Alaska Anchorage Plans to Eliminate Men's Hockey Program

The University of Alaska Anchorage hockey program has soldiered on for 40 years—but next season might be the last one for the Seawolves.

UAA announced Wednesday that it was planning to restructure its athletic program, which would result in the elimination of four varsity programs: men’s ice hockey, women’s gymnastics, women’s skiing and men’s skiing, which would result in annual savings of about $2.5 million. The restructuring would also leave UAA with eight NCAA programs, all at the Division II level, following the 2020-21 academic year. Only men’s hockey and women’s gymnastics competed in NCAA Division I.

The Seawolf hockey program got its start in 1979-80 playing at the UAA Sports Center as a Division II independent under head coach and program founder Kelvin “Brush” Christiansen. UAA posted a winning record in each of its five seasons at that level, shifting home venues to the newly-built 6,200-seat Sullivan Arena in downtown Anchorage in 1983, before also moving up to the NCAA Division I ranks in 1984-85.

After one season as a Division I independent, UAA played three seasons in the short-lived Great West Hockey Conference before re-joining the independent ranks. The Seawolves enjoyed their greatest success over the next four seasons, winning at least 18 games in each campaign, and also earned three consecutive independent berths to the NCAA Division I tournament, including a trip to the quarterfinal round in 1991. The last of those teams registered a program-record 27 victories overall in 1991-92. 

UAA joined the Western Collegiate Hockey Association as an affiliate member in 1992-93, and finished 18-13-4 overall that winter. The next season it became a full-time member of the WCHA, with Christiansen stepping down as head coach following the 1995-96 season, having fashioned a 287–229–30 record over 17 years. He was subsequently replaced at the helm by Dean Talafous (1996-2001), former UAA player and assistant coach John Hill (2001-05), and Dave Shyiak (2005-2013).

The Seawolves made the WCHA Final Five three times (2004, 2011, 2014), although they have posted just one winning season overall from 1993 until the present. The 2013-14 squad finished 18-16-4 under former head coach Matt Thomas, who succeeded Shyiak beginning with that season. The program has recorded just 12 campaigns with double-digit wins since joining the WCHA on a full-time basis.

UAA moved its home games back on campus to its hockey practice home, now known as the Seawolf Sports Center, beginning with the 2019-20 season under current head coach Matt Curley, and finished 4-25-7 overall last year. The university had tentatively planned to expand the rink’s capacity from 800 spectators in the next few years, until Wednesday’s announcement. The Alaska Airlines Center, the newest UAA athletic facility that opened on campus in the fall of 2014, is not equipped with an ice-making apparatus.

UAA has sent dozens of players on to the professional hockey ranks, with at least nine former Seawolves having reached the National Hockey League to date. Mike Peluso became the first former Seawolf to hoist the Stanley Cup when he won it with the NHL’s New Jersey Devils in 1995, and Jay Beagle followed suit in 2018 with the Washington Capitals.

Members of the public who wish to comment on UAA's restructuring decision may send feedback to uaa_feedback@alaska.edu, or can attend a virtual town hall meeting and Board of Regents public testimony later this month, with information on both events available at uaa.alaska.edu/calendars/public.

UAA was set to be without a conference home following next season, along with Alaska (Fairbanks) and Alabama-Huntsville, as the WCHA men’s league is scheduled to break up. Bemidji State, Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State, and Northern Michigan are all slated to withdraw from the WCHA following the 2020-21 season to reform the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, which itself originally disbanded in 2013.

Alabama-Huntsville announced earlier this year that it would be eliminating its men’s hockey program, only to have it at least temporarily saved by an aggressivefundraising campaign. Alaska (Fairbanks) announced Wednesday that it was not planning to eliminate ice hockey or any of its other nine NCAA athletic programs at present.