8. University of Alaska-Anchorage

University of Alaska-Anchorage

Key losses: Martin Stucklik, F; Lee Green, D; Jim Dahl, F
Key Returnees: Nathan Lawson, G; Justin Bourne, F; Charlie Kronschnabel, F; Ales Parez, F
Key recruits: Shane Lovdahl, F; Matt Robinson, D
Projected leading scorer: Justin Bourne

Grades:

Offense: C
Defense: C
Goalie: B+
Coaching: C+

Analysis:

Anchorage is the one team in the west that consistently gets the most out of what little talent they have. After a near implosion in the 2002-2003 season, which resulted in a one win season, Anchorage has put up two very respectable seasons. Last year Anchorage finished 7th in the WCHA and gave Wisconsin all they could handle in the first round of the WCHA playoffs. Anchorage is able to do this through hard work, and solid defense play rather high-scoring superstars like the rest of the league has.

The task of maintaining this success in such difficult conditions falls on former Northern Michigan assistant Dave Shyiak. Shyiak had been waiting for years for a head coaching job, and finished runner-up to many jobs, including Northern Michigan, where fellow staff member Walt Kyle was given the job, and even Alaska-Anchorage the last time they had a coaching opening and chose Minnesota assistant John Hill for the job. Last summer though, Hill left his head coaching job to return to his assistant’s job at Minnesota. Shyiak is a talented coach, and Anchorage might be the ideal place for him. He was instrumental in creating a pipeline from the BCHL to Marquette while at Northern Michigan, and will now have easier access to British Columbia. If he can consistently bring in talented offensive players from that league, he could turn Anchorage into a high-scoring program.

That is in the future, however. As for this season, goals will be tough to come by for the Seawolves. Anchorage lost last season’s leading scorer, Martin Stuchlik, to graduation, though Stuchlik only scored 25 points. They do, however, return the other two-thirds of their first line from last year in tall junior forwards Justin Bourne and Charlie Kronschnabel. Neither player came to Anchorage with much in the way of expectations, but have become the top players on the team after two good seasons. The Wolves will need them to have career years to compete in the WCHA. The bottom line is that goals will tough to come by for the Wolves.