Top-ranked Minnesota Duluth falls at Alaska-Anchorage

For a second straight Saturday night, top-ranked Minnesota Duluth's offense wasn't up to par and the Bulldogs were beaten by Alaska-Anchorage 3-2 in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association men's game before an announced crowd of 2,548 at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage, Alaska.

The second-place Bulldogs (18-6-4 and 12-5-3 in WCHA) scored three goals in the opening period of Friday's 4-1 victory and managed just three goals the rest of the way, two in the final 11 minutes Saturday. Five of six UMD goals in the series were provided by sophomore winger J.T. Brown.

A week earlier at home, UMD scored four goals in the first period of the first game against Michigan Tech, and settled for a 4-4 tie, and didn't score the rest of the series, losing the second game 5-0. The Bulldogs lead Division I in scoring at 3.81 goals a game.

Last-place Anchorage (7-17-2 and 4-17-1) broke an eight-game losing streak overall and a six-game losing streak to UMD. Sophomore goalie Rob Gunderson earned his fourth win of the season with 27 saves. UMD led 29-20 in shots on goal.

"We gave ourselves a chance at the end, and basically had the puck in their zone for most of the last five minutes, but you have to hit the net with your shots. We had good opportunities, but were trying to make some of our plays too fine," UMD coach Scott Sandelin said by phone

Just 83 seconds into the game a drive by freshman defenseman Corbin Karl, in his 13th game of the season, appeared to go off a skate and eluded goalie Kenny Reiter for the only goal of the first period. It was Karl's second goal of his rookie season.

UMD looked to gain momentum in the second period, but ran into penalty problems. The Bulldogs lost senior defenseman Scott Kishel to a checking-from-behind major and Brady Lamb to a boarding minor 1:23 apart. The Seawolves scored with a 4-on-3 advantage as sophomore center

Matt Bailey was credited with a goal Sandelin thought may have gone in off a stick or skate.

UMD was held scoreless on its first four power plays for a 1-of-27 mark the past eight games, then connected on a Brown man-advantage attempt at 9:26 of the third period, breaking a 73-minute scoreless streak for the Bulldogs. He has 16 goals this season, tied for the team lead, and 32 in 70 career games. That got UMD within 2-1, but the Seawolves responded two minutes later on Bailey's second goal of the game when UMD miscommunicated on a line change, allowing a 3-on-1 break.

"That was just a bone-head play by us and maybe cost us a point or two in the standings. You just can't make mistakes like that," said Sandelin. "Our first period was a very perimeter game. Anchorage came out with some energy and we didn't respond very well, but the last 40 minutes we picked up our play."

Sandelin pulled Reiter with 5:07 to play and Mike Seidel's 10th goal of the season came with an extra attacker with 4:03 left. Reiter was out for 3:24 of the period and the Bulldogs outshot Anchorage 13-4 in the 20 minutes, but couldn't find the equalizer.

Anchorage won its first home game since Nov. 18, a 3-1 victory over Michigan Tech. The Bulldogs are 3-3-1 the past seven games.

The loss left UMD three points behind first-place Minnesota, idle over the weekend, and just two points ahead of third-place Colorado College and three points ahead of fourth-place Denver with eight games left in the regular season.

UMD returns home this Friday and Saturday against fifth-place North Dakota (15-10-2).

Minnesota Duluth 0-0-2-2

Alaska Anchorage 1-1-1-3

First period - 1. Anchorage, Corbin Karl 2 (Mitch Bruijsten, Matt Bailey), 1:23. Penalties -Daniel Naslund, Anchorage (tripping), 5:23; Austin Coldwell, Anchorage (holding), 18:03

Second period - 2. Anchorage, Bailey 5 (Coldwell, Eric Scheid), tip, 13:39 (4x3 pp). Penalties - Jack Connolly, UMD (holding), 2:26; Scott Warner, Anchorage (holding), 5:39; Scott Kishel, UMD (checking from behind 5-minute major, game misconduct, served by Max Tardy), 11:03; Warner, Anchorage (hooking), 11:43; Brady Lamb, UMD (boarding), 12:26; Bailey, Anchorage (interference), 17:37.

Third period - 3. UMD, J.T. Brown 16 (Caleb Herbert, Joe Basaraba), 9:26 (pp); 4. Anchorage, Bailey 6 (Brad Gorham, Derek Docken), 11:31; 5. UMD, Mike Seidel 10 (Connolly, Travis Oleksuk), 15:57 (ea). Penalties - Gorham, Anchorage (cross-checking), 7:57; David Grun, UMD (roughing),

14:53; Quinn Sproule, Anchorage (roughing), 14:53.

Shots on goal - UMD 9-7-13-29, Alaska Anchorage 4-12-4-20. Goalies - Kenny Reiter (17-5-4), UMD (20 shots-17 saves); Rob Gunderson (4-7-2), Anchorage (29 shots-27 saves). Power plays - UMD 1-of-5, Alaska Anchorage 1-of-3. Referees -Derek Shepherd, Marco Hunt. Linesmen -Carl Saden, Travis Jackson. A -2,548.

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