For the second straight night, the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves trailed 2-1 heading into the third period. Scoring twice in the third, the Seawolves topped the No. 17 Michigan Tech Huskies, 3-2, Saturday night at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena.
After the Seawolves tied the game, both teams had chances to get the win, but neither could get much of an advantage until late. With the game tied, the puck squirted out in front of Huskies goaltender Matt Wintjes. Brad Duwe pounced on the puck and batted it past Wintjes at 14:49.
“We were gritty tonight,” said Seawolves coach Matt Thomas. “We found a way to do it coming from behind. Anytime you sweep on the road in our league is a tough thing to do. Teams play hard. Our league is a man’s league.”
Wintjes had yet to play a game this season and the Seawolves tested him early with three shots on goal in the first 1:30. Wintjes made all three saves. He finished the night with 24 saves.
The Huskies first scoring chance came from winger Joel L’Esperance. Center Jake Lucchini picked up the puck behind the Seawolves’ net and found L’Esperance in the slot. He fired a one-timer, but was stopped by Olivier Mantha. About a minute later, the Huskies struck during a shift in which the Huskies’ line of Brett Boeing, Mason Blacklock, and Alex Gillies kept the puck deep in the offensive zone. Their hard work paid off when Gillies fed the puck to defenseman Jimmy Davis, who fired a shot that Boeing got just enough of to redirect at 6:31.
“I thought tonight’s game was very similar in a lot of ways to last night’s game,” said Huskies coach Mel Pearson. “We got the lead. We found a way to into the locker room with the lead. We didn’t get any puck luck this weekend.”
The Seawolves crashed the Huskies’ goal 1:11 later and were rewarded when Tad Kozun fired a shot that Wintjes could not handle. The puck rebounded to Jarrett Brown, who buried it at 3:46.
With a power play late in the second, the Huskies regained the lead when Alex Petan’s shot from the blue line was tipped home by Tyler Heinonen. Boeing picked up the other assist on the goal, which came at 17:40.
With the goal, Heinonen extended his goal and point-scoring streak to seven games, the longest by a Michigan Tech skater since 1999-2000.
Not long after the Huskies’ goal, the teams took matching minor penalties, forcing two minutes of four-on-four. Heinonen intercepted a pass in the slot and fired a backhand on goal. Shortly after that, center C.J. Eick slashed the stick out of hands of Brown before stuffing the puck past Mantha as a referee blew a whistle to call a penalty on Eick for the play.
Wintjes came up with a key stop during the ensuing four-on-three advantage for the Seawolves by stopping a point-blank shot from Mason Mitchell.
The Seawolves tied the game just 38 seconds into the third period when Chase Van Allen fired a shot from the right point right along the ice that eluded Wintjes.
“To score early, that always gives you a little bit of confidence,” said Thomas.
The Huskies had a great chance to regain the lead when L’Esperance got in front with the puck. His shot was stopped.
Van Allen had a great chance to extend the Seawolves’ lead with just under three minutes remaining in regulation, but his shot was kicked away by Wintjes, who made one of his best saves on the night on the play.
With Kozun off for holding the stick, the Huskies had a scoring chance right off the ensuing faceoff. Baltus tipped a shot from the point to Lucchini, whose shot was stopped by a sprawling Mantha.
