ANCHORAGE – Two goals and an assist from junior forward Tommy Grant lifted the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves over the Minnesota State Mavericks, 4-1 in a Western
Collegiate Hockey Association game at the Sullivan Arena on Saturday evening.
The Seawolves (5-9-0, 3-7-0 WCHA) retaliated from last night's meltdown to earn
a split with the Mavericks (4-7-1, 2-7-1 WCHA) in the conference series. UAA
moves into sole ownership of No. 8 in the league rankings with six points, while MSU
drops to No. 9 with five points.
Within two minutes of the opening puck drop, the Seawolves were on the board
with a season-first strike by sophomore Jade Portwood - on the first shot of the
night. Portwood was unassisted on the play at 1:44 of the period.
Grant and senior forward Kevin Clark added back-to-back Seawolf goals in the
second period for a 3-0 lead. On a two-on-one situation, Grant received a
perfect pass from Clark at 18:35 of second,
and sent the puck high and glove side for the game-winner and his first goal since the season
opener back in October.
At 15:26 of the period, Clark registered his
second goal of the series and seventh goal overall this season. With UAA on the power play,
Grant passed to junior defenseman Luka Vidmar who fed the puck to Clark for his 9th career power play tally.
The shutout ended with a goal by MSU's Zach Harrison at 13:37 of the period,
for a 3-1 score going into the second intermission. The Mavericks were on the
power play after freshman Lee Baldwin was whistled for interference.
The majority of the third
period remained scoreless until the Mavericks pulled freshman goaltender Kevin
Murdock with 1:17 left in the game for the one man advantage. Grant found
the empty net for his second multi-goal game of the season. Junior forward Nick Haddad picked up the helper with 39 seconds remaining in the game for the 4-1
final.
With the win, the Seawolves
break a three-game losing streak. The last time UAA defeated MSU at the
Sullivan Arena was on Feb. 17, 2007 (6-1).
The Seawolves were
backstopped by junior goalie Bryce Christianson, who improved his record to
3-4-0, with 21 saves. Murdock (1-3-1) received the loss, also with 21 saves. UAA hit
the Mavericks with 25 shots, compared to MSU's 22.
The Seawolves (9-18) and the
Mavericks (11-22) combined for 40 minutes of penalty time, with half of the
minutes occurring in the third period. Both teams were successful on one power
play opportunity – UAA (1-8), MSU (1-6).
Making his college debut was Anchorage native,
freshman forward Tyler Currier.
The Seawolves return to the
road on Nov. 27-28 to face the league-leading Colorado College Tigers. The game
is scheduled to start at 5:07 p.m. AST on both nights.
