One sizzling streak by the UAA hockey team could not halt a longer fizzling streak.
The Seawolves cashed in on consecutive power plays Friday night on the road, but extended their winless streak in games played Outside to 18 with a 3-3 tie with Alabama-Huntsville in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association season-opening game for both teams.
UAA has not won a game Outside since a 5-2 win at Lake Superior State in Michigan on Feb. 8, 2014. Since, they have gone 0-16-2 in games Outside.
The Seawolves scored on their first two power plays to extend their scoring streak with the man advantage to five in a row. The strikes gave UAA a 2-0 lead after one period.
Huntsville scored three times in the second period for a 3-2 lead. UAA senior center Blake Tatchell, coming off a four-point performance in a win over American International last Saturday, forged a 3-3 tie less than three minutes into the third period.
Tatchell cleaned up the rebound of a bid from linemate Jeremiah Luedtke to bag his third goal of the season. It was his second straight multiple-point game – he assisted on Luedtke's power-play goal in the first period – and his 17th career multiple-point game.
UAA sophomore goaltender Olivier Mantha made 35 saves, including two in overtime. Alabama-Huntsville junior Carmine Guerriero stopped 21 shots and faced none in the extra period.
The Seawolves found themselves down a man just 82 seconds into the game, when freshman winger Mason Mitchell was busted for a major penalty and game misconduct. He got the gate for contact to the head against Chargers defenseman Brandon Parker.
UAA caught a break when Madison Dunn's trip of Seawolves winger Dylan Hubbs trimmed two minutes out of Huntsville's five-minute man advantage.
The major penalty was UAA's first of the season and came in its fifth game. That's improvement from last season, when the Seawolves committed an astounding 15 majors in just 34 games. (Perhaps even more astounding, they killed 85 percent of those majors, better than their 80.7 penalty-killing in all situations).
The Seawolves made the Chargers pay when the hosts made consecutive trips to the penalty box in the first period. Rookie winger Luedtke banged in a Tad Kozun rebound on UAA's first power play and sophomore center Matt Anholt converted a Chase Van Allen rebound on the second power play to furnish a 2-0 lead.
That meant the Seawolves had converted five consecutive power-play opportunities in three games. They scored on both of their chances in last Saturday's 6-2 win over American International and on their final power-play chance in a 4-3 win over Rensselaer the night before that.
Yet Alabama-Huntsville roared back – charged, you could say – to seize the lead inside the opening eight minutes of the second period.
Cody Marooney, Brennan Saulnier and Josh Kestner struck in a span of just 5:27 to deliver the Chargers a 3-2 lead.
The teams meet again Saturday at 4:07 p.m. ADT.
Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com, check out his blog at adn.com/hockey-blog and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr
UAA 2 0 1 0 -- 3
Ala.-Huntsville 0 3 0 0 -- 3
First Period – 1, UAA, Luedtke 1 (Kozun, Tatchell), 12:12 (pp); 2, UAA, Anholt 2 (Van Allen), 16:38 (pp). Penalties – Mitchell, UAA, major-game misconduct, served by MacTavish (contact to the head), 1:22; Dunn, Ala.-Huntsville (tripping),2:45; Houcher, Ala.-Huntsville (elbowing), 11:58; Guerriero, Ala.-Huntsville, served by Buri (tripping), 15:57; Azurdia, UAA (elbowing), 19:06; Hubbs, UAA (boarding),19:34.
Second Period – 3, Ala.-Huntsville, Marooney 1 (Parker), 2:08; 4, Ala.-Huntsville, Saulnier 4 (McHugh, Parker), 6:38; 5, Ala.-Huntsville, Kestner (Buri, Gorowsky),7:35. Penalties -- None.
Third Period – 6, UAA, Tatchell 3 (Luedtke), 2:50. Penalties – Ege, UAA (interference), 13;04. Brears, Alabama-Huntsville (holding), 17:06; Tatchell, UAA (holding), 17:28.
Overtime -- No goals scored. Penalties -- None.
Shots on goal – UAA 9-7-8-0—24. Ala.-Huntsville 15-14-7-2—38.
Power-play Opportunities – UAA 2 of 3. Ala.-Huntsville 0 of 5.
Goalies – UAA, Mantha, (2-1-1) (38 shots-35 saves). Ala.-Huntsville, Guerriero, (1-1-1) (24 shots-21 saves).
A – 2,166 (6,602). T -- 2:34.
Referees – Tommy Albindia, Don Kovarik. Assistant referees – Doug Martinson, Ben Cobb.