Sports

UAA hockey team repairs rifts, unites to snap 6-game losing streak

The genesis of UAA's slump-busting 4-0 victory Saturday night over No. 17-ranked Northern Michigan came that morning in a team meeting, where the Seawolves agreed to repair what coach Matt Thomas called a divided dressing room.

A six-game, Western Collegiate Hockey Association losing streak, like the one burdening the Seawolves, will generate frustration and rifts, bad vibes and bad body language. That they had scored just three goals in the span of their five most recent losses, and been shut out three times, simply multiplied their misery.

"There was a lot of finger-pointing instead of thumb-pointing,'' Thomas said. "We were letting a lot of negatives consume our brains when we didn't need to.''

Players looked left and right to locate problems, Thomas said, instead of looking straight forward – into a mirror. He knows his fuse is short too, Thomas said, so he needed to lighten up.

"First off, we were losing and we were so frustrated,'' said sophomore winger Brad Duwe. "Coach said, 'Worry about yourself, not the guy next to you. Play the system and work your bag off.' ''

When freshman winger Anthony Conti arrived at Sullivan Arena late Saturday afternoon, he said he noticed a different – positive – vibes in his club's dressing room.

"When I walked into the room, it was a whole different atmosphere,'' Conti said. "Everybody wanted to get going, everybody wanted to work hard. I could see in their eyes – everybody wanted to win.''

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Thomas made major lineup moves too. He juggled all four of his forward lines and all three of his defensive pairings in a search for the chemistry that has eluded the Seawolves for nearly a month.

What transpired was a complete team performance, from freshman Olivier Mantha's 28 saves to pocket his first college shutout, to three first-period goals, to exceptional penalty killing.

"It was everything we've been lacking,'' Thomas said. "We got to the bottom of things, frustrations in our room, and talked about putting them on the back burner.

"We just played the way you're supposed to play to win hockey games. Our effort was there, our attention to detail was there. We still have a lot of work to do, but it was certainly a good feeling to see the guys execute the way they can.''

UAA scored its three first-period goals in a span of 6 minutes, 48 seconds, lickety-split production for a team that needed 211:08 to score its previous three goals. The Seawolves (5-7-2, 2-6-0 WCHA) were coming off a 1-0 loss to the Wildcats (7-2-1, 4-2-0 WCHA) on Friday, when they mustered a season-low 13 shots.

The common threads in those three goals were second effort, getting to the net and scoring from secondary sources.

Duwe whiffed on his first attempt to pass a bouncing puck to Tad Kozun, but stuck with it and got the rookie the puck with his second stab at a pass. Kozen, stationed between the circles, snapped a dart past Northern Michigan goalie Mathias Dahlstrom (25 saves) and inside the right post.

Conti (two assists) came off the bench to collect the puck in the neutral zone in the final minute of the period and skated laterally along the Wildcat blue line to allow a teammate to get back onside. He made an indirect pass to himself, battled through a check and slid the puck below the goal line. Zack Rassell won the race to the puck and centered to Dylan Hubbs, who banged home a goal from the edge of Dahlstrom's crease for a 2-0 lead.

Just 27 seconds later, defenseman Austin Sevalrud worked a give-and-go with Conti and scored from Dahlstrom's doorstep. Suddenly, the Seawolves owned a 3-0 lead against a goalie who only once this season had surrendered as many as two goals in a game.

And the nine scoring points on those UAA strikes – three goals, six assists – all came from players who were not among the team's top five scorers entering the game.

Finally, Mantha played with the rarest of commodities for UAA – a lead.

"It was awesome,'' he said. "Obviously, it's way easier to play with a lead. They stuck to the system, stayed committed to it, blocked a lot of shots and took care of (Northern Michigan's) sticks.''

UAA freshman defenseman Tanner Johnson said taking a lead into the first intermission proved liberating.

"It was like a weight off our shoulders,'' he said.

The Seawolves killed off a major penalty against defenseman Chris Williams (one assist) for checking from behind. Most of that Wildcats' power play came at the end of the second period, but continued for a minute to open the third period. Matt Anholt added a goal for UAA with 80 seconds to go.

Victory was especially important to UAA because it is entering an idle week, which would have been a drag had it lugged around a seven-game losing streak.

"It definitely brings a team closer together instead of drifting apart, because losing pulls you apart,'' Duwe said.

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UAA sits in a three-way tie for seventh place in the 10-team WCHA with Alabama-Huntsville and Bemidji State. UAF, a 3-2 overtime loser Saturday at Lake Superior State, sits two points below that three-way tie, but has played two fewer league games than the tied teams.

Still, Mantha – and remember, he's a rookie – kept UAA's first victory since Oct. 31 in perspective.

"We didn't win anything,'' he said. "It's one game, but we can build on it.''

Seawolves notes

Mantha's shutout was the first by a UAA goalie since Chris Kamal stopped 19 shots in a 1-0 win over Lake Superior State on Dec. 14, 2013.

Mantha lowered his goals-against average to 2.26 and raised his save percentage to .935.

Dahlstrom still leads Division I masked men in goals-against average (0.99) and save percentage (.958).

UAA went 0 for 5 on the power play and has converted just once in 27 power-play chances in the last seven games.

UAA has played 1,175 games in 36 seasons, and the recent stretch in which it was limited to three goals in a span of five games marked just the fifth time that has happened in program history. It happened twice to Dave Shyiak's 2011-12 club – both instances came in a six-game stretch – one each to Dean Talafous' team in 1997-98 and 1996-97.

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

NMU 0 0 0 0

UAA 3 0 1 4

First Period – 1, UAA, Kozun 3 (Duwe, Williams), 12:47; 2, UAA, Hubbs 3 (Rassell, Conti), 19:08; 3, UAA, Sevalrud 2 (Conti, Hubbs), 19:35. Penalties – Cameron, UAA (high-sticking), 6:24.

Second Period -- None. Penalties – Seckel, NMU (cross-checking-contact to head), 6:34; Seckel, NMU (elbowing-indirect contact to head), 9:27; Shine, NMU (cross-checking), 10:06; Sooth, NMY (slashing), 11:50; Leask, UAA (elbowing-indirect contact to head), 14:45; Hubbs, UAA (hitting after whistle), 15:03; Shine, NMU (hitting after whistle), 15:03; Williams, UAA, major-game misconduct (checking from behind), 15:59.

Third Period – 4, UAA, Anholt 2 (Cameron, Van Allen), 18:40. Penalties – Klimek, NMU (tripping), 9:59; Van Allen, UAA (holding the stick), 16:22.

Shots on goal – NMU 7-10-11—28. UAA 10-11-8—29.

Power-play Opportunities – NMU 0 of 4. UAA 0 of 5.

Goalies – NMU, Dahlstrom, 7-2-1 (29 shots-25 saves). UAA, Mantha, 4-5-1 (28 shots-28 saves).

A – 1,964 (6,251). T – 2:18.

Referees – Brett Klosowski, 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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