HOUGHTON, Mich. – On the skates of senior Rasmus Reijola's goaltending, the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves captured their third straight tie with a 1-1 overtime contest against the No. 20-ranked Michigan Tech Huskies, Saturday at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena.
The Seawolves (5-14-5, 4-9-5 WCHA) opened the scoring in the first period, before the Huskies (14-9-5, 11-3-4 WCHA) responded in the second with the game-tying goal – guaranteeing both teams with at least one WCHA point. The contest remained scoreless through regulation, forcing a 5-on-5 overtime and a 3-on-3 overtime.
Both teams were unable to score in the two, five-minute periods, forcing a sudden death shootout. Shooting first for Tech was Jake Lucchini, who scored. Sophomore forward Mason Mitchell for UAA wasn't as lucky, allowing the Huskies to take the two league points.
The Seawolves' main highlight in the game was Reijola's netminding. A local of Espoo, Finland, Reijola turned aside 35 shots on the evening and a combined 80 on the weekend for a .952 save percentage (80-84). Reijola, a transfer from St. Cloud State, improves to 0-2-2 on the season after not playing since early November.
The Seawolves got on the board first for the second straight night when sophomore forward Cam Amantea scored at 14:11 of the opening period. Amantea – who missed last night's game – picked up his first goal of the season, deflecting classmate Nicolas Erb-Ekholm's shot.
Collecting the game-tying goal was MTU's Chris Gerrie with just 21 seconds remaining in the second period.
The first and second periods saw plenty of infractions, while there was only one in the third. Additionally, the Huskies' Michael Neville was tagged for abuse of officials (10 minutes) and received a game misconduct. Overall, the Seawolves were tagged for five penalties to the Huskies' 11. Both teams were unsuccessful on the power play.
UAA is now 4-0-3 when scoring first. In addition to UAA's 3-3 tie against MTU on Friday night, the Seawolves also tied the Ferris State Bulldogs on Jan. 7, 2-2. The last three games against the Huskies have ended in a tie as well, going back to the Nov. 19 game (1-1).
With the three-point weekend, the Seawolves are ninth in the WCHA standings and are just three points behind 8th-place Lake Superior State.
The Seawolves remain in Michigan and head to Northern Michigan next weekend for a pair of games, Jan. 20-21.
