ANCHORAGE (March 1) - Petr Chytka scored his third game-winning goal in as many games and Steve Cygan added an insurance empty-netter to lift the Seawolves to a 4-2 win over Alaska Fairbanks in their Alaska Airlines Governor's Cup clash Friday night at the Sullivan. The victory kept UAA's hopes of retaining the Cup alive. The Seawolves, which trail 2-1 in the four-game Cup series, improved to 12-16-5 overall. UAF slipped to 19-11-3 on the season.
The win was bittersweet for the Seawolves as Wisconsin defeated Minnesota-Duluth Friday night, leapfrogging the Badgers past UAA into the No. 5 spot in the WCHA standings - clinching home ice for next week's WCHA first round playoffs. The Seawolves will finish in a tie for sixth with Minnesota State-Mankato and, possibly, North Dakota, should the Sioux win on Saturday. Regardless, UAA will wind up the seventh seed due to the tie-breaking formula and play at No. 4 Colorado College to begin the playoffs.
Before a throaty throng of 5,095, the Seawolves jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead. John Hopson one-timed a shot from the point by Corey Hessler past UAF goalie Lance Mayes for a power play goal at 6:58 of the first. Chytka also assisted on the goal.
UAA went up 2-0 as Chytka scored from a scrum in front of the net at 13:17 of the period. Vladimir Novak and Eric Lawson received assists on the goal.
The Nanooks got to within one at 6:56 of the second as Jason Grinevitch went top shelf over UAA's Kevin Reiter. But Chytka, who has five goals over his past three games, got the game-winner at 7:26 of the third on assists from Novak and Dallas Steward.
UAF took advantage of a Chytka cross-checking penalty at 16:45 of the third, getting a power-play goal from Aaron Voros at the 18:09 mark. But with Mayes out of net in favor of an extra attacker, Cygan flipped a backhander from his own blue line that slowly slid down the ice and into the Nanook open net with just eight seconds remaining.
Reiter finished with 24 saves while Mayes was credited with 23 for UAF. Both team took three minor penalties and both were 1-for-3 on the power play.
The Nanooks need only a tie in Saturday's series finale to claim the Cup. A UAA victory would result in a 2-2 series tie, necessitating a post-game shootout.
