Seawolves score thrilling come-from-behind victory over Colorado College

Amid the jubilation spilling out of UAA's locker room in the bowels of Sullivan Arena on Sunday night, Seawolves assistant coach Mark Phalon leaned against the wall and clutched the game puck tightly in his left hand.

As soon as he can, Phalon will happily deliver the keepsake to head coach Matt Curley, who was unable to witness the first victory in his tenure as bench boss.

"It's going to Curls," Phalon said. "He did an amazing of preparing these guys for a moment like this over the course of the last month and a bit.

"They really showed up to play tonight."

With Curley away tending to a family emergency, UAA scored twice in the third period and sophomore goaltender Brody Claeys stopped 29 Colorado College shots in a thrilling, come-from-behind 4-3 win. The Seawolves evened their record at 1-1-0 and quickly erased the sting of Saturday night's 10-2 season-opening loss to the Tigers.

"After (Saturday) night, the coaches got us in the room and told us they were proud of the way we worked, to keep it up and see if we could get some better bounces," UAA sophomore forward Joe Sofo said. "We kept a positive attitude and kept working at it."

Trailing by a goal heading into the third period, UAA notched a pair of scores 3 minutes and 4 seconds, apart. Senior assistant captain Nils Rygaard tied the game at the 7:38 mark when he rocketed Jordan Xavier's drop pass in the left circle past CC goalie Alec Calvaruso.

The moment definitely put an extra jolt in the announced crowd of 1,263.

"We're certainly mindful of those in the community who are behind us," Rygaard said. "This is what we want to do for them every single night. We're here to win games."

The faithful fans became even more fired up a few minutes later when the Seawolves took the lead at 10:42 of the third.

Junior defenseman Tomi Hiekkavirta stopped the puck on the blue line. Without hesitation, he slid a shot toward the net that found its way through a lot of traffic and past Calvaruso. The go-ahead goal set the stage for a frantic finish.

Claeys earned his first college win in nine games by stopping all nine CC shots he faced in the third. The Tigers scored a pair of power-play goals on extended power-play time in the second period. So when CC coach Mike Haviland pulled Calvaruso for an extra attacker after a timeout with 94 seconds remaining, Claeys and his teammates felt the amped-up pressure.

The goalie teamed with two units of five to kill off the remaining time and seal the victory.

"We had all our glue guys out there blocking shots, clearing pucks," Sofo said. "We're all coming together as a team in that moment, pulling for one another.

"It was high energy and exciting."

UAA managed to chip the puck out of the zone in the waning seconds and the final buzzer sounded. The Seawolves mobbed Claeys and the celebration got underway.

"It's awesome to get an early win," Sofo said. "The coaches said we learned how to win today and we just have to keep going, strive to get even better."

Cam Amantea scored UAA's first goal. Sofo and Rygaard each finished with a goal and an assist, and freshman defenseman Drayson Pears collected his first collegiate points with assists on the Sofo and Rygaard goals.

Alex Berardinelli, Nick Halloran and Chris Wilkie scored CC's goals.

Game Notes

The Seawolves next play Oct. 26 when they open Western Collegiate Hockey Association play in Big Rapids, Mich., in a two-game series at Ferris State. They return to the Sullivan on Nov. 2 against Bemidji State … Nostalgic Alaska hockey fans are sure to remember Haviland. In 2005, he coached the ECHL's Trenton Titans, who battled the Alaska Aces in a memorable seven-game series to win the then-National Conference Finals and advance to the Kelly Cup Finals. Trenton won Game 7 of that series at the Sullivan.The Aces won their first of three Kelly Cups the following season … UAA scored twice in the final period on only four shots on goal.