Here are Coach Luongo’s postgame thoughts from last night:
[audio:http://uahhockey.com/wp-content/audio/20101007-postgame.mp3]My thoughts:
- The team played about as I expected them to play: still feeling their game out as a team. You wouldn’t expect a team this young and with this much turnover to play a ton better against a team that already had a game under their belt and had more experience on the ice. I liked the effort that I saw, but there was a bit of individualism at times in the third as guys tried to do too much to get the team back into the game after falling behind. A young team is going to do that.
- Sebastian’s major/misconduct was a confluence of a couple factors: the player being turned the wrong way when the hit was made, the player being far shorter, and the emphasis on contact-to-the-head penalties in the NCAA this year. There’s no doubt that he deserved the penalty, but a half-second later and it’s just a good, clean hit.
- Speaking of the Geoffrion brothers, Brice caught my eye a number of times.
- I was pleased with what I saw from the defensemen last night. Having Burkholder and Baxter out there to lock down teams’ top lines promises to be effective this year. Talking to them both post-game, they were pretty frustrated with how the game came out, which you’d expect. I’m quite sure that they’re going to be pretty vocal in the locker room before and during the game today.
- Speaking of defensemen, Nick Gatt really impressed me. I could tell that he had some skills from what I saw in practice, but in game situations, he had the right moves and positioned himself well. He passes well and doesn’t wait too long to make the pass. I like the deBruyn-Gatt pairing, but who knows if we’ll see it stay together once Uusivirta is eligible.
- I didn’t know what to expect out of an Easton-Ruffini-Fairbanks line, but it was fun to watch. All three of them feed off of the others’ energy, and Easty was sticking his nose in there and digging pucks out like a player with another six inches and 40 pounds. If they stay together and get some more game experience, that could turn into a good scoring line.
- Mac Roy and Alex Allan are this year’s Cseter and Desmet. Putting them out there with Bruni is a good call, because Vince has a good shot and will also bang bodies and protect the young guys.
- Clarke Saunders was solid and made a number of good saves. There were a few rebounds that scared me, and he came out of the net a bit much for my taste, but he looked very good for a first-game netminder.
I would expect David Way to get swapped into the lineup tonight, but I’m not sure who he’ll replace. I’m not sure who will be in net, but I wouldn’t be surprised for it to be Saunders again.