ANCHORAGE – Two goals by sophomore Matt Anholt and a play-maker for junior Chase Van Allen lifted the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves over the Lake Superior State Lakers, 5-2, to earn the Western Collegiate Hockey Association split at the Sullivan Arena.
The Seawolves (11-16-3, 8-14-2 WCHA) twice came back to tie the game in the first two frames before the Seawolves erupted for a season-high-tying three goals in the third period. With the victory and the Alaska Fairbanks' loss to Bowling Green, the Seawolves regained sole ownership of No. 8 in the league standings, two points ahead of the Nanooks.
After being deadlocked 2-2 after the second intermission, the Seawolves received three goals in the final 12 minutes of play. Freshman Nils Rygaard picked up his first collegiate goal at 12:16, before Anholt netted back-to-back tallies at 13:44 and 17:24, with the final strike coming on the empty net. With the goals, Anholt extends his point streak to a team-high seven games (3-6—9). The Prince Albert, Sask., native produced a four-point weekend with three goals.
Meanwhile, Van Allen, an Anchorage native, furnished his first three-point game with assists on Rygaard's strike and Anholt's first goal after picking up the primary on sophomore Austin Azurdia's tally in the first period. He's just the second Seawolf this season to produce three helpers in a game.
The ping-pong first and second periods started with a strike by LSSU's J.T. Henke at 11:05 of the first. Henke, who scored the Lakers game-winning goal a night ago, won the faceoff to the left of netminder Olivier Mantha and then received a give-and-go with Jake Hand. UAA responded four minutes later at 15:07 when Azurdia collected his third of the season off of junior Chase Van Allen's rebound from the blueline. Freshman Jeremiah Luedtke picked up the second helper on the play.
The Lakers regained the lead at 5:27 of the second when Gage Torrel capitalized on a 3-on-1 rush following a UAA turnover in the neutral zone. The lead would hold until 12:35 when sophomore defenseman Jarrett Brown picked up his fifth of the season with a shot from the point.
Mantha made 21 saves and collected the win to improve to 10-14-3 on the season, while Nick Kossoff (23 saves) fell to 3-8-1. UAA outshot the Lakers, 28-23.
UAA will remain in town as they face ranked Minnesota State, Feb. 26-27 at the Sullivan Arena. The games are scheduled to start at 7:07 p.m. AST.
