{"id":91142,"date":"2019-02-14T10:00:18","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T16:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=91142"},"modified":"2020-08-24T12:51:48","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T17:51:48","slug":"alaska-anchorage-taking-all-hands-on-deck-approach-to-try-and-regain-governors-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/2019\/02\/14\/alaska-anchorage-taking-all-hands-on-deck-approach-to-try-and-regain-governors-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaska Anchorage taking ‘all hands on deck’ approach to try and regain Governor’s Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nicolas<\/a>
Alaska Anchorage’s Nicolas Erb-Ekholm (16) celebrates a goal with teammates during a game in November at North Dakota (photo: Bradley K. Olson).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To say it\u2019s been a rough season for Alaska Anchorage would be something of an understatement.<\/p>\n

Coming into last weekend\u2019s rivalry series against Alaska in Fairbanks, the Seawolves were in the midst of a 10-game winless streak. They\u2019d won just twice all season — the opening weekend against Colorado College and then again right before the holiday break against Bemidji State.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a long year for us, but it hasn\u2019t been for a lack of effort,\u201d first-year head coach Matt Curley said. \u201cWins have been tough to come by.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of that, Friday\u2019s result against Alaska — a team that has lifted the Governor\u2019s Cup trophy six consecutive times — was even more meaningful for the Seawolves. They won their first game in nearly two months with a 4-1 victory against the Nanooks — a rough-and-tumble game that featured 45 minutes of penalties and the most goals the Seawolves have scored in a game this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very rewarding to get that first game if the Governor\u2019s Cup series,\u201d Curley said. \u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of validation for the guys and what they\u2019ve been doing the past three weeks, so it\u2019s nice to get that win.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Curley\u2019s first experience with the Governor\u2019s Cup rivalry, and the Clarkson alum compared it to the battles that his Golden Knights would have against St. Lawrence during his playing days. Being in Alaska, though, makes for a unique trophy series.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s special. We\u2019re all alone up here, and we\u2019re both outliers in the college hockey world. Folks up here are really attached to their teams because we don\u2019t have the bigger markets like you do in the East or Midwest, it\u2019s the two biggest universities in the state and it\u2019s our only Division I sports,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting to be a part of it for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a team like UAA which has a 3-23-2 overall record this season and sits in last place in the WCHA with nine points (13 points out of playoff position) a win over instate rivals is a big deal. Most importantly, earning the split against the Nanooks gives the team something to play for in the last weekend of the season.<\/p>\n

For the past few years, the Governor\u2019s Cup was essentially over after the first series between the teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s really nice about how this has shaped up for us, getting the split up there has given us a chance to still play something for the rest of the season,\u201d Curley said. \u201cThat\u2019s not to say we have nothing to play for against Ferris State and Michigan Tech until then, because we still want to do the best we can and get as many points as we can get and finish ninth instead of tenth, but getting that split gives us a chance to win something on our home ice, and that\u2019s really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s win was about as complete a game the Seawolves have played this season. The four goals were the most they\u2019ve scored in any game this season, and they came from four different players — Eric Sinclair, Aaron McPheters, Jeremiah Luedtke and Drayson Pears.<\/p>\n

Special teams were especially solid for the Seawolves, as they went 2-for-5 on the power play and held the Nanooks scoreless on four of their own. UAA\u2019s special teams were strong all weekend — they were perfect in all nine attempts and scored another power play goal in Saturday\u2019s 2-1 loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to capitalize on our man advantages, and we were able to keep the puck out of the net,\u201d Curley said. \u201cOur special teams play has been much better recently, so that gave us a chance. When we\u2019ve been at our best is when we\u2019re pressing, we\u2019re skating, we\u2019re playing hard team defense and we\u2019re getting great goaltending. Those things didn\u2019t change this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curley, who has been rotating three goaltenders pretty consistently this season, decided to go with the hot hand against Alaska. Freshman Kristian Stead, who was in the net for UAA\u2019s 0-0 tie with Michigan Tech on Jan. 26, returned to the net for both games, making 51 saves to keep up his solid performance and earning his first NCAA win.<\/p>\n

The Seawolves will return to the ice this weekend with a little more confidence than usual when they play Ferris State — the team immediately above them in the WCHA standings. They hit the road once more after that — at Michigan Tech — before returning home to face the Nanooks in the season finale.<\/p>\n

And while the playoffs aren\u2019t entirely off the table for UAA — the Seawolves are still mathematically in it, but they need some help from teams ahead of them — that Alaska series is the one Curley and the players really would like to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of a checkmark that we had from Day 1, knowing full well that it\u2019s been a while since we\u2019ve been able to win it,\u201d Curley said. \u201cWe also knew that this year was going to be a long year for us and some goals that we wanted to do right away probably weren\u2019t attainable, but this one was. The mindset, the focus for us as a staff has been we\u2019re all hands on deck to try and get that thing back and to bring some pride back to this program and to our town to win that trophy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To say it\u2019s been a rough season for Alaska Anchorage would be something of an understatement (photo: Bradley K. Olson).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":91143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[854],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlaska Anchorage taking 'all hands on deck' approach to try and regain Governor's Cup - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To say it\u2019s been a rough season for Alaska Anchorage would be something of an understatement (photo: Bradley K. 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