Finally.
Jarrett Weinberger scored two goals as Michigan Tech defeated Alaska-Anchorage, 6-4, to win its first home game since Jan. 21, 2000.
Justin Brown added a pair of assists for Tech (6-16-1, 4-13-0 WCHA), which moved into eighth place, one point ahead of the Seawolves in the WCHA standings.
UAA (5-15-1, 3-13-1), which got a goal and an assist from Dallas Steward, has now lost 12 consecutive games.
“We had a meeting last night,” said Weinberger. “This is where our season starts.”
“We beat a team that was above us, so that means we can move up in their place,” said Tech head coach Mike Sertich, who had his interim tag lifted at a press conference on Wednesday. “Tomorrow night it’s up to us to hold onto it.”
It took Tech just 46 seconds to get on the board in the opening period. Tim Laurila intercepted a clearing pass at the blueline and beat Kevin Reiter with a low wrist shot.
The Seawolves responded at the 5:29 mark when Chris Sikich scored a power-play goal from Matt Shasby and Steward. But Paul Cabana put the Huskies back in the lead when he buried the rebound from a Clint Way shot.
Michigan Tech increased its lead to 3-1 on Tony DeLorenzo’s first collegiate goal at 18:48, and made it 4-1 when Chris Durno scored on a one-timer 49 seconds later.
When the second period started, Chris King replaced Reiter, who stopped only six of 10 shots.
The Seawolves pulled to within two when Joe Garvin redirected a shot by Steve Suihkonen through the legs of Brian Rogers, 5:07 into the second period.
Dallas Steward cut the lead to 4-3 when he fired a shot from the left circle that eluded Rogers at 7:29. The Huskies got the goal right back when Weinberger deflected a Mat Snesrud shot past King for his first of the night at 11:59.
But the pesky Seawolves pulled back to within one at 1:19 of the third period when Jesse Unklesbay was credited with a goal that trickled past Rogers. Shortly after the soft goal, Rogers was lifted in favor of senior Jason Moilanen.
Although they looked sloppy at times, the Huskies put the game away when Weinberger ripped a beautiful centering pass from Brown past a helpless King with 59 seconds left in the third.
“You’ll take wins but obviously you want to eliminate as many mistakes as you can,” said Weinberger. “The good teams always find a way to win whether it’s an ugly win or a pretty win.”
“We’ve got five or six guys competing for three spots all week long, so it felt nice to get the first one,” said DeLorenzo of his first goal. “Hopefully, maybe this is a bit of an icebreaker of more to come.”
Said Sertich: “You’re not going to get total perfection game in and game out. Brian [Rogers] struggled with the puck all night. Moily [Jason Moilanen] went in and closed the door. But you’ve got to have those kinds of guys. Moily knows his role and he did it great.”
UAA outshot Tech, 33-25. The Huskies were 1-for-2 on the power play, while the Seawolves converted on 1-of-4 chances.
The two teams will meet again on Saturday night at 7:05 ET.
