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Huskies dismantle blubbering Seawolves
Winless Alaska-Anchorage provides no competition for SCSU in weekend romp
By Bobby Hart
Published:
Monday, March 3, 2003
Media Credit: Blair Schlichte
SCSU forward Dave Iannazzo passes to teammate Brian Schuster that led to a second period goal by Mike Doyle.
Media Credit: Blair Schlichte
SCSU forward Joe Jensen pins UAA�s John Hopson against the glass during Saturday night�s game. Jensen contributed one goal, helping the Huskies to a 7-0 victory.
Coming into the weekend, the SCSU men's hockey team had their eye on a sweep in a home-ice series against the 0-20-6 Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves.
They needed their first conference sweep of the year just out of principle, seeing as though it's already March, but they also needed it to stay in the race for the fifth and final home-ice spot in the WCHA playoffs.
The Huskies accomplished their mission convincingly by shutting out the Seawolves with a 2-0 victory on Friday and a 7-0 stomping on Saturday.
Friday, all that could have gone wrong for the Huskies before the game, did. With an already battered lineup that was missing captains Ryan Malone and Jeff Finger, the Huskies received news that freshman Tim Conboy would be suspended three games for a violation of SCSU's alcohol policy.
Apparently, the 20-year-old defenseman received the short end of the stick in the matter being that he didn't have any alcohol in his possession or system, but was merely the sober cab. However, the appeal didn't go through. That moved UND sophomore transfer Nate Wright into his spot until next Saturday.
Jake Moreland also came off the ice in pregame warm-ups after he was hit with a Joe Motzko slap shot. That left freshman Jason Montgomery between the pipes in a last second lineup change.
"Let's put it this way, starting the season without four of your regular defenseman in the lineup, and getting down to this point when they tell me Moreland got hurt and couldn't go in the game, it didn't surprise me," head coach Craig Dahl said.
Montgomery reacted to the last minute change with his first career shutout with 20 saves. Joe Motzko contributed the only two goals of the night, goals that weren't easy to come by with UAA's junior Chris King in the net. King recorded 44 saves and 21 of them came in the third period.
"That's the way it goes when you play in a game and their goalie plays like that," Dahl said. "He played pretty well. He made some huge saves. I couldn't believe it."
After a scoreless first period, Motzko would get the Huskies started on the power play by throwing a shot on net that was deflected in by Matt Hendricks in the slot.
The next goal wouldn't come until there was less than two minutes left in the game when Motzko seemed to deke forever. He glided from the left to the right circle and finally let a shot go that deflected off a defenseman's stick and the left post to seal the victory.
The Huskies took all the wealth they had in their sixth-ranked (WCHA) Ryan Malone-less offense, and spread it for a 7-0 white-out on Saturday in front of a sellout crowd of 6,286.
Jake Moreland made a surprise return to the lineup and turned in a 25-save shutout while Motzko, Joe Jensen and Dave Iannazzo led the way for SCSU's offense with a goal and two assists each.
"It was good for our confidence to get some guys on the scoreboard tonight and it got those guys going," captain Jon Cullen said. "Some of these guys have been playing really well and they deserve it. It's nice to see them get those chances."
Motzko jumpstarted the Huskies again with a diving wraparound from behind the net to the right post to beat UAA goalie Kevin Reiter. Four minutes later he'd whiff on a shot that would conveniently slide over to Jon Cullen, who found the back of the net.
The Huskies used a four-minute, three-goal flurry by Hendricks, Mike Doyle and Joe Jensen in the second period to put the it away.
Ryan LaMere scored his first goal of the season in the third period and Iannazzo added the exclamation point with a breakaway, top-shelfer.
The third line of Iannazzo, Doyle and Brian Schuster had a noticeably effective performance in response to being scratched from the roster on Friday.
"It was a little (confusing), but I just take it as it is and when I get the chance I try to take advantage of it," Iannazzo said. "Finally, it worked out well. It really helped to play with Doyle because we know each other really well and I just seem to find him. I was hoping that if I was in the lineup tonight, I'd get a chance to play with Doyle and it worked out."
Doyle and Iannazzo were on the freshmen line for most of last season, along with Peter Szabo.
UAA continued their longest winless streak in D-I history of 31 games. The Seawolves are now the first school in 41 years to have a winless WCHA season.
"I quit drinking 10 years ago and I was asked how I go through this without drinking. I was told that I should start inhaling my cigars," said UAA head coach John Hill. "Our kids are just mentally and physically beat down. Right now our guys are just counting down the games. And that's just being honest."
The sweep moved SCSU into a three-team tie for the fifth home-ice spot with UMD, who tied UND Saturday (depending on their game at UND on Sunday) and Denver, who let two three-goal leads in two nights slip away to the Gophers. The U of M stole three points out of the series. SCSU's playoff fate all boils down to next weekend's home-and-home series with the Gophers, and of course a little help from some conference foes.
"We'd like to have a little help but it's out of our control," Dahl said. "We have to kind of rely on everybody else. That's not the best situation to be in, but that's the way it is."
"The other thing you've got to keep in mind is that they didn't really have the forwards to test our 'D.' It will be different next week."
