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Photo by John Wagner

Photo by John Wagner

Photo by John Wagner

Photo by John Wagner

FAIRBANKS — The Alaska Anchorage Seawolves continued their dominance in Fairbanks as they shut out Rensselaer Polytechnic 3-0 on Friday night in the Brice Alaska Goal Rush opener.

Seawolves goalie Jon Olthuis made 25 saves in the shutout, including a blocker stop that negated a seemingly sure goal midway through the second period.

“He stood on his head to make some saves,” UAA coach Dave Shyiak said. “He won the game for us.”

Olthuis attributed his performance to the 15 shots blocked by his teammates and their ability to minimize RPI’s screens.

UAA, the defending tournament champion, is 5-0-2 in its past seven games in the Carlson Center. The Seawolves last lost there Dec. 31, 2005.

UAA pulled away as it capitalized on chances from rebounds.

“We knew it was going to be critical to win the battles in front of the net tonight,” Engineers coach Seth Appert said. “We had a lot of rebound chances in front of their net, but they won those battles.”

Seawolves right wing Kevin Clark got the highlight goal of the night as he buried the puck while lying on the ice with 2:29 to go in the second.

Clark’s original shot was stopped by RPI goalie Allen York, and he fell to the ice after getting tangled up with a defenseman. The rebound came back to Clark — practically on his belly by then — and he scooped it past York.

Shyiak called the goal “a good second effort” that was set up by center Nick Haddad, a native of Fairbanks.

Seawolves freshman center Alex Gellert notched his first collegiate goal just 2 minutes and 44 seconds into the game. With his fourth career shot, he flipped a Kane Lafranchise rebound in from the slot.

UAA senior left wing Josh Lunden made quick work of another costly rebound, recording the 70th point and 41st goal of his career with 5:19 remaining in the first.

The Engineers, from Troy, N.Y., weren’t lacking in scoring opportunities, as the Seawolves turned the puck over several times in UAA’s defensive zone.

“It’s interesting: When you don’t play hard enough, the puck bounces don’t go your way,” Appert said. “I don’t think that some of our high-end forwards did enough to make those plays.”

The Engineers fell to 1-2-0 on the season. York (1-2-0) made 24 saves in the loss. UAA improved to 2-1-0.