After a promising start, Colorado College dropped its third straight Friday-night game.

The Tigers, who went 1 for 12 on the power play, squandered some prime scoring opportunities down the stretch to lose 4-2 to the Seawolves.

CC will shoot for its third consecutive split on Saturday at Sullivan Arena, where it lost for the first time since Dec. 13, 2003.

CC, which lost to Minnesota State-Mankato last Friday after leading 1-0 after a period, put together a strong first period, holding the Seawolves to just three shots and taking a one-goal lead into the first intermission.

Taking a pass by right wing Eric Walsky from the left half-wall, center Chad Rau‘s wrist shot from the slot beat goaltender Jon Olthuis midway through the first period.

After that goal, the Tigers didn’t allow a rush on O’Connell. CC had a 45-second 5-on-3 opportunity and a couple of power plays, but didn’t capitalize, holding the puck too long at times.

Less than three minutes into the third, Anchorage forward Craig Parkinson slammed a rebound hard off goaltender Drew O’Connell‘s pads, which flipped over his left shoulder and in. Just 29 seconds later, right wing Paul Crowder scored a short-handed goal, his second of the night, which beat O’Connell gloveside.

Walsky, who also had an assist in the first period, scored a power-play goal midway through the third to tighten Alaska-Anchorage’s lead to 3-2.

But the Tigers’ best opportunities to tie went unfulfilled as left wings Bill Sweatt and Scott McCulloch each squandered breakaways in the final 10 minutes. Anchorage’s Tommy Grant scored an empty-net goal with 24.9 seconds left to seal the win.

In their words:
Scott McCulloch on the 1 of 12 power-play performance: I don’t know how many power plays we had that we didn’t score on. We didn’t get any momentum from our power plays and that’s going to change the feeling of the game. But they got momentum from their kills.

Scott McCulloch on missed opportunities and the frustration: It’s very frustrating, especially for me. I’m supposed to be a leader on this team and step up and put those breakways in with 3 minutes left in the game. We can’t have that from a leader. I need to do a better job when it’s crunch time. … It’s frustrating to lose like that.

Scott McCulloch on CC’s tendency to respond on Saturday: It’s always a wake-up call when you lose games like this on Friday. We get beat up pretty bad and on Saturday everyone has a bitter taste in their mouth. … We need to be ready to go and take advantage of the special teams if we’re going to come out of here with the split.

Eric Walsky on what went wrong, especially on the power play: Tonight we didn’t play with detail. We were sloppy. We weren’t there mentally on the power play, which is when you have to be the sharpest mentally. That’s really where we lacked.

Eric Walsky on his personal performance (1 goal, 1 assist): I didn’t think I played very well tonight. I was in the same position as everyone else, but I got a couple lucky bounces. I didn’t work through it like I should have. … I didn’t push myself like I should have.

Eric Walsky on the sentiment in the locker room after Friday’s game: Everyone is obviously really frustrated and everyone is holding themselves accountable at this point and putting a lot of pressure on themselves to hopefully play the way they should tomorrow.

Coach Scott Owens on the turning point in the game: We had those six power play chances in a row and we couldn’t get anything out of it. We were 9-3 on the shots after a period and had three power plays, including 5-on-3, but we couldn’t get the next goal. Then, we get scored on right there in the middle of the second period when we couldn’t get that second goal. … They got a little bit of confidence. The game should have been over at the 28-minute mark. We’re on the road and we’re letting them hang around.

Coach Scott Owens on Drew O’Connell’s 18-save performance in front of his hometown crowd: I don’t know how it looked, but Drew played well. He didn’t get much help and it was a situation where he didn’t have to be battling. In that situation, we should have been up by two or three, but it got to be a little bit racehorse out there. … It was the ineptness on the offense that set the tone. … Our older forwards should be able to carry this team more than they are. It’s too bad. (O’Connell) comes home and he plays well enough for a win.

Colorado College
21 Sweatt — 14 Rau — 22 Walsky
26 McCulloch — 19 Vlassopoulos — 25 Testwuide
18 Overman — 17 Johnson — 28 Schultz
23 Hall — 9 McMillin — 16 Civitarese

11 Connelly — 15 Prosser
10 Guentzel — 4 Gannon
24 Lowery — 7 Fredheim

31 O’Connell
30 Bachman

(Extra players: 5 DeBoer, 27 Bidwill)

Alaska-Anchorage
16 Grant — 20 Crowder — 27 Wiles
21 Lunden — 40 Bales — 9 Clark
18 Haddad — 14 Parkinson — 12 Moir
10 Lovdahl — 19 Selby — 6 Smith

11 Leinweber — 23 Vidmar
13 Bakstrom — 33 Robinson
24 Hunt — 22 Tuton

30 Olthuis
38 Sidor

Alaska-Anchorage 0 1 3 4

Colorado College 1 0 1 2

First period – 1. CC, Rau (Walsky), 11:08. Penalties – Crowder, UAA (hooking), 1:11; Johnson, CC (interference), 3:47; Lovdahl, UAA (hooking), 13:58; Vidmar, UAA (holding), 15:13.

Second – 2. UAA, Crowder (Grant), 12:26. Penalties – Moir, UAA (tripping), 1:59; Hunt, UAA (slashing), 2:11; Hunt, UAA (interference), 10:14; Lunden, UAA (interference), 14:43; Clark, UAA (slashing), 16:25; Schultz, CC (embellishment), 16:25; Crowder, UAA (hooking),17:21; Testwuide, CC (holding). 19:36.

Third – 3. UAA, Parkinson (Moir), 2:59. 4. UAA, Crowder (Grant), 3:28, sh. 5. UAA, Walsky (Connelly, Rau), 9:58, pp. 6. UAA, Grant (unasssisted), 19:35, en. Penalties – Selby, UAA (interference), 3:12; Bales, UAA (hooking), 8:09; McCulloch, CC (interference), 8:15; Robinson, UAA (interference), 8:35; Lovdahl, UAA (roughing), 11:11; Lowery, CC (slashing), 11:59; Gannon, CC (holding), 13:50.

Shots on goal – UAA 3-4-15-22. CC 9-10-8-27. Power-play Opportunities – UAA 0 of 5, CC 1 of 12. Goalies – UAA, Olthuis 8-10-7 (27 shots, 25 saves), 4-3. CC, O’Connell 3-3-12 (21 shots, 18 saves), 1-1. A – 3,105. T – 2:07. Referees – Craig Welker, Steve Glines. Linesmen – Karl Olm, Scott Sivulich.