THIS WEEK: UAA (5-2-1, 2-1-1 WCHA) will return home to the Sullivan Arena on Nov. 7-8 to square off against the No. 13 Minnesota State Mavericks (3-2-1, 1-2-1 WCHA) in a pair of Western Collegiate Hockey Association games. The puck is scheduled to drop at 7:07 p.m. AST on both Friday and Saturday night.
Radio ? KTZN 550 AM - Kurt Haider (play-by-play)
Television ? Tape-delayed on GCI Ch. 1 (10:30 pm)
Live Stats ? GoSeawolves.com
SEAWOLF HOCKEY ON THE NET: You can find information on UAA hockey, including player bios, stats and results, along with KTZN radio broadcasts, and streamed live statistics for all UAA home games on the internet at GoSeawolves.com. Live and archived video streams of Seawolf home games will also be available on the web at GCI.net.
THE SERIES vs MSU: MSU leads 27-18-6 (14-11-3 in Anchorage)
Last Meeting: MSU 4, UAA 2 (2/09/08 at MSU) / Streak: MSU 3 / Last 10: MSU 7-2-1
Notes: UAA fell to the Mavericks in three of the four matchups last season, tying the fourth ... UAA has only won two of the last ten games with the last win coming 6-1 at home Feb. 17, 2007 ... the Mavericks have shut out UAA on four occasions ... UAA head coach Dave Shyiak is 2-9-3 against Minnesota State.
SCOUTING THE MAVERICKS: Minnesota State battled the No. 4 Minnesota Gophers to a 3-3 tie Oct. 31 ... the Mavericks were outshot 50-29, but were able to hold on in the WCHA matchup ... goalie Mike Zacharias tied his career-high saves with 47 in his 34th consecutive start for Minnesota State ... the following night the Gophers stormed back with a 6-3 win over the Mavericks ... the Mavericks dropped in the rankings from No. 11 to their current position at No. 13 ... MSU started its season with a two-game sweep over Bemidji State, followed by splitting the series with North Dakota.
SEAWOLVES SPLIT GAMES WITH HUSKIES: UAA and Michigan Tech each posted two points in the WCHA standings, with the Huskies winning the Friday game, 4-2, followed by the Seawolves retaliating with a 2-1 victory on Saturday at Maclnnes Arena ... in the first game, Seawolf sophomore forward Tommy Grant gave UAA a fighting chance when he tied the game at 2-2 in the second period ... the Seawolves failed to carry the momentum into the third, allowing the Huskies to score the remaining two goals and handing UAA its first WCHA loss of the season ... on Saturday, sophomore goaltender Bryce Christianson recorded 29 saves and junior forward Josh Lunden and Grant posted a goal a piece to secure the victory ... the Huskies were unsuccessful in capitalizing on their first six power plays, but responded on the seventh with their only goal of the evening.
SEAWOLF BITES: At 5-2-1 UAA is off to its best eight-game start in Dave Shyiak's four years at the helm ... UAA's five league points also equal its second-most ever through its first four WCHA games; the Seawolves garnered six points (3-1-0) in 2004-05 and five in 2000-01 UAA leads the WCHA in both power-play efficiency (11 of 45, .244) and combined special teams (62 of 107, .579), and ranks 4th in scoring defense (2.50 gpg allowed) ... UAA has established itself among the national stats leaders in a few categories ? 10th in power-play goals (11); t-10th in power-play efficiency; t-18th in scoring offense (3.25 gpg); t-9th in combined special teams; and t-17th in overall win pct. (.688) ... 23 of UAA's 26 goals (.885) and 64 of its 73 points (.877) have come from the sophomore and junior classes; the juniors lead the way with 14-29-43 production, accounting for more than half the team's scoring.
PLAYER NOTES: Sophomore forward Tommy Grant tallied the first two-goal game and the first three-goal weekend of his career at Michigan Tech as he earned his first-ever WCHA Offensive Player of the Week award ... the North Vancouver, B.C., product is now tied for the WCHA lead with six goals and tied for 10th in points with nine ... with 6-3-9 totals, Grant has already surpassed his freshman points production (5-2-7) in all three categories ... Grant's 3rd-period goal Saturday was his second career game-winner and his first in a WCHA game ... junior forwards Kevin Clark (4-6-10), Paul Crowder (3-7-10) and Brian Bales (1-9-10) are tied for 4th in the WCHA in points (10) ... Clark leads UAA with four multi-point games, including a 2-goal effort in the Oct. 24 win over UMD ... junior forward Josh Lunden is second on the team and tied for 10th in the league with 5 goals after tallying the first marker in UAA's 2-1 win over MTU ... Crowder had his 6-game point-scoring streak stopped against MTU on Friday before bouncing back with the primary assists on Saturday's game-winner ... Bales is tied for the WCHA lead and is third nationally with 9 total assists ... he is tied for 8th nationally in assists per game (1.17) among players who have skated in four or more contests ... among goalies who have played four or more games, sophomore Bryce Christianson is tied for 3rd nationally in win pct. (3-0-1, .875) ... the Anchorage native is 18th nationally in goals per game (1.97) after posting a UAA season-best 29 saves in the win over MTU on Saturday ... senior defenseman and team captain Mat Robinson skated in his 115th and 116th consecutive games against Michigan Tech.
THE CAPTAINS: Wearing the captain's “C” in 2008-09 for Alaska Anchorage is senior defenseman Mat Robinson (Calgary, Alberta) ... the assistant captains are junior forwards Josh Lunden (Coquitlam, B.C.) and Paul Crowder (Victoria, B.C.).
SEAWOLVES TABBED FOR 10TH: UAA was picked to finish 10th by the league's coaches in the 38th annual Grand Forks Herald WCHA Coaches Poll while Colorado College cleaned up. The Defending McNaughton Cup champion Tigers were picked to repeat as regular-season titlists and CC goalie Richard Bachman was tabbed as the early favorite for WCHA Player of the Year. North Dakota's Jason Gregoire and Minnesota Duluth's Jack Connolly were chosen the league's preseason Co-Rookies of the Year.
