ANCHORAGE ? Alaska Anchorage's struggles at home against Denver continued tonight as the No.4-ranked Pioneers skated to a 4-3 win in Western Collegiate Hockey Association action at the Sullivan Arena.
The Seawolves, who haven't defeated DU in Anchorage in nearly eight years, owned a sizeable 36-16 advantage in shots on goal, but senior goaltender Peter Mannino countered with a 33-save effort for the Pioneers (13-4-0, 10-3-0 WCHA) to earn his 51st-career win.
Sophomore Josh Lunden tallied a goal and an assist while junior defenseman Mat Robinson recorded two assists to lead UAA's offensive efforts. Sophomore goaltender Jon Olthuis posted a season-low 12 saves while taking the loss.
DU jumped out to a 1-0 lead on junior J.P. Testwuide's first-career goal at 4:00 of the opening period, as the Pioneers benefited from a bevy of traffic stacked in front of Olthuis.
UAA freshman Brad McCabe buried the puck into an open net from the left post at the 17:12 mark of the first knotting the game at 1-1, but DU's Tom May would strike at 19:01 to give the visitors a 2-1 edge at the first break.
The Pioneers took full advantage of their first power-play opportunity of the night early in the second, getting a goal from Jesse Martin at 1:20 to go ahead 3-1.
An errant pass from DU defenseman Patrick Mullen would find its way off Lunden's leg and into an open net at 5:25 pulling the Seawolves back to within one goal at 3-2.
The momentum shift from the fortunate score wouldn't last long, however, as Pioneer sophomore Brock Trotter would capitalize on a UAA turnover at 7:29, giving DU back its two-goal lead.
For the second time in the period and third time in the game the Seawolves would fight back to within one as freshman Craig Parkinson would drill a shot from the low right slot into net for a power-play tally at 9:29.
Parkinson's fifth-career goal would by the final scored by either team for the rest of the night, as Mannino would turn back all nine UAA shot attempts in the third and Olthuis would stop two DU attempts.
UAA pulled Olthuis in favor of an extra attacker for the final 48 seconds, but weren't able to get the equalizer.
The Seawolves went 1 for 4 on the power play, while the Pioneers were 1 for 5.
The same teams meet up in Saturday's series finale at 7:07 p.m.
