MADISON, Wis. ? In a goal filled affair, the No. 15 Alaska Anchorage Seawolves failed to receive any points in the series against Wisconsin after being defeated by the Badgers, 7-2, in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association game at the Kohl Center on Saturday night.
After the Badgers (9-7-2, 7-5-2 WCHA) took a 6-0 lead, UAA's Nils Backstrom put the Seawolves (7-7-2, 4-6-2 WCHA) on the board, scoring at 12:54 of the third period. Backstrom was unassisted. The Seawolves leader in goals, Tommy Grant, posted his eleventh goal of the season on a pass from Paul Crowder and Sean Wiles at 14:18 to give UAA its final goal of the night.
The first period ended with the Badgers taking the lead, 1-0, after Michael Davies slipped past UAA's goaltender Jon Olthuis at 14:21. Davies recorded his third point of the series, while assists were credited to Jordy Murray and Derek Stepan.
The Seawolves once again let the Badgers take control of the game in second period, scoring three more unanswered goals. Podge Turnbull expanded the lead for UW with just 2 minutes, 28 seconds into the period. Cody Goloubef followed suit with his second goal of the series at 7:49. Andy Bohmbach scored on a power play at 17:59, ending the second with the Badgers on top 4-0.
The Badgers continued their dominance in the beginning of the third with a pair of goals. Brendan Smith scored his fifth goal of the season on a power play at 8:39. UAA's Bryce Christianson was in net, after head coach Dave Skyiak retired Olthuis at the start of the third. Eleven seconds later, Sean Dolan netted a goal, unassisted, at 8:50.
Following the goals by Backstrom and Grant, Davies expanded his point tally to four on the series with the final goal of the evening at 15:39.
Olthuis ended the night with 23 saves, and Christianson was credited with 4. Badger's Shane Connelly bettered his record to 8-5-2 with 29 saves.
UW outshot the Seawolves 34-31 and was whistled for seven penalties over UAA's six.
Wisconsin's sweep of the series prevented the Seawolves from tallying points in the WCHA standings ? marking the first time of the season that UAA has completed a series empty handed.
Wisconsin moves up to take the lead of the WCHA standings with 16 points, while UAA moves down to seventh with St. Cloud State at 10 points.
The Seawolves will have the next month off before squaring off with the Badgers in a WCHA conference series on January 9-10 at the Sullivan Arena. Game time is set for 7:07 p.m. AST on both Friday and Saturday night.
