North to Alaska
November 02, 2006 | Men's Hockey
With a nearly five and a half hour flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage, Alaska under their belts on Wednesday, the men's hockey Badgers continue their preparation for their first, and longest true road series of the season.
After departing the Bob Johnson Hockey Facility at 7:15 a.m., CT on Wednesday, and flying out of the Madison airport at about 9:20 a.m., after a 20 minute delay waiting for the flight crew to arrive, the Badgers settled into a familiar pose for the day. The team sat among strangers for the short first leg of the trip, then sat among strangers, many of whom would become acquaintances, for the time it took for the team to land in Anchorage at just shy of 6 p.m., CT.
Much of the time for the players was spent doing meteorology homework, reading books like Henry James' The Turn of the Screw and Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D 'Ubervilles, sleeping, reading magazines and watching movies, while the coaches passed some of the time on the plane watching clips of Alaska Anchorage to further prepare for the weekend series against the hometown Seawolves.
Most of the team became very alert once the pilot gave the 'we are now descending' speech over the public address system. It brought everyone back to reality, and then brought everyone's face up to the cabin windows where the amazing beauty of the Alaskan landscape welcomed everyone. Majestic glacier-covered mountains stretched as far as the eyes could see to the north and east, while mountains interspersed with the Pacific Ocean were the show on the western and southern view of the plane's left side.
Despite the length of the flight and the restless legs that go along with it, the length of time waiting for the team's bags to reach the baggage claim seemed like an eternity in comparison. With the team slated for a 4 p.m., AT (7 p.m., CT) skate at UAA 's Sullivan Arena, the guys sat and waited in the airport as 4 p.m., sailed past their watches and eight hours sailed past since their last meal back in Minneapolis.
Once the bags arrived, following various jokes about guys walking behind the baggage wall and lending a hand to the Anchorage baggage handlers, the team headed straight to the rink. Somewhere in the neighborhood of six to 12 inches of snow covered the ground, while the coniferous flora were iced over giving the place the feeling of a winter wonderland.
Once at Sullivan Arena, it was organized chaos as the team readied as quick as possible to get on the ice for practice. The hockey tape was flying as jerseys and socks were handed out, sticks were set up, the skate sharpener was unloaded and sports drinks for the team were made.
The team got out on the ice and got their legs moving about an hour, showered up and went straight to the team hotel overlooking Cook Inlet and among the mountains surrounding Anchorage to finally eat.
A few quick facts about Anchorage:
1. The municipality of Anchorage will have 8 hours, 24 minutes of daylight on Thursday.
2. With a population of just over 260,000, Anchorage hosts 41.5 percent of the State of Alaska's residents.
3. It has the top-ranked airport in the United States for landed weight of cargo aircraft.
4. Located at 61 degrees, 13 minutes latitude, Anchorage is much closer to the Arctic Circle (66 degrees, 32 minutes) than Madison, Wis. (43 degrees, .09 minutes)
7. The distance from Anchorage to Seattle, Washington (1,438 miles) is more than the distance from Anchorage to Providenya, Russia (764 miles), one of the closest Russian cities to Alaska.
5. There are 16,749 registered snow machines (snow mobiles') in Anchorage, more than both commercial trucks and motorcycles.
6. The municipality of Anchorage covers 1,251,640 Acres or 1,956 sq. miles, which is slightly smaller than the State of Deleware.
On Thursday, the Badgers will skate at 5:15 p.m., AT at Sullivan Arena, a practice that will feature the team's weekly shootout. The shootout is the team's breakaway contest during which each player gets a chance to score on each Badger goaltender manning the opposite goals. If a player scores on both goalies, he advances straight to the finals. If a player scores on one goalie, he advances to the semifinals. A player who doesn 't score is eliminated. In the semifinals, each player gets one shot, with those scoring moving on to the finals. In the finals, each miss eliminates a player until there is only one shooter left. If nobody scores during an elimination round during the finals, all the shooters stay in the game. If the goaltenders shutout all remaining shooters for three-straight rounds, the goaltenders win the shootout. Whoever does win signs his name on the shootout champion's jersey, with the player with the most signatures at the end of the year the overall winner.
It is become a running contest for pride among media and hockey staff to pick the winner of the shootout each week before the game begins and has become an event looked forward to by all involved.
The Badgers do actually play two hockey games this weekend, including Friday at 10:30 p.m., and Saturday at 10 p.m., CT. The Badgers (3-3-2, 2-1-1 WCHA) look to return to the win column against Alaska Anchorage (2-2-2, 0-2-0 WCHA), a team the Badgers are 8-1-0 against in the last nine meetings and 4-0-3 against the Seawolves in the last seven meetings in Anchorage.
Fans back in Madison, Wis., who are willing to stay up late, will be able to catch the action live on the radio on WIBA-AM 1310 and throughout Wisconsin on the Wisconsin Radio Network. Fans can also watch a live Web stream of the games at GCI.net.
