HOUGHTON, Mich. – The Alaska Anchorage Seawolves came back to tie the nationally-ranked No. 20 Michigan Tech Huskies, 3-3 in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association overtime game on Friday at John MacInnes Student Ice Arena. Additionally, the Seawolves scored during the 3-on-3 overtime, collecting two league points.
Officially, the game ended in a tie, but the Seawolves received a break-away goal from junior captain Matt Anholt for the extra league point. The Huskies returned to the locker room with one point in the overtime loss.
The Seawolves, who have now earned WCHA points in the last three games, forced extra minutes when junior Austin Azurdia furnished the game-tying goal – on the power play – with just 25 seconds remaining in regulation. The Seawolves (5-14-4, 4-9-4 WCHA) led 2-0 during the second period of play, before the Huskies (14-9-4, 11-3-3 WCHA) responded with three straight for the lead.
The night started when sophomore forward Mason Mitchell collected his fourth goal in five games. On a breakaway, Mitchell went to his back hand and then five hole for his team-leading sixth of the season. Junior Tad Kozun and freshman Nolan Nicholas assisted on the play at 18:08 of the first.
At the start of the second, a miscue forced the Huskies to turn over the puck to Mitchell. The Calgary, Alberta, local found junior defenseman Tanner Johnson for a 2-0 lead, just 13 seconds into the period. The Seawolves continued to dominate the next four minutes, posting an 8-1 shots on goal advantage.
Unfortunately, the momentum swung in favor of the home team at 7:08, when MTU's Jake Lucchini's shot trickled across the goal line, cutting the lead in half. The Huskies would then knot the game at 16:01 with a backhander goal by Michael Neville.
The second ended with a scuffle in front of the net, resulting in penalties on both teams, including a major for face-masking and a game misconduct on MTU's Joel L'Esperance. The penalties rolled over into the third, where the Seawolves enjoyed a three-minute power play, but were unable to convert.
After the Huskies tied the game, they collected their first lead of the contest with 1:14 left in the third, but it wouldn't last long. Matt Roy blasted one from the right point, besting a screened Rasmus Reijola, just seconds after the MTU power play had expired.
The Seawolves didn't trail for long. With Reijola on the bench for the extra attacker, UAA capitalized on a late power play. Azurida picked up Jarrett Brown's rebound from the blueline, sending the game to extra minutes. With the helper, Brown has five in the last five games.
Making his first start in net since November and just third of the season was Reijola, a senior transfer from St. Cloud State. With junior netminder Olivier Mantha (21 games played) on the bench as back-up, Reijola (0-2-1) picked up the tie and extended UAA's unbeaten streak at the John MacInnes to three games – the Seawolves are 2-0-1 in Houghton after sweeping the Huskies, 3-2, 3-2, last season.
UAA allowed the Huskies to pepper Reijola with 48 shots on goal, including 19 in the third period. UAA placed 30 on target.
The Seawolves were perfect on five penalty kills and went 1-on-5 on the power play.
The teams will reunite tomorrow at 3:07 p.m. AST.
