The pace at which the Seawolves are losing hockey games recently — Friday night's 6-2 setback at Bowling Green was their sixth loss in the last eight games — is matched by the frequency with which they are losing players.
UAA began its latest Western Collegiate Hockey Association loss by dressing 11 forwards, one short of the number a college team usually uses. That's because the Seawolves only have 11 healthy, available forwards.
Freshman winger Cam Amantea is out for the season after shoulder surgery. Junior forward Tanner Dusyk is out long-term with a hip injury. Freshman winger Jeremiah Luedtke suffered an upper-body injury in Thursday's 6-2 loss at Bowling Green and did not play Friday. Freshman forward Nicolas Erb-Ekholm is out with a pair of upper-body injuries. Captain Austin Sevalrud, granted a defenseman, missed the Bowling Green series with an upper-body injury. Freshman winger Mason Mitchell has missed the last four games for personal reasons and freshman forward Luke McColgan left the team during the first semester.
As if that toll was not diminishing enough, UAA freshman defenseman Eric Roberts' Seawolves debut lasted all of two shifts Friday. He picked up a minor penalty on his first shift and a major penalty, and game misconduct on his second shift.
"Guys just keep going down,'' UAA coach Matt Thomas said by cellphone. "Right now, it's so cliché — we can't get a break.''
UAA (9-12-3, 6-10-2 WCHA) is 1-6-1 in its last eight games after going 8-6-2 in its first 16 games. The 12 goals the Seawolves surrendered in the series are the most they have given up in a series this season.
The sweep at the hands of the No. 18-ranked Falcons (15-7-5, 11-3-4 WCHA) prevented UAA from moving out of a ninth-place tie with UAF in the 10-team league. UAA has two games in hand on the Nanooks. But only the top eight finishers make the WCHA playoffs.
"We are where we are,'' Thomas said. "We've got to play better. We've got to capitalize.''
Special-teams play once again pierced the Seawolves on Friday, when they failed to score on five power-play chances, surrendered a short-handed goal and gave up two power-play strikes on Roberts' major penalty for checking Shane Bednard from behind eight minutes into the game.
Before Roberts' penalty, the game was tied 1-1 after Matt Pohlkamp struck short-handed for Bowling Green and junior winger Brad Duwe answered for UAA.
On the five-minute power play that stemmed from Roberts' penalty, Adam Smith scored through traffic and Brent Tate scored on a tap-in after Smith's drive rang off the post. That gave the Falcons, who are 6-0-4 in 10 WCHA home games, a 3-1 lead they cushioned with two second-period goals by Brandon Hawkins and Connor McDonald.
UAA sophomore winger Anthony Conti bagged his sixth goal of the season late in the second period, but Hawkins struck again in the opening minute of the third period.
Seawolves notes
Conti's six goals are second on the team behind sophomore winger Tad Kozun (10). Conti owns 6-3—9 totals in 22 games after going 4-6—10 in 32 games last season.
Bowling Green took three of four games in the season series with UAA. The teams split in Anchorage in the first half of the season.
Sophomore goaltender Olivier Mantha's tough weekend raised his goals-against average to 2.90 from 2.61 and lowered his save percentage to .906 from .913.
Duwe scored a goal in both games of the series and junior defenseman Chase Van Allen furnished an assist in each game.
Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com, check out his blog at adn.com/hockeyblog and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr
UAA 1 1 0 — 2
BG 3 2 1 — 6
First Period ?— 1, BG, M. Pohlkamp 6 (McLain, McDonald), 6:57 (sh); 2, UAA, Duwe 5 (Azurdia, Van Allen), 8:01; 3, BG, Smith 1 (Walker, Dufour), 10:23 (pp); 4, BG, Tate 2 (Smith, Walker), 12:15 (pp). Penalties ?— Roberts, UAA (hitting from behind), 3:15; Walker, BG (boarding), 5:58; Roberts, UAA, major-game misconduct, served by MacTavish (checking from behind), 8:19; Cooper, BG (charging), 13:34; Conti, UAA (charging the goaltender), 15:37; Walker, BG (interference), 18:21; Kozun, UAA (diving), 18:21.
Second Period — 5, BG, Hawkins 7 (Cooper, Spezia), 6:35; 6, BG, McDonald 1 (D'Andrea, Schilling), 9:25; 7, UAA, Conti 5 (Anholt, Brown), 16:59. Penalties ?— Kozun, UAA (hooking), :32; Ernst, BG (cross-checking), 6:47; Walker, BG (hooking), 13:16.
Third Period — 8, BG, Hawkins 8 (Friedman, C. Pohlkamp), :52. Penalties ?— Wright, UAA (slashing), 9:42.
Shots on goal — UAA 4-12-5—21. BG 15-8-14—36.
Power-play Opportunities ?— UAA 0 of 5. BG 2 of 7.
Goalies — UAA, Mantha, 8-11-3 (36 shots-30 saves). BG, Nell, 11-4-5 (21 shots-19 saves).
A — 2,945 (5,000). T — 2:10.
Referees — Matt Miller, Brett Klosowski. Assistant referees ?— Paul Tunison.