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#29 Adam Tisdale faces off against Stonehill opponent. Photo by Patrick Doty.
There’s much to unpack from Friday and Saturday’s resounding 9-3 and 12-2 victories over the Stonehill Skyhawks, but it’s best to start with the fact that it was the Seawolves’ first home sweep since Jan. 10-11, 2014, when they defeated Minnesota State 2-1 and 3-1.
Additionally, the series provided the highest number of goals for Alaska Anchorage in over 30 years — tallying 12 on Saturday, the highest since their 15-4 win over Alabama Huntsville on Dec. 13, 1992, according to team records on go.seawolves.com.
UAA’s Ben Almquist scored a hat trick on both nights. Likewise, his teammate Maximilion Helgeson had his own hat trick in the second game and led the team in scoring with an additional three assists.
Prior to this game, the Seawolves had no hat tricks all season long.
Heading into the game, the Seawolves didn’t expect much competition from the previously 2-29 Skyhawks — now 2-31 — however, their previous experience being the underdog aided them in understanding how to beat them out.
In an interview with The Northern Light, head coach Matt Shasby said “Most games that we’re in, we’re in that underdog role, and so we understand that if a team takes you lightly you can keep the door open for them to get a win.”
Despite understanding the behavior of an underdog on the ice, the Seawolves defense let up three easy goals on the first night.
Stonehill’s first goal, coming in at 14:39 in the first period to make the score 2-1, shocked the crowd a little bit, as Stonehill forward Jake Cady got a lucky chip shot off of the ankle of a Seawolf defender.
However, any worries caused by this goal would be put to rest as the Seawolves would stretch their legs and put up three more points before Stonehill got the chance to score again late in the second period, making the score 5-2.
“We knew we were sloppy,” said Shasby.
“We were putting ourselves in awkward situations that we can’t be when playing Arizona State [next week].”
Stonehill would get their third and final goal of the first night at 11:37 p.m. in the third period, making the score 8-3, before the Seawolves would get one final score from Almquist — awarding him his first hat trick — to end the night 9-3.
The next night, Stonehill would be held to only two goals.
“We were defensively better Saturday than we were Friday,” said Shasby. “We knew that we were sloppy and for the most part cleaned it up.”
While the Seawolves need to clean up some small defensive errors in the lead up to Friday and Saturday’s series against #20 Arizona State, Shasby is happy with how the team performed against Stonehill and is hoping to carry the confidence won from that game to the final game of the season.
“Hockey is a game of confidence, and the more confident your guys are the better,” said Shasby.
Looking ahead, the Seawolves now stand at a 14-16-2 record. If they were to win both of their upcoming games against Arizona State, they would achieve their first .500 season record since the 2013-2014 season, when they went 18-16-4.
At the beginning of the year, Shasby and his associates gathered and discussed what success looks like for the team. Shasby shared this with The Northern Light in an interview and said that “a .500 hockey team would be an incredible accomplishment for the whole program.”
That .500 season will be on the line Friday and Saturday night as the Seawolves race to make history.
“Friday night is a big one for us, so at least give us a shot to hit that .500 mark. That’s the goal.” said Shasby.
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