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HOCKEY

UAA hockey kicks off new season Saturday by hosting No. 1 DU

by | Oct 4, 2024 | Cover Story, Hockey

UAA’s Porter Schachle of Wasilla is among a handful of locals on the team. Photo by Stephanie Burgoon/Alaska Sports Report

As UAA sits hours away from the opening puck drop on its 35th season as a NCAA Division I team, it does so with the college hockey world’s eyes fixated upon the start.

Welcome the reigning national champions and pre-season favorites to run it back to town for a visit, and you’re bound to get an extra gaze or two.

“Denver (University), the best team in the country, we know it’s not going to be an easy challenge,” said UAA senior Porter Schachle, a Wasilla kid and one of six Alaskans on the Seawolves roster. “But it’s not upset this or upset that.

“DU is going to be expecting our best. We know they know you don’t win a national championship by taking any nights off.”

Two of only 64 hockey programs around the nation playing at college sports’ top level, UAA and DU are set for a two-game series at the Avis Alaska Sports Complex. It marks the first meeting between the Seawolves and Pioneers in 11 years. But we’re likely to see more games between the teams moving forward.

UAA coach Matt Shasby, another local and former Seawolves defenseman, will see a familiar friend when he looks over at the DU bench during the series. Anchorage-born David Carle enters his seventh season guiding the Pioneers, who won their NCAA record 10th national title last spring. Carle also coached DU to the 2022 championship.

COLLEGE HOCKEY
No. 1 Denver vs. UAA
At Avis Alaska Sports Complex
Saturday 6 p.m.
Sunday 5 p.m.
* DU leads all-time series, 48-16-7
* UAA won last meeting: In 2013, a 3-2 OT victory in Fairbanks
* UAA is 25-12-6 in season openers and 27-11-5 in home openers
* DU earned 27 of 34 first-place votes to earn top-ranked status in the USA Hockey/The Rink Live preseason poll

“When I got the job (three years ago), (Carle) reached out and immediately talked about planning out games years in the future,” Shasby said. “Now, that DU is here, it’s an honor and privilege to see a team of its caliber. It’s the crème de la crème of the sport.”

DU’s Alaska connections are well known and go beyond Carle. Assistant coaches Tavis MacMillan and Dallas Ferguson both previously worked at UAF. For all the old schoolers out there, Ferguson was an Anchorage Aces defenseman back in the West Coast Hockey League professional days.

The Pioneers’ pedigree certainly speaks for itself. But there’s no discounting the Seawolves’ accomplishments in three seasons played since its well-documented resurrection. UAA won nine of its final 15 games last season and nearly finished with a .500 record (15-17-2). Fifteen players return from that squad, eager to continue the build.

“Seawolf hockey is obviously back,” said Anchorage-born UAA forward Aiden Westin, who tallied seven goals and nine assists in 29 games last season. “We feel like we’re not at any disadvantages now. We’ve got a strong recruiting class, we’re faster, more skilled and have become a real tight group.

“We’ve really bonded.”

Will that bond get broken up against super-powered DU, who was easily voted as the nation’s top team entering the new season? We will find out this weekend.

“If you’re not ripping those doors off to come in and watch that team play hockey, then you’re not a hockey fan,” Shasby said.

UAA coach Matt Shasby. Photo by Stephanie Burgoon/Alaska Sports Report

STATE OF THE SEAWOLVES

Since we’re in the political season, we asked Shasby’s take on the State of the Seawolves.

“I’d say everything is on track, par or above other than the rink,” he said.

The Seawolves and the Seawolf 5th Line, the non-profit outfit that first helped save the hockey program and now works with the school to bolster it, have made the best of the Avis Alaska Sports Complex situation. The 800 to 1,000 spectators who cram themselves into the on-campus rink genuinely seem to enjoy themselves and care about the team.

But there still seems to exist a general apathy from both the state government and UAA itself about Seawolves hockey’s place in the big picture of life in The 907. It can be argued the school’s heavy reliance on the 5th Line to facilitate so many of the team’s needs is amateurish, or odd at the least.

Plans exist for an altogether new arena or to make major renovations to the Avis Complex. It’s simply impossible to know when that money will arrive and from where. In the meantime, the Seawolves will do the best they can on and off the ice.

“I’m not concerned about funding (for the team) or local support since we’ve yet to be able to market to a 2,500-seat building,” Shasby said. “But the vibe at the end of last season and coming into this one seems to be ‘Holy smokes, we’ve got a team here. Let’s have some fun with it.’”

Game on.

ONE-TIMERS
  • Senior Connor Merritt (Kelowna, B.C.) was named UAA’s captain. He’s compiled 14 goals and 16 assists in 61 career games as a Seawolf. Seniors Max Helgeson (Anchorage), Schachle and Jarred White (Edmonton) are the assistant captains.
  • DU opened last season in Alaska as well. The Pioneers dealt UAF a pair of losses – 7-3 and 5-3 – at the Carlson Center in early October 2023.
  • UAA’s roster features players from four different countries, six Canadian provinces and nine U.S. states.
  • Carle enters the season with a .690 winning percentage, the best mark amongst the program history’s nine coaches.
  • A pre-game FanFest is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Saturday outside of the Avis Alaska Sports Complex. The festivities are expected to include music, games and appearances from both Carle and Shasby.

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Alaska Airlines | Nicole Johnston | Richard Mize | Advanced Diagnostics, INC | Aktive Soles | Alaska Oil and Gas Association | Aspen Endodontics | Black-Smith, Bethard & Carlson, LLC. | BOSCO's | Coho Financial Group | Continental Auto Group | Don Clary & Judy Besh | Glen Bailey | Invisalign-Ben Ward | JL Properties | Joey Caterinichio & Ja Dorris| Kathleen Navarre | Midas Alaska | Moose's Tooth, Bear Tooth and Broken Tooth Brewing | Perkins Coie - Sarah & A.J. Schirack | R&M Consultants, Inc. | Dave & DeAnne Rand | RE/MAX Dynamic Properties Kevin Taylor | Scott Taylor |Residential Mortgage | Seth Wickersham & Alison Overholt | Taylored Restoration | Korndrop Family Foundation | Arctic Slope Regional Corporation | Replacement Glass | Zareena and Allen Clendaniel | Foley & Pearson | UAA Seawolves | Tony and Carla Slaton Barker | Sportclips Haircuts | Alliance for Support of American Legion Baseball in Alaska | Alice & Gunnar Knapp | Amy and Jason Miller | Burgerfi | Charles Fedullo | Dan Rufner | Darren Lieb | In Honor of James Libby | Seawolf 5th Line | Deb Essex | Don Winchester | Donley Family | Dr. Justin Libby, DDS | Firetap | Harlow Robinson | Jason & Shannon Metrokin | Jim & Michelle Hajdukovich | Joe Alston | Kathie Bethard | Krispy Kreme | Kristopher Knauss | Loren Kroon | Mark and Jamie Johnson | Mark Silverman | On the Border | Pete Robinson | Rick Mystrom | Team Heat | Team Moriarty | The Conway Family | Todd Whited | Moria Smith | In memory of Drs. John & Elizabeth Tower | Peter Pounds | Pete Robinson | Skinny Raven | Multisport Training of Alaska/Lisa Keller | RSA Engineering

Family of Sponsors

Alaska Airlines | Nicole Johnston | Richard Mize | Advanced Diagnostics, INC | Aktive Soles | Alaska Oil and Gas Association | Aspen Endodontics | Black-Smith, Bethard & Carlson, LLC. | BOSCO's | Coho Financial Group | Continental Auto Group | Don Clary & Judy Besh | Glen Bailey | Invisalign-Ben Ward | JL Properties | Joey Caterinichio & Ja Dorris| Kathleen Navarre | Midas Alaska | Moose's Tooth, Bear Tooth and Broken Tooth Brewing | Perkins Coie - Sarah & A.J. Schirack | R&M Consultants, Inc. | Dave & DeAnne Rand | RE/MAX Dynamic Properties Kevin Taylor | Scott Taylor |Residential Mortgage | Seth Wickersham & Alison Overholt | Taylored Restoration | Korndrop Family Foundation | Arctic Slope Regional Corporation | Replacement Glass | Zareena and Allen Clendaniel | Foley & Pearson | UAA Seawolves | Tony and Carla Slaton Barker | Sportclips Haircuts | Alliance for Support of American Legion Baseball in Alaska | Alice & Gunnar Knapp | Amy and Jason Miller | Burgerfi | Charles Fedullo | Dan Rufner | Darren Lieb | In Honor of James Libby | Seawolf 5th Line | Deb Essex | Don Winchester | Donley Family | Dr. Justin Libby, DDS | Firetap | Harlow Robinson | Jason & Shannon Metrokin | Jim & Michelle Hajdukovich | Joe Alston | Kathie Bethard | Krispy Kreme | Kristopher Knauss | Loren Kroon | Mark and Jamie Johnson | Mark Silverman | On the Border | Pete Robinson | Rick Mystrom | Team Heat | Team Moriarty | The Conway Family | Todd Whited | Moria Smith | In memory of Drs. John & Elizabeth Tower | Peter Pounds | Pete Robinson | Skinny Raven | Multisport Training of Alaska/Lisa Keller | RSA Engineering

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