Jan. 13, 2007
Box Score
By Danny Martin, Staff Writer
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Published January 14, 2007
EAST LANSING, Mich.-- There were no brawls among the players and the head coaches shook hands without exchanging words and pointing fingers at one another.
The discipline and composure in the Clarence Munn Ice Arena on Saturday night may have differed from Friday night, but the outcome was the same for the Alaska Nanooks -- they lost again to the Michigan State Spartans in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association series, giving them seven straight losses and nine defeats in their last 10 games.
The 4-3 setback for the Nanooks before the standing-room, mostly partisan crowd of 6,910 also spelled the end of a winless four-game, two-week road trip. Alaska fell 6-2 and 3-2 to Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio, on Jan. 5 and 7 and lost 3-2 in overtime Friday night to Michigan State.
Alaska, with a stellar 44-save performance from junior goaltender Wylie Rogers and goals from sophomore defenseman Tyler Eckford and fourth-line wings Jordan Emmerson and Trevor Hyatt, slid to 5-8-3 league and 7-11-4 overall falling into sole possession of ninth place after entering the night in an eighth-place tie with the Western Michigan Broncos.
"He was outstanding," Alaska head coach Tavis MacMillan said of Rogers. "If it wasn't for Wylie, the game would have been over in the first period. Because of Wylie, the game ended in the third period instead of the first period."
The Spartans agreed about Rogers, who had 35 saves after the second period, leaving the Nanooks in a 2-2 deadlock with the Spartans.
"He played unbelievable," said Michigan State sophomore wing Nick Sucharski, who had a goal and an assist. "He had 17 saves in the first period and it was so difficult to score on him. We had tricklers go in and we had 48 shots tonight ... that's what we needed, to keep shooting pucks. We had four shots (actually three) in the second period Friday."
The Spartans, alone in third place at 10-6-1 league and 14-8-1 overall, also got a goal and two assists on Saturday from senior left wing Tyler Howells; two assists from senior defenseman Chris Snavely; a goal and assist from junior right wing Jim McKenzie and 25 saves from sophomore Jeff Lerg.
The teams were fresh from Friday night's postgame fracas which saw four players receive fighting majors and game disqualications, causing them to have to sit out Saturday's game. The Nanooks were without two of their best penalty killers in junior defenseman T.J. Campbell and sophomore wing Justin Binab, and the Spartans skated without sophomore defenseman Brandon Gentile and senior left wing and team captain Chris Lawrence.
"We missed T.J.'s competitiveness and Binab kills penalties," MacMillan said. "So, we were missing a lot."
After MacMillan and Michigan State head coach Rick Comley shook hands Friday night, MacMillan told Comley that the Spartans were running Rogers and Comley disagreed and the coaches pointed fingers at each other while exchanging words. At the same time, Howells was just to the left of MacMillan and was exchanging words with the Alaska head coach. The Spartans wing then lightly bumped MacMillan, setting off the melee among the team's players.
Saturday's game had several CCHA officials in attendance, including Brian Hart, the league's supervisor of officials. There were fewer penalties, too -- a combined nine for 18 minutes compared to 29 for 110 minutes on Friday, which included nine roughing-after-the-whistle minors for extracurricular activity around the creases of Rogers and Lerg.
On Saturday, Howells even seemed to apologize to Rogers for a roughing-the-goaltender minor at 9:36 of the second period.
"They maintained their composure and our kids did, too, in a game that had a lot of edge," Comley said Saturday in his postgame media conference.
The Nanooks have held 2-1 leads in the second period of each of their last five games, but have not been able to hold onto the advantage.
"We're not a mature enough team right now to get over that hump," said MacMillan. "If we have a game where Emmerson and Hyatt are scoring our goals, that's awesome; but if you're missing the Frasers, the Greentrees and the Knelsens from the scoresheet, we're in trouble, and we're not going to win if those guys aren't producing."
Junior left wing Kyle Greentree and senior center Curtis Fraser, the teams' top two scorers with 30 and 20 points, respectively, were held pointless Saturday night. Center Dion Knelsen assisted on Eckford's power-play goal Saturday to continue to lead Nanooks freshmen in scoring with 16 points.
Emmerson scored the first goal of his senior season and put the Nanooks in front, 2-1, at 6:14 of the second by taking center Lucas Burnett's quick centering pass, dropping to a knee and flicking a wrist shot over Lerg 's shoulder and off the crossbar.
Rogers had turned aside 18 straight shots in the period until 1:15 left. Just as the Nanooks had killed off the Spartans' fourth straight power play -- and eighth in a row for the weekend -- Howells zipped a centering pass to Sucharski and the Spartans sophomore deposited into the left side of the net.
Sucharski returned the favor in the third period, snapping the tie and ending Alaska's penalty-killing streak in the series. Sucharski seemed to be carrying the puck around the net but he instead put on the brakes and centered to McKenzie, who stuffed the puck between the right post and Rogers' glove hand at 5:50.
"The difference tonight was their power play," Rogers said. "They were getting guys in front and keeping in our end the whole time, and we were getting tired. I was dying on the power play and the rest our of team was.
"On the second goal (by Sucharski), the guy was right in front and didn't have a lot on it. I'd rather have a point-blank one-timer rather than a shot that a guy doesn't get a hold of."
Howells, with a centering pass from the boards by right wing Daniel Sturges, scored the game-winner on a rush at 13:19, but the Nanooks didn't leave East Lansing quietly.
With 1:13 left on the clock, Emmerson ripped a shot from the left circle and Lerg deflected the puck. Hyatt collected the rebound, skated across the front of the crease and tucked a backhand around Lerg's skates for his first marker of the season.
"It's nice," Hyatt said, "but it's also too bad that we couldn't have pulled through and got this game. It's kind of hard to appreciate the first goal because you always want team success over individual success."
The Nanooks rallied for a 1-1 tie in the first period despite getting outshot 18-4. Eight of the Spartans shot occured in the low slot, including the game's first goal by sophomore right wing Tim Crowder at 4:24, as he tapped in a rebound of Snavely's shot from the left point.
Eckford tied the score on a power play at 5:54, taking Dion Knelsen's pass and one-timing it from the slot over Lerg's stick-side shoulder.
"I thought the team's mood was good," said MacMillan, "but give credit to Michigan State, they just had more legs and more energy in that first period. We just looked like a tired hockey team tonight. I thought we finally got some life in the third period and we were able to come back and make it a game."
