Huskies defeat UAA in comeback fashion Friday Play Video
Posted: Dec 06, 2019

Huskies defeat UAA in comeback fashion Friday

HOUGHTON, Mich. – Brian Halonen scored a pair of goals late in the third period to propel Michigan Tech to a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over Alaska Anchorage Friday (Dec. 6) at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena. The Huskies outshot the Seawolves 42-18 and picked up their sixth win in the last seven games to improve to 9-7 and 7-6 in the WCHA.

"I thought we played pretty well the whole game, but we just couldn't get anything by their goaltender," Tech coach Joe Shawhan said. "It was good to see our guys came through big in the third when we needed them."

Down 1-0 midway through the third period, the Huskies finally cracked UAA goaltender Kris Carlson with a power-play goal. Trenton Bliss took a blast from the top of the circles that redirected off of Halonen and into the net at 13:47. The goal was scored on the 39th shot for the Huskies, and Eric Gotz added the secondary assist.

"We were confident the whole game even after they took the lead," Bliss said. "We were able to set up the play on the man advantage. I got a good shot off and Brian got a good tip on it."

Halonen struck again only 1:26 later as he finished off a great play by Justin Misiak for his seventh goal of the season. Misiak carried the puck down below the goal line and fed it out front with a one-handed pass to Halonen who beat his defender into position and jammed it in.

"Misiak made a great play driving to the net," Shawhan added. "He was probably our best player tonight, but we had a lot of guys play really good."

The Seawolves pulled Carlson for the extra attacker with 2:11 remaining but were then called for a 5:00 major penalty with 45 seconds left and never got a shot through to Matt Jurusik.

UAA (2-10-3, 2-7-2-2 WCHA) opened scoring with a shorthanded breakaway goal by Nick Wicks 4:01 into the third period.

Jurusik finished with 17 saves, including 2-on-1 chances in each period and a breakaway save in the second. He improved to 8-4-0 on the season.

Tech's 42 shots on goal were the most this season. Carlson had a season-high 40 saves for the Seawolves.

The Huskies were 1-for-6 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.

The two teams will wrap up the final WCHA series of the calendar on Saturday. It will be Tadych's Econo Foods Kids Day at Michigan Tech.

"These are big WCHA points on the line," Bliss added. "They need a win so we need to match their intensity and put some pucks in the back of the net."

Puck drop is at 6:07 p.m.