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Seawolves open up offensively in victory over #2 Denver
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The Seawolves offense came alive in the second period on Saturday, November 7th, and rewarded fans with a 7-3 victory over the 2nd ranked Denver Pioneers at the Sullivan Arena. The offensive explosion must have come as a surprise to both those watching and playing in the game. This is the same Seawolves team that had lost three games in a row, hadn't beat Denver at home since 2000, and had only scored 6 goals in their first 5 WCHA games this season. The only thing more surprising than the Seawolves offensive showcase might have been who it came against. This is the same Denver squad that was ranked #2 nationally, had beaten UAA 10 out of their last 11 meetings, and shut-out Minnesota both games in a road sweep earlier in the season.
The Seawolves matched Denver's effort and physicality all game and it was fun to watch. Denver opened the scoring at 5:59 of the first period when a flurry in front caused Seawolves goalie Bryce Christianson to get out of position and sophomore Patrick Wiercioch put in the rebound from the left hash marks. The Seawolves were able to tie the game before the end of the period when junior Sean Wiles scored his second goal in as many nights at 17:05 of the first period. The goal came off a quick wrist shot from the right point after some impressive cycling up high by the Seawolves.
At 3:58 of the second period the Pioneers took a 2-1 lead on a blistering slap shot by a familiar target, Rhett Rakhshani, while on the two man advantage. This would be the last time the Pioneers would possess the lead as the Seawolves finally broke out of their offensive funk in a big way midway through the second period. The power play hadn't seemed like much of an advantage in recent games for the Seawolves, but even the power play got going on Saturday night. After Mickey Spencer and William Wrenn received matching roughing penalties, a Denver holding call put the Seawolves on a 4 on 3 advantage at 10:09 of the second period. It only took 25 seconds for the Seawolves to capitalize when leading scorer Kevin Clark knocked in a close rebound from the right side of the net for his 5th goal of the season. Within the next two minutes the Seawolves would add two more goals by Daniel Naslund and Curtis Leinweber to give the Seawolves a two goal lead. This was freshman Daniel Naslund's first career goal.
Similar to the Seawolves on Friday night, Denver tried to mount a comeback from two goals down as they out-shot UAA on the evening 23-18. However, on this night the Seawolves were able to capitalize on the opportunities Denver allowed them, as evident by their 7 goals on only 18 shots. Denver most likely planned on coming out hard to start the third period, but an elbowing penalty by Anchorage native William Wrenn 50 seconds into the period followed by a Kevin Clark drawn roughing call put the Seawolves on a 5 on 3 early in the period. The Seawolves would capitalize on the second career goal by freshman defenseman Lee Baldwin at 2:27 of the third period. This was the goal that seemingly took whatever wind was left out of the sails for the Denver Pioneers. From this point on the final period was filled with demonstrations of individual effort and extracurricular after the whistle.
Junior Sean Wiles took an airborne puck in the nuetral zone and held off a Pioneer defenseman before slipping it through the legs of Denver goalie and Anchorage native, Adam Murray, at 5:55 of the third period for a spectacular individual effort, and his third goal of the weekend. This would be the last shot faced for freshman Adam Murray who was pulled in front of his hometown crowd to add emphasis to his disappointing game. Tyler Ruegsegger gave the Pioneers their third goal at 15:53 of the third period on the power play after junior Kane Lafranchise received a 5 minute major and game misconduct for clipping. Senior Josh Lunden put an exclamation point on the victory with his pretty goal at 17:48 of the final period. Lunden took the puck from the side boards and went across the net of Denver's backup for the evening, Lars Paulgaard, before lifting it in on the near side. All in all, it was a great night for the Seawolves.
The Seawolves had been looking for offense from anywhere and on Saturday night they received it from just about everywhere. Junior Sean WIles had two goals. Freshamn Daniel Naslund had two points, as did senior Kevin Clark and junior Tommy Grant. Freshman Lee Baldwin came away with 3 points in the game. Boxscore
Junior Bryce Christianson got the start in net and played brilliantly. Denver was only able to beat him when they got him moving quickly side to side, and there was a number of critical saves by Bryce in the first half of the game which allowed UAA to stay right with Denver before eventually blowing them out. Bryce stopped 20 of 23 shots against, 15 of which came in the first two periods. Anchorage native Adam Murray stopped 9 of 15, and Lars Paulgaard stopped 2 of 3 shots faced.
With the win the Seawolves are now 4-6 on the season and 2-4 in the WCHA, alone in 8th place. Denver suffered their first conference loss of the season and are now 4-1-1 in the WCHA and in a three-way tie atop the conference with North Dakota and Colorado College. Rankings Next weekend the Seawolves will travel to Madison to play the University of Wisconsin.
