Photo by AJ Maclean UAA’s Charlie Kronschnabel celebrates Chris Fournier’s second goal of the night during the second period. The Seawolves beat the Wisconsin Badgers 4-1 March 14 in Madison, Wis.   Photo by AJ Maclean Freshman Charlie Kronschnabel slices in front of Wisconsin’s A.J. Degenhardt during UAA’s series-clinching 4-1 win.   Photo by AJ Maclean Senior Dallas Steward finds himself surrounded in the Badger crease after bum-rushing Wisconsin’s star goalie Bernd Bruckler.

REDEMPTION AT LAST
Seawolves move on in playoffs for first time in history

By Brian Singler
Northern Light

Nobody saw it coming.

The University of Alaska Anchorage is going to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Final Five.

The unranked Seawolves upset the nation’s sixth-ranked team, the Wisconsin Badgers, two games to one in the best-of-three first round of the WCHA playoffs at Madison, Wis. The March 12-14 series win takes UAA where no Seawolf hockey squad has gone before.

“It’s unbelievable. I can’t even explain the feeling that the team’s going through,” UAA assistant coach Jack Kowal told KENI Radio. “This is the pinnacle. The players are going to remember this for the rest of their lives.”

With 4-1 and 3-2 victories sandwiched around a 4-0 loss, UAA is moving on to play Colorado College in Minneapolis. The Badgers are staying home.

Coming into the weekend, the Seawolves had never won a playoff game in the WCHA. UAA had been swept 11 times in a row and compiled a record of 0-22-0.

And in one weekend, they sent it all into the past.

In Sunday’s do-or-die tilt, the Seawolves made it clear which was the better team. It didn’t matter anymore that UAA’s record was 12-21-3 and Wisconsin’s was 21-11-8. It didn’t matter that only two weeks earlier the Badgers dominated the Seawolves by scores of 3-0 and 3-1. It didn’t matter that Wisconsin boasted the league’s best defense and the WCHA’s top goalie. Never mind that UAA ended the regular season losing nine of their last 10 games.

“This is the best game the team has played all year by far,” Kowal said. “When we got the lead we didn’t panic at all, guys played with confidence, and our defensive corps played outstanding.”

It all started midway through the first period when Chris Fournier put UAA on the board. Fournier’s 13th goal of the season went high past the stick side of Badger goalie Bernd Bruckler. In the second period, Fournier struck again from the high slot with a wrist shot moments after UAA killed two penalties to stake the Seawolves a 2-0 advantage.

Fournier’s linemate Curtis Glencross killed any remaining hopes the Badgers had to climb back in the game.

Glencross poked in a rebound at 12:33 and then knocked in his own shot with a minute to play to round out the Seawolves’ three-goal second period, giving him a team-leading total of 18 goals on the season.

The rest of the game belonged to UAA goalie Chris King, who looked every bit as good as his highly-regarded counterpart Bruckler. Bruckler may have had a better save percentage, more wins and allowed nearly a goal and half less per game, but all the critical saves belonged to King. The senior made boatloads of tough stops through the final two periods to pick up his third straight win with 29 saves.

“We knew Chris was going to be on his game,” Kowal said. “He’s been outstanding his last four or five starts.”

The dominating win on Sunday was made even more surprising because of how bad the Seawolves were beaten Saturday night in the game that tied the series at 1-1.

The Badgers scored two minutes into the game and added three more in the second period while shutting UAA down in every facet of the game. The Seawolves were shut out for the fourth time this season and for the second time by Bruckler.

“They (Wisconsin) played as good a game as they played all season,” UAA head coach John Hill told KENI. “I know our guys were disappointed in how they played. It was poor.”

But by Sunday, the attitude made a complete 180 turnaround.

“The talk around the hotel and around the locker room was about redoing our airplane plans and rescheduling our bus because we were going to play at the Final Five,” Kowal said. “And I think every guy bought into that.”

UAA played Sunday the way they did Friday night when they broke their dubious winless playoff mark. In the opener, the Seawolves scored all three of their goals on the power play and created traffic in front of Bruckler, which led to sophomore Justin Johnson’s game-winning goal with less than six minutes to play.

“No on else who has worn that uniform has gotten a chance to do this,” Kowal said. “These are the games you play your whole hockey career for.”

King was solid in the net, finishing with 45 saves, the second-best save total of his career.

It is probable that King will open the next round of the WCHA playoffs at the Excel Center in Minneapolis against the Tigers March 18. If the Seawolves can pull off another miracle, they’ll face the No. 1 team in the country, the North Dakota Fighting Sioux.

“They way were playing,” Kowal said. “I’d put us up against anybody.” Scouting the Tigers

Colorado College (20-15-3) comes to Final Five fresh off an upset sweep of the University of Denver. The Tigers are led by a trio of scorers with at least 15 goals and assist master Marty Sertich (11 goals, 28 assists).

UAA split the season series with Colorado at two games apiece. The Seawolves took a pair at the Sullivan Arena by scores of 5-2 and 3-1. The Tigers got revenge in Colorado Springs with a Feb. 6 and 7 home sweep to even it up.

The Seawolves haven’t fared well in the past against Colorado, as UAA sports a 9-34-3 all-time record against the Tigers.

The UAA-CC match-up will be broadcast on March 18 at 4 p.m. on KENI 650 AM or via a Web broadcast at GoSeawolves.com.