Sports

Seawolves goaltender Gunderson was never ineligible

UAA sophomore goaltender Rob Gunderson is academically eligible and should be back between the pipes for the Seawolves hockey team this season.

UAA athletic director Steve Cobb said he misspoke Friday in saying Gunderson and sophomore center Jordan Kwas were ineligible for the remainder of the season.

Kwas is ineligible, Cobb said Tuesday, but Gunderson has always been eligible.

Questions regarding the two players surfaced when they were not included in the team's lineup for Friday's Western Collegiate Hockey Association game at Michigan Tech, which marked UAA's first match since the holiday break.

Both Gunderson and Kwas have regularly been in the lineup since arriving at UAA. But neither player traveled to Houghton, Mich. -- UAA fell 6-2 on Friday and 6-4 on Saturday -- on a trip that continues this week with a league series at Wisconsin.

Cobb said Tuesday that while Gunderson remained in Anchorage to do some academic work, and also because of "another issue'' that's being kept in-house, he has never lost his eligibility.

"He's a great kid,'' Cobb said. "There's no doubt in my mind he'll have a great academic semester, and he'll get back to some good goaltending like last season.''

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Gunderson in the last season and a half has split goaltending duties with fellow sophomore Chris Kamal.

With Gunderson unavailable last weekend, Kamal and No. 3 goalie Dusan Sidor, a junior, split the starts. Kamal was pulled early in the second period Friday after surrendering four goals in a 6-2 loss and Sidor went the rest of the way. UAA coach Dave Shyiak on Saturday rewarded Sidor with his first college start and he went the distance in a 6-4 loss that included a late empty-net goal.

Find Doyle Woody's blog at adn.com/hockeyblog or call him at 257-4335.

By DOYLE WOODY

Anchorage Daily News

Doyle Woody

Doyle Woody covered hockey and other sports for the Anchorage Daily News for 34 years.

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