Grand Forks, ND--They have a saying in sports that defense wins championships. Well this wasn’t a championship game but the old adage held true in Alaska Anchorage’s 3-2 victory over the North Dakota Fighting Sioux in front of another sold out Ralph Engelstad Arena crowd Friday night.

The Seawolves stymied the Sioux offense all night holding UND to just 21 shots and killing seven out of eight UND power play opportunities including a 30 second 5-on-3 advantage and a five minute major penalty.

The statistic that may explain it all in tonight’s game was the blocked shot totals. UAA held a block party and the Sioux were definitely invited as they blocked 21 UND shots and held the opposition scoreless until just over two minutes left to play.

“A lot of credit to Alaska, they did a good job of closing us off and not giving us any lanes to the net,” said UND captain Ryan Duncan. “They kept us to the perimeter and did a good job of blocking shots and getting in the shot lanes. It took us a little too long to get desperate and you’re not going to win a lot of games when you out play a team for three minutes.”

Scoring wise, it was all UAA throughout as the Seawolves capitalized on their chances early and often.

Just 1:07 into the game, UAA swarmed the Sioux with a tenacious forechecking performance and it led to a Nils Backstrom goal making the game 1-0; then came the block party.

UAA held UND to just six shots on the period and blocked six Sioux shots, and again in the second, UAA ballooned their lead to 3-0 on goals by Curtis Leinweber and Sean Wiles while blocking eight Sioux shots. The three goal lead led to UND’s pulling of its starting goaltender Aaron Walski in favor of Freshman Brad Eidness.

UND head coach Dave Hakstol noted Alaska’s great defensive play but also felt it was a lack of Sioux desire to get to the net. “You have to have a desire to get to the top of the crease; you have to have a desire to get bodies and pucks there. When you’re playing a half step slow, it’s tough to do against a tough defensive team,” said Hakstol. “Give Alaska Anchorage credit, they are a good defensive team and they played a good road game tonight.”

The Seawolves kept the pressure on throughout the third period continually winning the one-on-one battles and out working the Sioux.

Freshman Brett Hextall noticed this and understands the need to do better in Saturday’s game. “They focus a lot of their shot blocking and that’s something that we talk about and as a team finding ways to do a better job in making decisions to getting the puck through."

Coupled with the outstanding 5-on-5 defense, the UAA penalty kill also was impressive tonight.

After killing off the front half of a two-man UND advantage in the end of the second period, UAA finished off the job killing the rest of it early in the third. Then at 3:17 of the third a Jade Portwood checking from behind five minute major penalty seemed to give UND new life. Ultimately it wasn’t the case as the Sioux couldn’t muster a tally and only got two shots on net to which UAA equaled.

Throughout the game, the feeling in the building seemed to be if UND got one by Seawolf goaltender Jon Olthuis, things may change.

The Sioux got things going very late with a Duncan goal at 17:57 of the third and a Hextall goal at 19:17 to make it a tight 3-2 game with the home crowd going crazy. With momentum finally in the UND corner, Hakstol pulled Eidsness for an extra skater to try and net the tying goal. It wasn’t meant to be as Olthuis and the rest of the Seawolf defense stopped the Sioux to pull out the win.

The win is just the third time in 28 games that the Seawolves have beaten UND on the Sioux’s home ice and the win improves them to 3-2-2 in the WCHA and 6-3-2 overall. With the loss, UND drops to 3-4 in the conference and 3-6 overall.

UND will look for plenty of answers in trying to solve the riddle that was the UAA defense Friday night.

“We just have to outwork them,” said Duncan of what things needed to change for Saturday. “We can’t let an opponent outwork us for 57 minutes in our own building. That is unacceptable. Thankfully we have another game tomorrow night to hopefully redeem ourselves.”