Nov. 11, 2006
By Danny Martin, Sports Reporter, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Published November 12, 2006
Posted in Sports
MARQUETTE, MI -- The Alaska Nanooks got two goals off their only two shots in the third period Saturday night in the Berry Events Center.
That 100-percent efficiency may sound impressive, but it wasn't enough for the 15th-ranked Nanooks, who had only five shots in the last two periods before falling 3-2 to the No. 16 Northern Michigan University Wildcats.
"I certainly think you've always got to give credit to your opponent when they play well," Nanooks head coach Tavis MacMillan said after the finale of his team's four-game, two-week road trip, "but at the same extent, I don't think we played well at all tonight. I honestly can't, as the coach of our team, look in the mirror and say we played well tonight."
The Nanooks saw their six-game unbeaten streak and brief stay atop the Central Collegiate Hockey Association standings end after being outshot 25-14.
The Nanooks and Wildcats tied 2-2 Friday night, and combined with the fourth-ranked Miami (Ohio) RedHawks' 2-1 loss to the Lake Superior State Lakers in Sault Ste. Marie, Alaska and Miami were tied for first. Sault Ste. Marie is about 180 miles east of Marquette.
Saturday's loss, though, sent the Nanooks to 3-1-2 league and 5-2-3 overall for a second-place tie with Michigan. The Wildcats, with goals from three different players, moved to 3-2-1 and 6-4-2, respectively, for a fourth-place tie with Notre Dame, Western Michigan and Michigan State after they were tied for eighth place on Friday.
The Nanooks' road trip ended at 1-1-2 and sophomore goaltender Chad Johnson, with 22 saves in the finale at the Berry Events Center, suffered his first loss of the season after a six-game unbeaten streak.
Alaska doesn't play again until Lake Superior State visits the Carlson Center on Nov. 24-25. However, the experience Saturday night against the other CCHA team on Michigan's Upper Peninsula will be on the Nanooks' minds during this week off.
"We have to come out 100 percent every night," said sophomore defenseman Tyler Eckford, who scored for Alaska along with sophomore left wing Justin Binab.
"Unfortunately, on the first shift, I made a bad play and we started in a hole," Eckford said. "I think we're going to go regroup and watch film, and we're going to come back that much stronger. We've been having a lot of one-goal games and ties, and we need to start separating ourselves from other teams in the first 10 minutes of the game, in the second period and finish it in the third. We just can't hang around, hang around, hang around or we're not going to win games."
It was a bittersweet night for Eckford, last week's CCHA Defensive Player of the Week. His misfortune gave Northern Michigan momentum and a 1-0 lead early in the game, but he cut the Wildcats' lead to 2-1 in the third period to deny senior goaltender Bill Zaniboni a shutout.
Northern Michigan's second forward line of left wing Pat Bateman, center Darin Olver and right wing Nick Sirota took advantage of a slip by Eckford 24 seconds into the contest.
Eckford was backing up behind the net to set up for the breakout but slipped. Bateman seized the loose puck and fed it quickly to Olver, who found a streaking Sirota, who snapped a shot over Johnson's glove side.
"I had a broken skate lace, but I don't to want to blame it on that," Eckford said. "I overhandled the puck and that's something I need to work on, and that's completely my fault. It's a team game but sometimes individuals make mistakes and the first shift of a game, I can't be doing that, and I won't do that again."
Northern Michigan head coach Walt Kyle saw the goal as a spark for his team, which had eight freshmen and sophomores among its 20 players.
"I think the biggest difference in the game tonight was we scored early," he said. "We're a young team that has had limited success offensively, and we've had a tendency all year to wait for good things to happen. When that (Sirota goal) happened, I saw a huge difference in our energy versus last night."
The goal had an effect on the Wildcats defense, as it applied pressure on the Nanooks throughout the game, particularly for the first two periods.
"Last night, we were just kind of contain, contain, contain," Kyle said. "Tonight, once that (goal) happened, we were able to apply a little bit of pressure, forechecking pressure."
Eckford redeemed himself and sparked the Nanooks at 4:05 of the third period, just 12 seconds after an Alaska power play ended.
Eckford, positioned at the top of the slot, called for a pass from Nathan Fornataro, and the senior defenseman obliged by crossing it to the sophomore, who fired a shot that deflected off a Wildcats defender's stick and sailed past Zaniboni.
"I got open and Fonz made a great pass," Eckford said. "I got all of it, and I think it hit their defenseman coming out and the goalie overplayed it quite a bit, and it just went far side."
On Friday night, the Nanooks denied the Wildcats on six power plays. The Wildcats turned the tables Saturday night, converting two of four chances, including junior left wing Andrew Sarauer's eventual game-winner at 15:02 of the third, as he took a feed from defenseman Blake Cosgrove and tapped it past Johnson at the left side of the crease.
Senior defenseman Matt Maunu also gave Northern Michigan a 2-0 lead on a power-play goal at 8:20 of the second period.
"Last night, we were trying to make a couple of cute plays (on power plays) and they just adapted to that," Sarauer said.
The Nanooks, at 16:56 of the third, adapted to the Wildcats' penalty kill after Northern Michigan had denied Alaska's six power plays Saturday.
Binab parked at the right side of the crease and one-timed in Adam Naglich's pass to make it 3-2 with Alaska's second man-advantage marker in 14 chances for the weekend.
Johnson was pulled for an extra attacker at 18:50 of the third. The Nanooks overcame near empty-net goals by Sarauer and Olver, but they couldn't rattle Zaniboni and force overtime for the second straight game.
The Nanooks are 1-9-3 in the Berry Events Center and 5-19-5 all-time in the series.
Alaska started the road trip with a three-point week against Nebraska-Omaha, tying 5-5 on Nov. 3 and winning 4-3 the next night.
