In UAA's season-opening win over Maine, center Blake Tatchell gifted defenseman Derek Docken with a pass sweeter than sugar, one that left him with an open net at his disposal.
Tatchell's set-up furnished Docken a gimme, a tap-in, a chance so sublime that most nights he probably could have steered it into the cage with a tree branch. And yet Docken came up as empty as the net that beckoned.
"That's going to haunt me,'' Docken said afterward, still incredulous he did not score.
He made amends Friday night, when he buried a shot into a yawning net – Tatchell racked one of his three assists on the play -- and was one of three Seawolves defensemen to score goals in a 3-2 victory over winless Lake Superior State at Sullivan Arena.
UAA coach Matt Thomas in preseason stressed the Seawolves needed more bang from the blue line than the 12 goals defensemen scored in 38 games last season.
The defense delivered Friday in the team's Western Collegiate Hockey Association opener. Also scoring were freshman blueliner Jarrett Brown, who furnished his first college goal, and junior defenseman Austin Sevalrud, whose third-period goal stood as the game winner. Defensemen have generated seven goals in seven games for UAA (4-1-2, 1-0-0 WCHA).
"It was a pretty big focus at the start of the year,'' Docken said. "We looked around the league and saw teams getting big contributions from the defense. We think we have a good group here and can do that.''
The offense from the defense was a bright spot for the Seawolves, as was Tatchell's playmaker – the second three-assist game of the junior's career – and freshman goaltender Olivier Mantha's 27 saves. Otherwise – well, the Seawolves were not impressed with themselves.
Lake Superior outshot UAA 29-22, including 11-4 in the third period. The Lakers (0-9-0, 0-5-0 WCHA) pressed the game for stretches and put on a frantic push after pulling freshman goalie Kevin Aldridge (19 saves) for an extra attacker in the final 81 seconds, when Mantha came up with five saves. And they came oh-so-close – Stephen Perfetto's shot from the right circle in the waning seconds glanced off the right pipe. Also, Lake Superior's apparent tying power-play goal in the third period, when UAA led 2-1, was waved off after a video review because referees determined Scott Patterson was in Mantha's crease and interfered with him.
"That's the story of a 0-9 team,'' said Lakers coach Damon Whitten, the former UAA assistant coach. "It hurts.''
Whitten thought his club proved the better team –"Unfortunately, the scoreboard's all that counts,'' he said – and he got no argument from Thomas. Thomas, UAA's second-year bench boss, was aghast at his team's volume of turnovers and lack of passion on a Halloween night when an announced crowd of just 1,851.
"I just thought we played…I don't know what we're doing,'' Thomas said. "I'm going to watch the video. I just don't know how mentally engaged we were.
"That's on me – I'll take the blame for that. That game's my fault. I didn't get us ready, I didn't have us prepared to play.''
Even so, UAA jumped to a 2-0 lead.
Brown scored on the power play five minutes into the game when Tatchell skated from behind the Lakers net all the way to the right point before threading a diagonal pass to Brown at the bottom of the left circle. Brown caught the pass on his backhand, quickly switched to his forehand and roofed a shot. Docken's even-strength goal came four minutes into the second period when Tatchell, stationed along the goal line on left wing, fed defenseman Tanner Johnson in the slot. Johnson's shot hit traffic and glanced to Docken low in the right circle, and Aldridge did not have a chance.
"I told Tatchell, 'Glad you got an assist, I owed you one,' '' Docken said. "If I'd have missed that one, I probably would have had to retire and say it just wasn't meant to be.''
"I've forgiven him,'' Tatchell said with a grin. "Everything's clean.''
Lake Superior center Austin McKay, who checks in at 6-foot-5, 220 pounds, cut UAA's lead to 2-1 five minutes after Docken's goal. He deftly and subtly applied his stick across Docken's lower back to create separation between the two at the top of Mantha's crease, then back-handed in the rebound of Aidan Wright's shot from the left point. That lead held when Lake Superior's Garret Clemment, who like Lakers goalie Aldridge is a former Fairbanks Ice Dog, apparently scored on the power play with Tatchell in the box before the review wiped out the goal.
Sevalrud's goal with less than eight minutes to play came when he took a Tatchell pass atop the right circle and threaded a shot through traffic and into the top left corner for a 3-1 Seawolves lead.
"That's literally all we worked on all week,'' Sevalrud said. "We thought there would be opportunities to get the puck to the point and get shots to the net.''
His first goal of the season proved critical because Lake Superior's Luke Sandler just 73 seconds later launched a laser from the slot over Mantha's glove to reduce UAA's edge to 3-2.
Tatchell won three defensive-zone face-offs in the final minute to help hold off an opponent Sevalrud said played with "desperation.''
For UAA, the win wasn't pretty – "Lesson learned, and it's better to learn a lesson in a win,'' Tatchell said – but it was worth two points in the standings.
"That's the kind of game, you're happy you won,'' Thomas said. "But you're not happy with the way you played.''
Seawolves notes
Tatchell's three-point game was the third of his UAA career and his 13th multiple-point game.
Senior center Brett Cameron was held without a point for the first time in his six games this season.
Lake Superior, which has scored just 13 goals in nine games, continued to struggle on the power play. The Lakers went 0 for 4 and have converted just 3 of 39 power-play chances (7.7 percent) this season.
UAA scored once on two power-play chances and has scored a power-play goal in three straight games.
Seawolves freshman defenseman Tanner Johnson had an assist for his first college point, in just his second college game. Brown led UAA with four shots on goal.
One of Whitten's assistant coaches with the Lakers is former Alaska Aces goaltender Peter Aubry.
Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com, check out his blog at adn.com/hockey-blog and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr
Lake Superior St. 0 1 1 2
UAA 1 1 1 3
First Period – 1, UAA, Brown 1 (Tatchell, Coldwell), 4:48 (pp). Penalties – Wright, LSS (interference), 3:57; Cameron, UAA (hooking), 20:00.
Second Period – 2, UAA, Docken 1 (Johnson, Tatchell), 4:20; 3, LSS, McKay 2 (Globke, Wright), 9:37. Penalties – Brown, UAA (tripping), 10:23; Globke, LSS (tripping), 12:38; Tatchell, UAA (boarding), 16:41.
Third Period – 4, UAA, Sevalrud 1 (Tatchell, Conti), 12:26; 5, LSS, Sandler 1 (Wright, Angus), 13:39. Penalties – Hubbs, UAA (hooking), 7:30; Docken, UAA (hooking), 20:00.
Shots on goal – LSS 5-13-11—29. UAA 8-10-4—22.
Power-play Opportunities – LSS 0 of 4. UAA 1 of 2.
Goalies – LSS, Aldridge, 0-2-0 (22 shots-19 saves). UAA, Mantha, 3-1-1 (29 shots-29 saves).
A – 1,851 (6,251). T – 2:25.
Referees – Peter Friesema, Butch Mousseaux. Assistant referees – Carl Saden, Dan Colliander.
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