WCHA THIRD PLACE GAME ... ALASKA ANCHORAGE vs. MINNESOTA-DULUTH
March 20, 2004
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Ask any observer of college hockey Saturday at the Xcel Energy Center, and they will concur that Alaska Anchorage's appearance in the 2004 Red Baron WCHA Final Five was a great thing for the league.
The 'Wolves, who won once last season and who was 0-22 in playoff games before this March, were playing their sixth playoff game in nine days after winning three of their past five. And this one was against Minnesota-Duluth, who surely had something to prove after losing to Minnesota 7-4 Friday night.
Perhaps the initial start of the game was a precursor of things to come, but Minnesota-Duluth (26-12-4) claimed Third Place honors with a 4-2 win over Alaska Anchorage before a crowd of 14,910 at the Xcel Energy Center, a third-place-game record attendance.
Minnesota-Duluth will wait to find out where it is seeded in the national tournament when the pairings are announced at 1:30 p.m. (Central Time) Sunday on ESPN2. Alaska Anchorage ends its season with a 15-23-3 overall record.
It was a less-than-auspcious start for the Seawolves who took a penalty on the first rush of the game by Junior Lessard 10 seconds in. But they would go on to kill that penalty, and take a 1-0 lead a while later.
The scoring series started in the UAA end where UMD's Steve Czech was stopped at the side of the cage by goalie Kevin Reiter. Reiter then dished off to Charlie Kronschnabel who cleared the zone onto the stick of Curtis Glencross. The UAA sophomore skated into the UMD zone and boomed a slapshot past UMD goalie Josh Johnson at 12:14. It was Glencross' 21nd goal of the season and Kronschnabel and Reiter got the assists. For Reiter, it was the first assist of the season.
UAA took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission, with UMD holding a 17-6 edge in shots on goal. And Reiter was solid throughout the frame.
The Bulldogs finally solved the riddle of Reiter on their 20th shot at 9:30 of the second. Evan Schwabe netted his third goal in two days while the Bulldogs were on the power play. There was big traffic in close to the Seawolves' goal and Marco Peluso managed to get it through the crease and onto the stick of Schwabe, who knocked it in the net. Peluso and Junior Lessard got the assists.
It was then Lessard, the Player of the Year in the WCHA, who gave the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead at 13:12, again on the power play. This time a slapshot came in from the point by Beau Geisler, and Lessard got a good piece of the rebound. Reiter got a piece of the shot, but it squirted into the goal. Geilser and Czech got the assists on Lessard's 28th goal of the season.
While UMD led 2-1, Lessard went down behind the UAA goal and had to be escorted off the ice with an apparent injury to one of his legs. The severity of the injury will be determined later Saturday, and he did not return to the game.
But the 'Dogs made it 3-1 while on the penalty kill at 19:14. The puck was cleared along the boards and into the UAA end. Brett Hammond dug it free and hit Luke Stauffacher, who skated in and beat Reiter through the legs with a quick wrist shot. Hammond got the lone assist.
UMD took a 3-1 lead after two periods, and outshot the Seawolves 33-17 after two periods.
UMD surged to a 4-1 lead on a bing-bing play at 10:13 of the third period. Josh Miskovich fired a pass from along the end boards into the slot where Bryan McGregor blasted it past Reiter for his fourth goal of the season.
But UAA's Vladimir Novak put a good capper on the season with his fourth goal of the season at 19:42 of the third period. Mark Smith sent in a shot from the point, and Novak got a piece of it to direct it past Johnson. Justin Johnson got the second assist.
And that's the way it ended.
Minnesota-Duluth had 40 shots on goal in the game. UAA faced a total of
130 shots on goal in three games at the Final Five, gave up nine goals
and Reiter and Chris King, who played the first two games, had a save
percentage of .931. The Seawolves had 25 shots on goal in the
third-place game.
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