ANCHORAGE - J.T. Brown scored four goals to lead No. 1-ranked Minnesota-Duluth to a 4-1 win over Alaska Anchorage in a WCHA game Friday night at the Sullivan Arena. UMD improved to 18-5-4 overall and 12-4-3 in WCHA while the Seawolves fell to 6-17-2 overall and 3-17-1 in league play.

The Bulldogs jumped out to a 3-0 first period lead thanks to Brown's first-period natural hat trick. He scored just 2:30 in off a centering pass from Adam Krause. Brown's second tally came at 11:36 after linemate Travis Oleksuk won a faceoff draw back to Brown in the UAA zone. His third came with just 50 seconds left in the first from a severe angle along the goal line.

The Seawolves came out with good energy in the second and drew within two on a power-play tally by Mitch Bruijsten at 13:42 of the second - his team-leading eighth on the season.  Stationed in front of UMD netminder Kenny Reiter, Bruijsten deflected a shot from teammate Matt Bailey past a screened Reiter. Scott Warner was credited with the second assist.

But Brown's fourth goal - via the power play less than two minutes later - pushed UMD's lead back to three at 4-1 after two periods. The two teams played to a scoreless third-period stalemate, resulting in UAA's eighth straight loss.

UAA netminder Rob Gunderson, who came on in relief of starter Chris Kamal entering the second period, was credited with 16 saves on 17 shots. Reiter had 17 saves for UMD in improving his season mark to 17-4-4.

UMD was 1-for-2 on the power play while UAA went 1-for-3.

The two teams will meet Saturday night in their WCHA series-ender.