UAA Athletics

Luedtke's 3rd-period goal for UAA forges 2-2 tie with Ferris State

The result wasn't the one the Seawolves coveted, but neither was it a repeat of the Saturday sorrow they have endured of late.

Jeremiah Luedtke's power-play strike with less than six minutes remaining in regulation forged UAA's 2-2 Western Collegiate Hockey Association tie with Ferris State of Michigan.

After a delicious overtime — UAA goaltender Olivier Mantha and Ferris State counterpart Justin Kapelmaster faced down glorious chances galore — Ferris State earned the extra point in the standings with a 2-1 sudden-death shootout edge in two rounds at Sullivan Arena.

After Luedtke and Ferris State's Gerald Mayhew each scored in the first round of the shootout, UAA's Jonah Renouf fired wide left and Ferris State's Jason Tackett won it with a wrister to Mantha's stick side.

For the Seawolves (5-14-3, 4-9-3 WCHA), though, the greater point was they followed Friday's 4-1 series-opening victory with a strong, point-earning  performance after following three previous Friday wins with Saturday setbacks. And they're 4-4-2 in their last 10 games, all WCHA matches.

"The majority of the weekend, we played unreal,'' said Luedtke, a sophomore winger. "We're making strides, and we're happy about it. We have to keep building off it.''

UAA coach Matt Thomas said he doesn't think his club has played a full, bad period since the first period of a 6-3 nonconference loss at Penn State on Nov. 12. The Seawolves have played 13 games since.

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"We've just become a solid team,'' Thomas said. "Guys are playing hard for each other and are getting better.''

Mantha yet again flashed the form that prompted teammates to vote the junior the team's Most Valuable Player in each of his first two seasons. He stopped 26 shots in regulation and the first five minutes of OT, when the teams skate 5-on-5 and stats count — any stats in the second five minutes of OT, when teams skate 3-on-3, do not count.

Mantha has reeled off a string of 13 straight games in which he has held opponents to three goals or fewer. He has surrendered five goals in the last four games.

"He's making unbelievable saves for us,'' Luedtke said.

UAA trailed 2-1 deep into the third period, when Luedtke delivered his first goal of the season. After Jarrett Brown's one-timer sailed over the net, Nathan Renouf, stationed off the right post, collected the ricochet off the end boards and backhanded a pass across the crease to Luedtke. He snapped a point-blank one-timer over Kapelmaster's right pad for his third career goal and first at Sullivan.

"I was just waiting there,'' Luedtke said. "I don't know what it hit. I think it went off the heel of (Kapelmaster's stick) and right to me. I didn't get a lot of it. It literally arced over his pad.''

Kapelmaster, a freshman who made 22 saves, was coming off a ridiculous 58-save gem last week in a 1-1 tie with Boston College.

UAA jumped to a 1-0 lead on Mason Mitchell's beauty of a goal off the rush seven minutes into the game. Skating down the left wing in the Bulldogs' zone, he took captain Matt Anholt's one-handed backhand pass in stride, dropped a toe-drag move to elude the stick of a defender as he cut to the middle of the ice and roofed a wrister over Kapelmaster's glove.

But Bob Daniels' crew (7-13-3, 6-8-2 WCHA) didn't falter. The Bulldogs used second-period goals from freshman defenseman Cameron Clarke, who beat Mantha from along the goal line on left wing for his first college marker, and Corey Mackin to seize a 2-1 lead.

Late in regulation, after Luedtke's equalizer, Ferris State's Mitch Maloney rang a shot from the slot off the crossbar. Teammate Dominic Lutz soon found himself all alone in the slot, but fired into Mantha's glove after Mantha edged to the top of the blue paint to cut down Lutz's shooting angle.

Come overtime, the Seawolves could not convert on a 5-on-5 power play. In 3-on-3 play, Mantha stopped Mackin's 2-on-1 bid and got the shaft of his stick on Ryan Lowney's shot, which knocked Mantha's stick out of his grasp.

Luedtke enjoyed a breakaway on the final minute of OT and got Kapelmaster to bite on a move before going to his forehand. In tight on the goalie, he tried to thread a shot between Kapelmaster's left skate and the right post, but rang iron.

"I really wish I could have got that last one,'' Luedtke said.

After the frantic final minutes of regulation and a wild 10 minutes of overtime, he likely was far from the only player on either side wondering what might have been.

"There's going to be a lot of guys on both sides of the fence staring at the ceiling about the opportunities they had,'' Thomas said.

Seawolves notes

Anholt's assist raised his team-leading point total to 5-10—15 in 22 games. He's furnished at least one point in seven of the last eight games.

Mitchell's goal was his fifth, tying him with Anholt for the team lead.

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Brown's two assists gave him three assists in the series and Luedtke's goal gave him one goal and two helpers in the series.

UAA scored a power-play goal in each series game, marking the second time this season it has scored man-advantage goals in consecutive games.

Ferris State wins shootout, 2-1, in 2 rounds

FSU  0  2  0  0  — 2

UAA  1  0  1  0  — 2

First Period — 1, UAA, Mitchell 5 (Anholt, Brown), 6:54. Penalties — Hetz, FSu (goalie interference), 1:56; Duwe, UAA (roughing), 8:50; Mayer, FSU (roughing), 8:50; Mayhew, FSU (interference), 12:43; Dorantes, FSU (roughing), 13:50.

Second Period — 2, FSU, Clarke 1 (Szajner, Mayer), 5:58; 3, FSU, Mackin 8 (Maloney, Clark), 16:13. Penalties — Brown, UAA (holding), 9:58.

Third Period — 4, UAA, Luedtke 1 (N. Renouf, Brown), 14:18 (pp). Penalties — Dorantes, FSU (interference), 2:56; Mitchell, UAA (hooking), 3:17; Mayer, FSU (holding), 13:47; Rutkowski, FSU (roughing the goalie), 16:36; J. Renouf, UAA (hooking), 17:27.

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Overtime — None. Penalties — Donates, FSU (tripping), 3:01.

Shootout — Ferris State 2 (Mayhew G, Tackett G), UAA 1 (Luedtke G, J. Renouf NG).

Shots on goal — FSU 11-9-7-1—28. UAA 5-9-4-6—24.

Power-play Opportunities — FSU 0 of 3. UAA 1 of 7.

Goalies — FSU, Kapelmaster, 5-1-2 (24 shots-22 saves). UAA, Mantha, 5-12-3 (28 shots-26 saves).

A — 1,746 (6,251). T — 2:46.

Referees — Tony Czech, Mike Forys. Assistant referees — Carl Saden, Matt Anderson.

Doyle Woody

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

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