Jan. 8, 2007
By Danny Martin
Staff Writer, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Published January 8, 2007
The glass in the Value City Arena at the Jerome Schottenstein Center wasn't credited with an assist, but it helped the host Ohio State Buckeyes sweep the Alaska Nanooks in Sunday afternoon's finale of their Central Collegiate Hockey Association series.
The Buckeyes pulled out a 3-2 victory on Kenny Bernard's game-winning goal at 16:16 of the third period, set up by defenseman Matt Waddell passing the puck off the glass.
Alaska, which got 25 saves from junior goaltender Wylie Rogers and led in the second period with special teams goals by freshman center Dion Knelsen and junior left wing Aaron Lee, lost for the fifth straight time and dropped to 5-6-3 league and 7-9-4 overall for a tie for seventh place with Western Michigan.
The scenario for the game-winner didn't surprise Nanooks head coach Tavis MacMillan because when the team watched video of Friday's 4-2 loss, he noticed the Buckeyes executing the same play.
The Nanooks' planned response includes a forecheck with a middle defenseman playing the role of a safety valve. The role belonged to sophomore Steve Vanoosten late in the third period Sunday.
"We talked to the guys about our forecheck and that that middle defenseman was the fail-safe," said MacMillan. "You have to keep everything in front of you, and Ohio State did it yesterday (Friday) and to their credit, they throw it off the glass and get into a foot race."
Nanooks sophomore defenseman Tyler Eckford had rushed in to pressure Waddell during the play.
"We had good pressure, and the guy (Waddell) didn't even see their guy (Bernard)," MacMillan said. "He was going back and he threw it off the glass to relieve pressure, and their guy won a foot race. Our inside defenseman got caught and didn't stay d-side on him.
"We went over video (Saturday), and it was exactly those scenarios and how to protect against them. If you want to create sustained offensive pressure, there's a give and take and that fail-safe defenseman has to keep him in front of him."
Waddell flipped the puck high off the right-wing glass and Eckford jumped to try to catch it. Before Vanoosten could respond, the puck had already sailed onto the stick of the streaking Bernard, who cut to the front of the crease, deked Rogers on a forehand and snuck a backhand through his pads.
"That was kind of our game plan going into the second half of this game -- the glass was our best friend," Bernard said. "They come hard down the wall, but I saw that we probably were going to put it off the glass because we had worked on it."
The last six weeks haven't been friendly to Alaska, as it's lost seven out of eight games over that span. The team is also 1-7-2 this season away from the Carlson Center, and the season resumes on the road with a series Friday and Saturday in East Lansing, Mich., against 10th-ranked Michigan State (7-6-3, 9-9-4).
The Nanooks, as they did Friday, started the game by being aggressive offensively, and on Sunday, added a bonus of pursuing loose pucks.
"I told the guys that for the first time in a long time as a coach, I didn't know what to say," MacMillan said. "I feel so bad for our kids right now . . . these guys are working so hard. In the last two weekends, we're 0-4, and not to take anything away from (Alaska) Anchorage and Ohio State, but I just feel our kids deserve a better fate."
Ohio State head coach John Markell had similar sentiments for the Nanooks but praised his players, too.
"I've got to give credit to Alaska, they played well and they probably deserved a better fate than what they got this weekend," Markell said. "My compliments to them and I think they're probably going to beat a lot of teams before the end (of the regular season). I also want to give kudos to our guys because they buckled down and our senior line of Kenny Bernard, Mathieu Beaudoin and Bryce Anderson challenged them a little bit to change the momentum of this game."
Long before Bernard's goal, the Buckeyes got the puck to bounce in their favor at 4:00 of the second period to snap a scoreless deadlock.
Alaska defenseman Darcy Campbell blocked a shot by Domenic Maiani at the left side of the crease, but the Buckeyes junior center got the rebound off the block and put the puck over Rogers' stick side.
The Nanooks' special teams rose to the occasion to emerge with a 2-1 lead in the period.
Dion Knelsen, parked in the right circle, made it 1-1 at 6:06, taking Eckford's pass from the top of the slot and one-timing it over the glove of Buckeyes freshman goaltender Joseph Palmer, who finished with 17 saves.
Sophomore right wing Braden Walls, who had a shorthanded goal in a 4-3 win at Nebraska-Omaha on Nov. 4, set up Lee at 17:19 for a shorthanded goal and only the second marker of the season for the Nanooks veteran.
Walls cleared the puck and Lee and Buckeyes defenseman Kyle Hood raced for it before it rimmed to Palmer, who cleared it from behind the net to the left point. Walls seized it there, skated into the Ohio State zone and deked Hood and Buckeyes left wing Andrew Schembri to find an open Lee at the right side of the crease, where the Alaska junior dipped the puck behind Palmer.
"Anytime you score, it's obviously a boost for your confidence," said Lee, "but I'm more concerned about my team's success."
Right wing Bryce Anderson made it 2-2 at 8:00 of the third, courtesy of Buckeyes defenseman Jason DeSantis being in the right place at the right time.
Alaska defenseman Nathan Fornataro rimmed the puck on the boards and DeSantis was at the right point to retrieve it.
He sent it up to Beaudoin, who put a pass on Anderson's skates, but the Ohio State right wing controlled it to flick it over a prone Darcy Campbell in front of the crease and past Rogers.
After Bernard's goal, the Nanooks coaches pulled Rogers for an extra attacker with a minute left in the game, but Alaska got only one shot with time running out.
