Nov. 3, 2006
Final Stats
By Danny Martin, Sports Reporter, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Published November 4, 2006
Posted in Sports
OMAHA, Neb. -- The Alaska Nanooks had a point in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association standings when their Friday night at the Qwest Center ended. But in this city which the Union Pacific Railroad has its headquarters, Alaska head coach Tavis MacMillan thought his team had too many passengers in the 5-5 tie with the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks in the opener of the weekend series.
"Right now, we need to have everybody going and I felt like we had some passengers tonight, and that was disappointing," MacMillan said outside of the Nanooks locker room.
Alaska was outshot 42-26 but had leads of 3-1 in the first period, 4-2 in the second and 5-4 in the third in its initial contest of a four-game, two-week road trip. Though the Nanooks got a natural hat trick from Kyle Greentree and scored three times on eight power plays, they gave up three power-play goals and a shorthanded marker to their perpetual scheduling clustermate.
"When you go on the road and go into Omaha, you have to have everybody going," MacMillan said. "Guys who are usually reliable didn't play well, but the good news is they (only) have one of those (nights) once in a while.''
Omaha has a rich western heritage, too, and Greentree, Curtis Fraser and Darcy Campbell and goaltender Wylie Rogers were like wagon train leaders here for the Nanooks, who at 2-0-1 league and 4-1-2 overall, moved into a second-place tie with the Mavericks (2-0-1, 3-1-3).
Greentree, a junior left wing and assistant captain, delivered his hat trick in the first period for the 3-1 lead. Senior center and assistant captain Fraser had a goal and two assists after moving up to the first line in place of injured freshman Dion Knelsen, and Campbell gave the Nanooks the 5-4 lead with his first goal of the season after dispensing five assists in the first six games.
The Nanooks, who also got two assists from sophomore defenseman Tyler Eckford and a helper each from freshman right wing Brandon Knelsen and sophomore defenseman Steve Vanoosten, raised their unbeaten streak to four games (2-0-2). They haven't lost since a 6-5 overtime setback to Alaska Anchorage in the second game of this season's Alaska Airlines Governor's Cup Series on Oct. 21 at the Carlson Center. Alaska tied the Seawolves 1-1 the next night and swept Ferris State last weekend (2-1 and 4-2) at the Carlson.
Greentree has done many things offensively in his three seasons, including leading the Nanooks in scoring as a freshman and sophomore. But until Friday night before a partisan crowd of 5,007, he had never scored a hat trick in college.
Neither MacMillan or Nebraska-Omaha counterpart Mike Kemp, though, were surprised at Greentree's three-goal output over a span of 11 minutes, 4 seconds in the first period, including two with slap shots on 5-on-3 power plays.
"He just shoots the puck so well and he works so hard to get into those areas to shoot," MacMillan said.
Said Kemp, "You can't give him that type of room and opportunity. He's a big-time goal scorer with a bomb, and you can see it with the goals tonight. It's no surprise when Kyle Greentree scores a goal because he's a guy who's always put up good points."
Rogers notched 26 saves in his first action since the overtime loss to UAA. The junior, with a 1-1-1 record, replaced sophomore starter Chad Johnson, who was pulled after Mavericks right wing Danny Charleston tied the game 4-4 in the second period with both a shorthanded and a power-play goal.
"I thought Wylie competed hard and when we weren't very good, he gave us a chance to stay in this game," said MacMillan, "and he gave us enough time to go ahead 5-4 late in the game.''
Johnson, who had 11 saves and entered the weekend ranked first nationally for goals against average (0.98) and saves percentage (.959), remains unbeaten on the season at 3-0-1.
"I thought Chad wasn't sharp tonight," MacMillan said. "His body language and his positioning reminded me very much last year of the game at Notre Dame (4-1 loss last Feb. 24). That's a position where you've got to be mentally focused, and let's face it, Chad's had a run of which every game he's played this year, he's played really well.''
Mavericks left wing Brandon Scero, with his second goal of the game, snuck a weakside tally past Rogers on a power play with 1:22 left in the regulation to force overtime. Rogers, though, withstood four shots in the extra five minutes of the night, and later drew admiration from Kemp.
"My hat's off to Wylie Rogers,'' Kemp said. "He came in there cold and he faced the barrage. He faced the majority of our quality scoring chances there late in the second and certainly in the third, where we put up 17 shots. He was a stalwart in there."
Rogers' freshman counterpart, Jeremie Dupont, the reigning CCHA Rookie of the Week, saw only one Nanooks shot in overtime and finished with 11 saves after replacing Jerad Kaufmann, a sophomore and former Fairbanks Ice Dog, following Fraser's wraparound goal at 3:53 of the second period for the 4-2 Nanooks lead.
The teams traded power-play goals late in the game. Before Scero's team-high seventh goal forced overtime, Vanoosten flung the puck across to Campbell on the rush, and the junior managed to find a gap between two Mavericks and put the puck high over Dupont's glove hand at 14:11.
"They had a good gap with their d-men and I thought I would just fire it on net," Campbell said. "My dad keeps telling that good things happen when you shoot it on net.''
The first period belonged to Greentree, who pushed the Nanooks to a two-goal lead.
His first goal, and 70th career point, was set up by his check of Mavericks defenseman Phil Angell behind the net. Fraser and Angell then slightly jostled for the puck, but Greentree managed to collect it at the left side of the crease and deposited the game's first goal at 8:28.
The Nanooks found themselves in a bountiful situation, skating with a man-advantage in the last 3:38 of the period because of four Mavericks penalties. Greentree capitalized on two 5-on-3 sessions with slap shots from the top of the right circle past Kaufmann's stick side at 18:02 and 19:32.
The Nanooks also gave up a power-play goal to Mavericks freshman defenseman Ed Del Grosso, who took preseason All-American left wing Scott Parse's drop pass at the top of the right circle and beat Johnson glove side at 10:36.
Alaska's elation in the first period turned into concern in the second, as the Mavericks rallied for a 4-4 tie.
"The second period is always critical," said MacMillan. "You're up 3-1 and if you win that second period, you have things in control.''
Scero trimmed Alaska's lead to 3-2 at 3:38, and 15 seconds later, Fraser chased Kaufmann by surprising him with a wraparound goal that regained the lead for the visitors.
Then Charleston became a special-teams marvel for the Mavericks and a special-teams misery for the Nanooks.
A turnover by Greentree led to the Mavericks generating a 2-on-1 break. Nenad Gajic, instead of passing across to Del Grosso, dropped the puck back to a trailing Charleston, who planted the shorthanded goal at 9:02. The Nebraska-Omaha sophomore sent Johnson off the ice after his power-play wrist shot struck the right post and skipped behind the Nanooks netminder's skate at 11:32.
"It's exciting, especially to tie it up ... I don't get that many opportunities,'' Charleston said. "It was a great feeling that I could contribute."
Referee John Murphy issued enough penalties to nearly equal the length of a regulation game. Of the 54 minute worth of the penalties, the Nanooks were assessed 15 for 30 minutes and the Mavericks 12 for 24.
