MANKATO, Minn. – Two goals by Nick Haddad
and 35 saves by Chris Kamal
gave the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves a 4-0 shutout against the Minnesota State Mavericks in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association game at the Verizon Wireless Center on Friday night.
The Seawolves (13-17-3, 11-14-2 WCHA) used a power-play goal in the first, two goals in the second and one in the third to clinch their best league record under sixth-year head coach Dave Shyiak
. Meanwhile the Mavericks fell to 14-15-6 overall and 8-15-4 in conference play.
Now with 24 points, the Seawolves have clinched no worse than ninth place in the 12-team league and stand one point behind 8th-place Wisconsin and two points behind 7th-place St. Cloud State with one game remaining in the regular season. Following Friday's league action, the top six teams to host the WCHA 1st Round have been determined but UAA still does not know whether it will travel to Denver, Minnesota State, Nebraska Omaha, Minnesota or Colorado College.
Haddad, a senior from Fairbanks, registered the first multi-goal game of his collegiate career, while Kamal (6-4-1), a freshman from Alpharetta, Ga., stopped a career-high 35 shots in net for his second shutout on the season, following a 1-0 win at Minnesota on Jan. 29.
The game got rolling after a coincidental roughing call and an interference whistle on MSU's Channing Boe set up senior forward Tommy Grant
for his team-leading 13th goal of the season with 1:23 left in the opening stanza. Skating 4-on-3, sophomore defenseman Scott Warner
sent the puck ahead to Grant in the neutral zone, who then found sophomore Alex Gellert
for the give-and-go and eventual game winner.
The Seawolves increased the lead to two with an immediate goal off a faceoff to the left of MSU netminder Austin Lee. Freshman forward Jordan Kwas
, who leads UAA in assists with 17, won the draw adjacent to Rylan Galiardi and found Haddad just outside the crease at 2:25 of the second.
At 7:29 of the period, senior forward Sean Wiles
sent a centering pass to senior forward Craig Parkinson
for his eighth on the season and a 3-0 lead. The goal gave way to the departure of Lee, who was replaced by Phil Cook between the pipes.
Haddad picked up his second tally of the night at 13:17 of the third. Junior defenseman Brad Gorham
fired a bullet on net and the rebound went into the capable hands of Haddad, who had plenty of time to lift it over Cook for the 4-0 final.
The Mavericks outshot the Seawolves, 35-27. UAA was 1-for-3 on the man advantage, while MSU was unable to score on five opportunities.
The Seawolves and Mavericks will square off in the final regular-season game at 4:07 p.m. AST on Saturday.
