Feb. 16, 2007
Notre Dame Series Notes
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FACE OFF
The Alaska Nanooks kick-off a four-game homestand this weekend with the No.1 ranked team in the country, the Fighting Irish of the University of Notre Dame. The Nanooks play their final four regular-season games at home.
NANOOKS COVERAGE
This weekend's games will be televised live from Fairbanks on KFXF Fox 7 Fairbanks starting at 7:05 p.m. AKST. Sid Zweigbaum will serve as the game analyst for the telecast and alumnus Scott Roselius will provide the color commentary.
The games will also be simulcast live on the Fairbanks radio waves at KYSC 96.9 FM and KSUA 91.5 FM with Bruce Cech on the call.
The series against the Irish will be available on the Internet through live video streaming via Alaska Nanooks TV on Penn Atlantic (www.pennatlantic.com) and live audio streaming at ksua.uaf.edu. Live statistics will also be available online at alaskananooks.com.
THE SERIES
The Nanooks have met the Irish 41 times since the Nanooks joined the NCAA ranks in 1980.
When they met earlier this season in South Bend, the Irish swept the Nanooks for the first time since the 1999-2000 season. That year they met four times and UND won both games in South Bend (1-0, 3-2) and then defeated and tied the Nanooks (2-1, 3-3) in Fairbanks.
IN RECENT HISTORY
Last year these teams met four times, twice to close-out their regular season and then twice for the first round of the CCHA playoffs. They split their CCHA finale which was enough to give UND the home-ice advantage in the first round of playoffs. The Nanooks stayed in South Bend an extra weekend and got two more chances against the Irish. They made the most of their extended stay, sweeping UND 3-1 and 1-0 to advance to the second round of the conference postseason play.
HOME COOKING
The Nanooks are 7-4-3 when playing on the Carlson Center's Olympic ice-sheet this season. They are looking to continue their successful trend as they close out the regular season (next four games) at home.
The Nanooks need points in the conference standings to gain spots and finish 8th place or higher in order to host a first round conference playoff series Mar. 2-4. Alaska has not hosted a home playoff series since the 2003-04 season, when they were swept at the Carlson Center by Northern Michigan, Mar. 12-13, by scores of 3-1 and 3-2, respectively. Alaska's postseason play in the last two seasons has been spent on the road, where they compiled a 7-3 record.
OUTLOOK ON THE IRISH
Notre Dame beat and tied Alaska's travel partner Nebraska-Omaha last weekend at the Joyce Center. Friday night they were victorious by a 4-2 margin and they skated to a 2-2 tie Saturday against the Mavericks.
The Irish are led offensively by sophomore Eric Condra (12-26--38) and freshman Kevin Deeth (15-17--32). Twelve players have score in double figures for the Irish so far this season.
In goal senior David Brown has dominated for Notre Dame. The Hobey Baker candidate is 23-4-3 with a .926 saves percentage and 1.72 goals-against average. He leads the CCHA and the nation in wins and goals-against average.
IRISH CONNECTIONS
Forrest Karr, the Director of Athletics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and one of the Alaska Nanooks biggest fans, will watch his alma mater play the Nanooks at the Carlson Center this weekend. He played for the Irish from 1995-99, emblazoning his name in the record books.
While ND's David Brown has broken several Irish goaltending records, Karr sits third overall in career goals-against average (2.92), and second in minutes played in a single season (2,213, 98-99).
WHERE THEY FALL
Notre Dame is the CCHA's point leader with 39 and has already earned a bye in the first round of the conference playoffs.
Alaska is tied with Northern Michigan for ninth place at 19 points apiece and will look to gain points and ground this weekend to keep their hopes of hosting a first round playoff series alive. Northern Michigan is idle this weekend and will host the Miami Redhawks next weekend for their regular-season finale.
WHO'S THE BOSS?
Jeff Jackson is in his second season with the Irish and his eighth collegiate year of coaching.
He is 37-24-7 as UND's head coach and 3-3-0 vs. Alaska and its third-year head coach, Tavis MacMillan.
LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend in Kalamazoo the Nanooks dropped a pair of contests to the Western Michigan Broncos.
Friday night freshman forward Brandon Knelsen scored his second goal of the season, but Brian Bicek got a pair of markers for the Broncos to give them a 2-1 victory over the Nanooks.
Saturday night Alaska had a similar fate as they were unable to get more than one goal past WMU's netminder Riley Gill, who was named this week's CCHA Goaltender of the week. Trailing 2-1 late in the third period, Alaska pulled goalie Wylie Rogers in favor of an extra attacker, but the Broncos made them pay, scoring an empty-net goal to secure the 3-1 win and complete the sweep.
THE FONZ
Senior defenseman Nathan "Fonz" Fornataro was the only player to register points in both games at WMU. Friday night he set up Brandon Knelsen and then Saturday he tallied the Nanooks lone marker, while on the power play. It was his first goal in five games and fifth of the season. He is third amongst the Nanook defenseman in scoring and seventh overall in points.
A DECADE FOR TWENTY
Alaska's leading scorer Kyle Greentree tallied his team-leading 20th goal of the season on Feb. 3 against Miami. In doing so he is the first Nanook skater in ten years to reach the 20-goal mark in a season. Jeff Trembecky (1996-97) was the last Alaska player to accomplish the feat.
ROAD BLUES
Last weekend's series at Western Michigan was the Nanooks final road trip of the regular season. The Nanooks finished at 2-11-3 overall and 2-9-3 in conference while playing outside of Fairbanks.
HOBEY WATCH
Junior left wing Kyle Greentree has received just under twenty-six thousand votes in the "Vote for Hobey Baker" online polls. He has the fourth highest vote total and is garnering nine percent of the votes in the online balloting.
APPROACHING A CENTURY
Junior left wing Kyle Greentree is just 5 points shy of joining senior center Curtis Fraser in the 100-point club. As a junior he will potentially become the 28th skater in program history to accomplish the career feat, making him the youngest skater to do so since head coach Tavis MacMillan and Dean Fedorchuk joined the club during their junior seasons (1992-93). The youngest skaters in program history to join the club were Steve Moria and Eric Stokes, who each had registered 100 points amidst their sophomore season (1983-84).
THE CENTURY CLUB
Senior center Curtis Fraser became the 27th member of the Nanook Hockey program's 100-Point Club on Jan. 19 when he notched an assist on sophomore forward Adam Naglich's power-play goal at 9:48 of the third period. He then added a second helper on junior forward Kyle Greentree's goal at 16:41 of the third period and a power-play goal of his own on Jan. 20.
He has 55-54--109 in 141 career games for Alaska.
SENIOR LEADERSHIP
Senior forward Curtis Fraser has stepped up his game for the Nanooks in recent games to help them get back on the winning track. In the last eight games he has scored four goals and six assists to lead the team with 10 points through that stretch, which included three multi-point games. His greatest output (2-1--3) in that span was on Jan. 26, when his offensive contributions helped Alaska break its nine-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory at Bowling Green.
TOP RE(AR)GUARDS
Junior blueliner Darcy Campbell and sophomore defenseman Tyler Eckford are the top two scoring defenseman for Alaska and are third and fourth, respectively, in points on the team. Eckford has five goals and 16 assists, while Campbell has a pair of goals and 20 assists this season.
Campbell notched his team and career-high 20th helper on Feb. 0 at WMU. In doing so he was the first Alaska player to register 20 assists in a season since Kyle Greentree did so during his rookie year (2003-04). Eckford leads the team in power-play assists with 11 and is third overall for power-play points (3-8--11).
THEY'LL TAKE YOUR FACEOFF
Fraser has emerged as the Nanooks top faceoff taker this season. He has won 240 faceoffs and lost 154 for 60.9 percent efficiency.
Rookie center Dion Knelsen, who has taken the draw the most times for Alaska this season, leads the team in faceoff wins with 249 and 210 losses for 54.2 percent efficiency.
ROLLER COASTER RIDE
After losing only two of their first 10 contests (5-2-3) the Nanooks took a plunge mid-season, losing eleven of their next 14 games (2-11-1). They pulled ut of their slump with a 2-0-2 run before dropping a pair of games at WMU last weekend.
EXTRA SESSIONS
Alaska has played nine overtime games this season and is 1-2-6 in the extra session.
They last time they played that many overtime games was during the 2002-03 season, when they went 2-0-7.
OVERTIME WIN OVERDUE
Aaron Lee's overtime game-winner on Feb. 2 against (then) No. 10 Miami, could not have come at a better time. Not only did it give Alaska it's first such victory of the season, but it marked Alaska's first overtime win since Oct. 14, 2004 when forward Kyle Greentree netted a game-winner in overtime against (then) No. 1 Minnesota in Minneapolis. It was the first win in an extra session at the Carlson Center since Feb. 11, 2005, when Ryan McLeod netted the GWG for the Nanooks in OT to lift them over Michigan State 6-5.
MR. NICE GUY
Alaska's rookie forward Brandon Knelsen is the least penalized player on the Nanooks roster to play in every game this season. In 30 contests he has only assessed three minors for six penalty minutes.
POWER-PLAYER
The Nanooks leading scorer, junior forward Kyle Greentree, has tallied half of his points this season on the power play. Ten of his 20 season goals and eight of his 16 assists (18 of 36 total points) this year were scored when the Nanooks were skating with a man-advantage. He has also registered 67 shots on goal during Alaska's 196 power-play attempts.
He leads the CCHA in overall (10) and conference (8) power-play goals.
MULTIPLICITY
Junior Kyle Greentree has ten multi-point games under his belt this season, including two four-point performances, three three-point games and five two-point showings.
In his career he has recorded 20 multi-point games.
HOME SWEEPS
Alaska has two home-ice series sweeps under its belt this season. They got back-to-back wins against Air Force on Oct. 13-13 and Ferris State on Oct. 27-28.
