WCHA Weekend Recap - 11/19

The Alaska Anchorage Seawolves ended their five-game winless streak on Saturday night in Minneapolis, as they were able to salvage a split with the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Mariucci Arena. They did this despite starring a road sweep right in the eyes, as they were down 2-1 heading into the third period. However, they managed to put up three third period goals and did a great job of limiting the number of chances the Gophers had in their effort to get back into the game. It was a much better effort by the Seawolves than they put forth on Friday night in a 3-0 loss. They managed just 24 shots, and not many of them were of high quality. Minnesota outshot the Seawolves by a 15-3 margin in the first period, but needed a pair of third period goals to seal the deal.

The Colorado College Tigers further established their first place standing in the WCHA by sweeping the Wisconsin Badgers at the World Arena. In Friday’s win, the Tigers needed two third period goals to overtake the Cardinal and White to win by a 4-3 margin, thanks in large part to the Tigers’ top line. Junior Chad Rau had a pair of goals, including the game-tying goal while shorthanded early in the third period, and senior Jimmy Kilpatrick had a pair of tallies as well, including the game-winner. Saturday’s rematch wasn’t close, as the Tigers second line did the majority of the damage in the 6-1 win. Andreas Vlassopoulos and Derek Patrosso each had two goals, while Billy Sweatt chipped in two helpers. Freshman Richard Bachman continued his stellar play, gaining the win in both starts. UW junior Shane Connelly was pulled in Saturday’s loss, but from a ‘glass half full’ perspective, the Badgers got goals from three of their four lines in Friday’s loss, so they aren’t relying on a single line for scoring.

As expected, Minnesota State gave Denver one tough game in the Mile High City this weekend, but ultimately ended up dropping a pair of games. In a scoring oddity, all three of the goals in Friday night’s 2-1 DU win came within a minute-and-a-half of each other. The Mavericks got on the board first thanks to a Trevor Bruess shorthanded tally, but DU freshman Kyle Ostrow tied things up a 1-1 just 33 seconds later. Just 22 seconds later, Brandon Vossberg scored his second goal of the year, and senior Peter Mannino made the one-goal lead stand. Saturday’s rematch was not so close, as the Pioneers cruised to a 7-0 win. Mannino actually ended up with a pair of assists on the night, while sophomores Tyler Ruegsegger (2 G, 1 A) and Brock Trotter (1 G, 2 A) had nice nights.

Despite getting junior Michael-Lee Teslak back between the pipes for both nights, the Michigan Tech Huskies were only able to take one point from Minnesota Duluth at the DECC this weekend. In Friday’s 1-1 tie, UMD got on the board in the first period thanks to Josh Meyers’ second goal of the season. Tech knotted things up on the power play late in the second period, as Tyler Schelast got his sixth goal of the season. UMD netminder Alex Stalock was the story on Saturday, as he stopped 39 of 40 Husky shots in the 4-1 win. That score is a little deceiving, since UMD tacked on two empty-net goals with under a minute to play to secure the win. Meyers scored the game-winning goal late in the second period for UMD, and got his fourth of the season later in the contest.

North Dakota and St. Cloud State were off this past weekend.