ANCHORAGE - Senior Chad Anderson and junior Peter Cartwright scored three points each and freshman goalie Jon Olthuis stopped 16 of 17 shots as Alaska Anchorage snapped a six-game losing skid by blitzing visiting Minnesota State 6-1 on senior night at the Sullivan Arena tonight.
The Seawolves (12-17-3, 8-17-1 WCHA), who received multiple-point efforts from five different skaters, scored three times in the opening five minutes of the game before going on to record their most lopsided victory of the season. The win, UAA's first over Minnesota State (11-17-6, 8-13-5 WCHA) at Anchorage in six tries, clinched its first winning season on home ice (9-8-1) since 2001-02.
Junior Merit Waldrop staked the Seawolves to a 1-0 lead 55 seconds into the game, but MSU would counter with a goal from Jerad Stewart nearly a minute later knotting the score at 1-1. UAA would respond to the Mavs' only goal of the night by scoring a pair of goals in an 18 second span to take a commanding 3-1 lead just 4:45 into the period.
Freshman Kevin Clark tallied the eventual game winner from the left post at 4:27 before senior Nick Lowe would swoop in from the left circle with his third goal of the season at 4:45. Clark's power-play goal ended UAA's 0-for-17 slump with the man advantage its last four games combined.
The Seawolves owned the first period, out shooting MSU 13-5 in the opening 20 minutes.
Anderson connected for the first of his two goals on a hard slapper from just inside the blueline at 9:18 of the second, giving UAA its second power-play score of the night. Cartwright redirected a shot attempt from Nils Backstrom at the 16:42 mark extending the Seawolf lead to 5-1.
MSU swtiched goalies to begin the third period, replacing starter Mike Zacharias (14 saves) with Dan Tormey (11 saves).
Anderson would earn his first career two-goal game by producing UAA's final score at 7:49 of the third. Lowe dug the puck out of a scrum in front of the MSU net to an open Anderson who burried the puck into an open net for his seventh goal of the year.
Cartwight collected a pair of assist to go with his goal, while Clark, Waldrop and Lowe each picked up assists giving them two points each. Also scoring assists for the Seawolves were senior Justin Bourne, sophomore Jay Beagle, freshman Trevor Hunt, freshman Paul Crowder and Backstrom.
UAA, which outshot the Mavs 30-17, went 2-for-8 on the power play and held MSU scoreless with the man advantage in six attempts.
Both teams combined for 60 penalty minutes.
The ninth-place Seawolves conclude their regular-season schedule with a pair of WCHA road tilts at 10th-place Minnesota Duluth next weekend.
