Michigan Tech players celebrate a third period goal against Alaska Anchorage on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2019, in Houghton, Mich. The Huskies won 4-1. (David Archambeau/Daily Mining Gazette)

HOUGHTON — It took a while, again, but the Michigan Tech offense churned into motion in the second half of Saturday’s game for a 4-2 win over Alaska Anchorage.

The win punctuated the Huskies’ third sweep in the last four series and Tech’s seventh win in the last eight games, quit the turnaround from where the Huskies were a month ago, at 3-6 overall and 1-5 in the WCHA.

“I give our players a ton of credit for not panicking, not getting down, staying the course and building confidence, staying positive, especially after the second half we had last year,” Shawhan said. “I like the direction the program is heading. I think we have great leadership this year. I think we have some great young players that are going to represent Michigan Tech really well going forward.”

Michigan Tech has scored 23 goals in the eight-game stretch, averaging nearly three goals a game. It’s a welcome streak for the Huskies after scoring two goals in three games against North Dakota and Minnesota State a month ago.

“The team’s coming together real well and we’re on a roll right now,” Michigan Tech sophomore right wing Tommy Parrottino said. “It’s been fun to be a part of.”

Despite scoring the first goal for the second straight night, the Seawolves dug themselves a hole with 25 penalty minutes and tired themselves playing a man short.

They already a man short before opening face-off with the effects of a Friday night penalty that lingered through Saturday. Sophomore forward Tanner Schachle was suspended by the WCHA following his checking from behind major with 45 seconds remaining in Friday’s game.

Seawolves head coach Matt Curley said after Friday’s loss the team had to avoid the penalty box Saturday for any hope of a win. To some extent the team did that, with six penalty minutes after two periods and facing a 2-1 deficit. But the Seawolves racked up 19 penalty minutes in the third period, including a checking from behind major and a game misconduct by Joe Sofo, the Seawolves’ second straight checking from behind major leading to a game misconduct.

“That’s on me. I need to do a better job of reeling those guys in,” Curley said of the penalties. “At some point, we gotta stop beating ourselves. That’s not to take away from anything Michigan Tech did, certainly, but at the end of the day, you’re killing that many penalties and giving the other team that many opportunities on the power play, I don’t care what you have to play with, you’re going to lose games. Unfortunately for this group, it has been a hard learning experience, given not just this weekend, but this whole first half.”

Instead of holding back a Seawolves’ push for the tying goal, Parrottino scored 91 seconds into the third to give Tech a 3-1 lead.

With both teams starting a line change, Parrottino got on the ice found open space at the Seawolves blue line. Senior goalie Matt Jurusik passed it up to Eric Gotz, who sent it up to Parrottino for a breakaway. Parrottino fought off a defender and flipped a backhand shot on Seawolves goalie Kris Carlson and trickled in.

“I jumped off the bench, found a nice little hole and Eric Gotz found me and I went down and shot on net, trickled in,” Parrottino said.

Gotz had two assists for the Huskies, including one on Parrottino’s goal and Trenton Bliss’ power-play goal, the eventual game-winner late in the second period.

It was Bliss’ second goal in as many nights and seventh of the year. He took a pass from Gotz along the side and skated across the circle towards the middle, toe-dragged and sniped it past Carlson’s glove side through some traffic for the lead. Seamus Donohue also assisted.

Tech added a power-play goal late in the third period when Alec Broetzman caught a pass in the slot from Alex Smith. Broetzman, in open ice, took some time to square up on Carlson and wristed one past him to bury the game with his sixth goal of the year. Logan Pietila also got his sixth assist of the year on the play.

“We found some things that work for us,” Broetzman said of the recent success. “We’ve been having good practices getting ready for the weekends and being prepared for the weekend has really helped us perform to our fullest. Just gotta keep it going.”

Until Tech’s offensive outburst, it was another scoreless stalemate just like Friday. Tech established more and more zone pressure as the game progressed. But the Huskies conceded pressure by the Seawolves with defensive zone turnovers. And the Seawolves made it count by scoring first for the second straight night.

Alaska Anchorage freshman Alex Frye, a Clarkston native with some family in attendance, finally broke the scoreless tie on the power play seven minutes into the second period. A shot from the point missed the net on the short side and bounced off the back boards. Frye, standing near the far post, corralled the bounce and flipped the puck into the net as Jurusik lunged across. Frye’s goal came with seven seconds left on the power play, with Bliss in the penalty box for interference.

“It was a nice goal. Alex had a really nice start to the season,” Frye said. “He had a lot of family here as a Michigan guy. Really nice to see him get us on the board for us and get a job done. We need more from the other guys in the lineup and we didn’t get that.”

The Huskies were back where they were Friday night, facing another 1-0 deficit, though it came much earlier Saturday than it did Friday.

“Shortly after we got a really good shift out of Marcus Russell, (Jake) Crespi and (TJ) Polglaze,” Shawhan said of Tech’s response to Frye’s goal. “Then we put a couple back-to-back shifts, ended up getting a goal. I thought for the rest of the game, we handled the flow pretty well.”

Tech tied it five minutes later when Carlson came out of his net to send the puck around the boards and defenseman Tyler Rockwell gathered the puck and beat Carlson with a wrist shot. Carlson reached across his body for a glove save, but the shot beat him clean over his right shoulder.

The Huskies took control for good after Rockwell’s goal, largely controlling puck possession as the Seawolves fell into penalty trouble.

“We cut down on turnovers,” Shawhan said. “I thought we were good in the defensive zone managing the puck and getting it out. I thought our neutral zone transition was good and our offensive zone play got much better. We got a couple really timely power-play goals.”

Joe Sofo was given a checking from behind major and a game misconduct halfway through the third. It was the second straight night the Seawolves lost a player to a checking from behind major.

Jurusik started his eighth straight game in net and made 21 saves for his ninth win. He’s allowed just one goal in each of the last three games.

Carlson made 39 saves on Saturday, following a 40-save performance on Friday.

Michigan Tech used Alaska Anchorage’s penalties to flip the ice and establish zone pressure.

This weekend was the Seawolves’ fourth time being swept and third in the past month. Alaska Anchorage is 0-7-1 in Friday games after Tech’s 2-1 comeback win.

“Staying out of the box for one,” Curley said of improvements the team has to make. “On the same token, we’re a young team. It’s the growing pains of any transition. We’ve had a lot of good this year. Unfortunately we’ve also had a lot of bad especially down the stretch here. It’s a chance to get away from each other, get away from me to re-rack, get some bodies back coming out of the break coming back from Christmas. It’ll increase competition, keep guys more accountable. At the end of the day that’s what we’ve been lacking.”

Tech hosts No. 5 Clarkson at 7:07 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13. Puck drop is 6:07 p.m. on Saturday. Clarkson (10-3-1) is coming off a 3-1 win against St. Lawrence University, and have a four-game win streak.

UAA 0 1 0 — 1

MTU 0 2 2 — 4

First Period — Penalties–UAA, McPheters (too many men), 6:00.

Second Period — 1, UAA, Frye (Lantz, St. Onge), 7:11, pp. 2, MTU, Rockwell, 12:06. 3, MTU, Bliss (Gotz, Donohue), 16:54, pp.

Penalties–MTU, Bliss (interference), 5:18. UAA, Lantz (unsportsmanlike), 7:11. UAA, Masson (holding), 16:38.

Third Period — 4, Parrottino (Gotz, Jurusik), 1:31. Penalties–MTU, Halonen (boarding), 2:49. UAA, Sofo (checking from behind), major, 10:11. UAA, Buono (roughing) 10:11. UAA, MTU, Broetzman (roughing), 10:11. UAA, Masson (slashing),15:47.

Shots on Goal–UAA 8-9-5–22. MTU 11-19-13–43

Power-play Opportunities–UAA 1 of 2. MTU 2 of 5.

Goalies–UAA, Carlson 11-17-11–39 saves. MTU, Jurusik, 8-8-5–21.

Penalties-minutes–UAA 7-25; MTU 3-6.

A–2,838. T–2:10.

Referees–Scott Roth, Daniel Kovarik. Linesmen–Dan Juopperi, Matthew Hampton.