Sports

Punchless UAA loses 6th straight hockey game

The details were disturbing, the result wretched and the big picture painful, and all of it rendered the Seawolves solemn.

No telling if this is rock bottom -- too many games remain. But it's certainly a slice of hockey hell for the Seawolves after they choked down their sixth consecutive loss, all in Western Collegiate Hockey Association play, on a Friday night when the score did not fully showcase their shortcomings.

Northern Michigan 1, UAA 0.

It wasn't remotely that close.

Not when the Seawolves (4-7-2, 1-6-0 WCHA) were afforded six full power plays, and in those 12 minutes with the man advantage at Sullivan Arena mustered just two shots on goal, neither threatening.

Not when they managed a season-low 13 shots on Wildcats sophomore Mathias Dahlstrom, who racked his nation tying-high fourth shutout and improved his nation-leading goals-against average (0.66) and save percentage (.971).

Not when they wasted another fine performance from their own masked man, freshman Olivier Mantha (24 saves), who permitted only Robbie Payne's perfectly-placed dart of a wrister in the final minute of the first period.

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Not when they were shut out for the second straight game and third time in the last five games, and own a goal drought of 126 minutes, 53 seconds.

Not when they find themselves heading into Saturday night's series finale tied for last place with UAF, which has played two fewer league games.

And not when an idle weekend looms after Saturday.

"We're in a corner,'' said UAA senior winger Brett Cameron, "and we have to swing our way out.''

That will require ample spirit, which was lacking Friday.

"That's my greatest concern,'' said UAA coach Matt Thomas. "Where's our urgency? Where's the passion to compete? Right now, we're not mentally tough at all.''

UAA's difficulties Friday were myriad. Passes were frequently off the mark or mishandled. The Seawolves fired nearly as many shots that were off-target (11) or were blocked (11) as they did bids that reached Dahlstrom.

Time and again the Seawolves wilted in the face of penalty-killing pressure from the No. 17-ranked Wildcats. Northern Michigan (7-1-1, 4-1-0 WCHA) ranks second nationally in penalty-killing at 94.7-percent efficiency after coach Walt Kyle picked the brains of buddies from the NHL in the offseason and also put assistant coach and former Wildcat penalty-killer Rob Lehtinen in charge of that unit.

Also, UAA's top line of center Blake Tatchell and wingers Cameron and Scott Allen, who also play together on a power-play unit, managed just three shots, one from each of them.

"We're the guys to be scoring, and it's not happening,'' Cameron said. "It's frustrating. But I've been told many times you can't get too high or too low, and I feel like we have a lot of guys too low right now.

"I think it's up to us older guys, seniors and juniors, to dig our way out of this hole.''

Northern Michigan, meanwhile, kicked off its two-week, four-game road trip to Alaska -- the Wildcats play UAF twice next weekend -- in style.

"It's important to get a win,'' Kyle said. "We're trying not to get too caught up in wins and losses this year. We're focused on quality of play. For a lot of tonight, I really liked our quality of play.''

The only goal the Wildcats required came with 20.6 seconds left in the first period. Defenseman Jake Baker cleared the puck off the glass in his zone and UAA defenseman Tanner Johnson tried to corral the puck along the wall at his blue line.

But he was unable to gather it. Payne did. He raced in on left wing in a sudden 2-on-1 with John Siemer, looked Mantha off as if to make a pass to his teammate and whistled a shot over Mantha's left pad and inside the right post.

The Seawolves have a chance to unburden themselves Saturday night. Failing that, the two weeks between games might seem like two months.

Seawolves notes

Mantha lowered his goals-against average to 2.52 from 2.70 and raised his save percentage to .929 from .927.

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He's been in net all three times UAA has been shut out and in those games delivered a goals-against average of 2.07 and a save percentage of .945.

UAA's power play has converted just once in 22 opportunities in the six-game losing streak.

Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com, check out his blog at adn.com/hockey-blog and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr

NMU 1 0 0 -- 1

UAA 0 0 0 -- 0

First Period – 1, NMU, Payne 2 (Baker), 19:39. Penalties – Kesti, NMU (hooking), 7:20; Diamantoni, NMU (tripping), 16:17.

Second Period -- None. Penalties – Kaib, NMU (hooking), 5:56; Nowick, NMU (tripping), 11:44; UAA bench minor, served by Conti (too many men), 13:56.

Third Period -- None. Penalties – Hubbs, UAA (hooking), 1:54; Manno, NMU (interference), 9:39; Leask, UAA (slashing), 14:08; Cameron, UAA (hooking), 18:59; Hanson, NMU (roughing), 19:21.

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Shots on goal – NMU 11-8-6—25. UAA 4-2-7—13.

Power-play Opportunities – NMU 0 of 4. UAA 0 of 6.

Goalies – NMU, Dahlstrom, 7-1-1 (13 shots-13 saves). UAA, Mantha, 3-5-1 (25 shots-24 saves).

A – 1,894 (6,251). T – 2:26.

Referees – Brett Klowowski, Robert Lukkason. Assistant referees – Travis Jackson, Nick Walters.

Doyle Woody

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

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