THIS WEEK: The Alaska Anchorage Seawolves will head to St. Cloud, Minn., to face the No. 4/5 Huskies in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association series on Feb. 4-5 at the National Hockey Center. The games are scheduled to commence at 5:07 p.m. on Friday and at 2:07 p.m. AST on Saturday.
FAN FAVORITE: Vote for the 2010 UAA Hockey Leon Thompson Fan Favorite Award on GoSeawolves.com. Poll closes on March 21.
THE SERIES - UAA vs. SCSU
OVERALL: SCSU leads, 46-13-5 AT SCSU: SCSU leads, 29-3-3
LAST MEETING: Dec. 5, 2009 (SCSU won, 3-2) STREAK: SCSU 2
NOTES: The two teams met on Dec. 4-5, with the Huskies sweeping UAA at home, 1-3, 2-3 ... the Huskies are the only team to sweep the Seawolves in Anchorage this season ... the last UAA win was on Feb. 7, 2009 (2-1) ... the Seawolves haven't won a game on the road against the Huskies since Nov. 7, 1987 (5-4) ... since joining the WCHA, the Seawolves have tied SCSU five times, with the last coming on Nov. 3, 2007 (4-4) in St. Cloud.
SCOUTING ST. CLOUD STATE: The Huskies enter the series with the Seawolves with a No. 4 ranking in the USCHO.com/CBS College Sports poll and a No. 5 ranking in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll ... SCSU is ranked in the top-5 of the WCHA overall rankings in four categories - scoring offense (4th, 3.14), scoring defense (3rd, 2.54), power play (3rd, 20.4) and penalty kill (3rd, 85.5) ... last weekend the Huskies split a conference series with Colorado College, winning on Jan. 29, 5-4, before losing on Jan. 30, 6-4 - breaking a nine-game winning streak ... since the start of January, SCSU has swept Brown, Michigan Tech, Quinnipiac and Minnesota ... the Huskies are led offensively by junior F Garret Roe (9-20-29), who is tied for seventh in the WCHA overall rankings for point scoring and No. 5 in assists ... leading SCSU in goals scored is senior F Ryan Lasch (12-15-27) - tied for 11th in the league rankings ... between the pipes for the Huskies is junior G Dan Dunn (12 gp, 10-2-0) ... Dunn leads the conference in winning percentage (.833), is second in save percentage (.920) and fifth in goals-against average (2.33) ... when the Seawolves met the Huskies on Dec. 4-5, freshman G Mike Lee (16 gp, 7-6-3, .918sv%, 2.54gaa) suited up in the goal on both nights.
UAA PICKS UP WIN AGAINST MINNESOTA: The Seawolves continued to struggle on Friday night, falling to the Minnesota Gophers, 7-4, before flourishing on Saturday, 2-1 ... on Jan. 29, the Seawolves were led by a pair of goals by freshman F Mickey Spencer and a goal and two assists by freshman F Daniel Naslund ... junior F Sean Wiles also chipped in three assists, while senior F Kevin Clark contributed with UAA's first goal of the night ... on Jan. 30, UAA's senior F Josh Lunden tied the game at 1-1 with a power-play strike, before Clark netted the game-winner (shorthanded) for the victory.
SEAWOLF BITES: Following the weekend series against Minnesota, the Seawolves are 0-6-0 on Friday nights in conference play at the Sullivan Arena and 5-1-0 on Saturday nights ... on the road the Seawolves are 3-6-1 in league road games, earning victories over Colorado College and Michigan Tech ... the Seawolves concluded the month of January (4-3-1) with UAA's best record under bench boss Dave Shyiak ... after the victory on Jan. 30, Shyiak (5 seasons) improves his career record to 50-101-20 ... with one more win, Shyiak will have recorded the second-most wins for a UAA coach ... he is currently tied with Dean Talafous (5 seasons, 50-108-22) ... last season UAA was 2-3-2 in January, 0-5-1 in 2007-08, 1-4-1 in 2006-07 and 1-5-2 in 2005-06 ... the Seawolves are 6-0-0 when leading after the first period and 8-0-0 when leading after the second period ... on the other end, UAA is 0-11-0 when trailing after the first period and 0-14-0 when trailing after the second period ... on Jan. 30 the Seawolves posted a season-low-tying four penalties and a season-low-tying eight penalty minutes ... UAA reached 3,632 fans on Jan. 30 - the third-highest attendance at the Sully this season and the most since Oct. 24, 2009 against North Dakota (3,715) ... the series against St. Cloud State marks the seventh time the Seawolves will face a ranked opponent ... UAA is currently 4-8-1 against ranked foes.
PLAYER NOTES: Individually, the Seawolves are led by senior F Kevin Clark, who is tied for No. 16 in scoring with 24 points and No. 7 in goals (14) in the WCHA overall rankings ... Clark posted his 13th and 14th goals of the season in the series with Minnesota, including his first game-winner of the season and second career shorthanded goal - tied for first in the overall league standings for shorthanded-points (2-1-3) ... Clark is currently ranked No. 21 on the UAA all-time scoring list with 95 points ... with five more points, Clark will become the 22nd Seawolf skater to reach 100 points ... also registering a multi-point weekend were freshmen F Mickey Spencer (2-1-3), Daniel Naslund (1-2-3) and junior F Sean Wiles (0-3-3) ... Wiles leads UAA in plus/minus (+9), holds UAA's longest point-streak of the season (6 games) and has recorded the most assists in a game this season (3) ... after missing 11 games due to an injury, senior F Josh Lunden posted an assist on Jan. 29, followed by his 17th career power-play tally on Jan. 30 ... senior G Jon Olthuis received his eighth straight start between the pipes and registered a combined 52 saves in the series with the Gophers ... Olthuis holds a season record of 7-9-1 (.441) and a career record of 22-41-11 (.372) ... the Albertan is currently tied with Lee Schill (1993-95) on the all-time UAA wins list at No. 7 ... leading UAA defensemen is junior Kane Lafranchise (1-8-9), while Naslund (3-9-12) leads the Seawolf rookies.
UP NEXT: The Seawolves will be idle next weekend before traveling to Minnesota State for a conference series on Feb. 19-20.
