UAA Athletics

UAA hockey team surrenders 3 goals in the final period to lose 5-3

With the UAA hockey team threatening to vault past them in the conference standings, the Lakers of Lake Superior State scored three straight goals in the final seven minutes Sunday to stun the Seawolves.

The late outburst gave the Lakers a 5-3 win in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association game at the Seawolf Sports Complex.

UAA twice owned one-goal leads, 2-1 at the end of the first period and 3-2 early in the third period. The Lakers rallied by outshooting UAA 26-13 in the final two periods and 33-25 for the game.

The Seawolves won 2-0 on Saturday to move within one point of the Lakers in the WCHA standings and could have overtaken them with a win on Sunday.

Instead, Lake Superior State collected the three points at stake Sunday to tighten its grip on seventh place in the 10-team league with 17 points. UAA is in ninth place with 13 points, one point behind eighth-place Ferris State.

UAA (3-12-3 overall, 3-9-2 WCHA) got goals from sophomore Tanner Schachle and two newcomers – Zach Nazzarett and Luc Brown. Schachle had a hand in all three UAA goals, scoring on a first-period power play and assisting on the goals by Nazzarett and Brown.

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Nazzarett is a freshman who joined the team at the semester break after starting the season with the Youngstown (Ohio) Phantoms the U.S. Hockey League, and Brown is a senior who didn’t become eligible until this semester after transferring more than a year ago from Union College. Both tallied assists in Saturday’s win.

The Lakers scored first but Schachle tied it less than two minutes later on assists from Tomi Hiekkavirta and Rylee St. Onge. Nazzarett scored 86 seconds later to give UAA a 2-1 lead after one period.

Lake Superior State’s Max Humitz scored the only goal of the second period, a power-play strike that made it 2-2.

A power-play goal by Brown restored UAA’s lead four minutes into the third period, 3-2. Schachle and St. Onge got their second assists of the game on the play.

The Seawolves held onto the lead for about nine minutes, and then the onslaught began for the Lakers (7-18-1, 5-10-1). Brayden Gelsinger tied the game at 13:27, Pete Veillette scored the go-ahead goal at 16:19 and Humitz provided an empty-net goal with 48 seconds left.

The empty-netter was the 15th goal of the season for Humitz, who is the third-leading goal-scorer in NCAA hockey this season.

UAA goaltender Kris Carlson, who was in net for Saturday’s shutout, made 28 saves. Mareks Mitens of the Lakers had 22 saves.

The Seawolves head to Northern Michigan this week for a two-game series in Marquette.

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