACH takes a look at what has already happened and does comparisons between common opponents.  I think that most sports fans are familiar with the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) method of ranking: your rank is affected by your strength-of-schedule (SOS) and your own winning percentage.

But what if we took those comparisons and used them as a sort of forward-looking predictive tool?  To do this, I used the following method:

Expected points = (My KRACH) / (My KRACH + Your KRACH) * 4

I computed these in a raw manner: of the four points available this weekend in Huntsville, this method garners 3.72 to Anchorage (132.5) and just 0.28 to the Chargers (9.861).  This obviously doesn’t work, as you don’t get points for winning a period.  In this comparison, Anchorage can be expected to win both games and go from 7-7-2 to 9-7-2, which jumps them from fifth to fourth in the standings (against all of my other comparison-based predictions for Week 17).

Now, I used my own judgments in making these calls.  For example: Alaska and Northern are 2.13 and 1.87 respectively in expected points this weekend.  You can argue that this should be a split, and I agree, especially because the Wildcats are at home.

Another example: next week, Tech hosts Ferris.  By KRACH, the Bulldogs should pick up 3.31 points.  Should they be given the sweep, or should they just head back to Big Rapids with a win and a tie?  I went with the latter because the Huskies are at home.

My third and final example: Anchorage hosts Northern next weekend, with expected points values of 2.36 and 1.64, respectively.  I gave the Seawolves a win and a tie as a home Alaska team, even though straight rounding would make it a split.

Here’s a summary of the results (playoff hosts, miss playoffs):

Note: I haven’t read the WCHA handbook to see how that tie would get settled.  I’m going to guess that it would be in head-to-head match ups as the first tiebreaker, but that matchup doesn’t occur until Week 21, where I’m picking a split.  I’m willing to bet that Shane Frederick or Jack Hittinger will be along to explain this to me.  (Would it be total goals?)

Updated: Matt Wellens of USCHO got me the data.  The tiebreakers are: a) head-to-head points, but only if you’ve played four contests against each other, b) higher number of conference wins, c) comparison of winning percentages against all teams above them, team-by-team down through the table.  I’d spend a lot of time looking at this, but I’d rather not do it unless it’s a reality.  It is important to note that conference wins isn’t the first tiebreaker, which is what I’d have thought it would be.

I’ll be updating this exercise every week, as two things are going to be changing: expected points will turn into real points, and those game results (as well as those non-conference tilts left) will affect KRACH.  I’ve got it up on Google Docs if you’re curious to read it week-over-week.  This is the document that I will update early each week.  I will probably make update posts here this week with a couple of tables (mainly, the summary tab of that spreadsheet) and a little commentary about any moves.

I fully expect that real life will have greater variability than these chalk predictions.  I’m curious to see how the predictive tool will hold up over time.  Will the Huskies come to Huntsville for early tee times?  Will Bemidji slide down and miss the playoffs entirely?  (Please say yes.)  We will see.