Feb. 17, 2007
Box Score
Fairbanks, Alaska - For the tenth time this season the Nanooks needed an extra session to decide the game's outcome. Unfortunately for the third time they came out empty-handed.
The no.1 ranked Fighting Irish of the University of Notre Dame knocked off the Alaska Nanooks, 3-2, in overtime, Saturday night at the Carlson Center to complete a weekend sweep.
ND's Garrett Regan scored two goals, including the game winner at 1:41 of overtime and goaltender Jordan Pearce, making just his third appearance of the season and the first since Jan. 7, stopped 33 of 35 Alaska shots to pick up the victory.
Regan's game winner came when the Irish turned a long rebound into a three-on-one the other way. Alaska sophomore defenseman Tyler Eckford's shot from the top of the left wing circle missed the net and wrapped around the boards to Regan. He side-stepped a check and moved the puck off the boards at the Alaska blue line.
The trio of Regan, Mark Van Guilder and Justin White carried the puck into the Alaska zone where Regan dropped the puck to Van Guilder who waited until the defenseman moved up on him. He returned it to Regan who snapped a shot over the Nanooks' junior netminder Wylie Rogers (Fairbanks, AK).
Trialing by a goal and with time near expiring, Alaska's sophomore Trevor Hyatt (Anchorage, AK) scored the equalizer for the Nanooks to send the game into the extra session. Senior Lucas Burnett's (Rossland, BC) shot from the right circle was stopped by Irish netminder Jordan Pearce but Hyatt was able to fire the rebound home for the game-tying goal. Freshman Jeff Lee (Calgary, AB) also assisted on the play.
The Irish also got a goal from Erik Condra on the night and went 2-5 on the power play in the win. Condra gave Notre Dame a 1-0 lead at 8:29 of the second period, scoring his 13th goal of the season. Defenseman Noah Babin, who had a pair of assists in the game, fired a shot from the right point that Rogers was able to stop. The rebound bounced to Condra who was camped on the left post and he flipped it over the sprawling Rogers for the goal.
Notre Dame's fourth power-play chance resulted in two goals, one short-handed for Alaska and one extra-man goal for the Irish.
Alaska was able to tie the game at 13:05 when junior defenseman T.J. Campbell (Ft. McMurray, AB) broke up a Notre Dame rush at the Nanook blue line and fed it ahead to sophomore Braden Walls (Calgary, AB). Walls was joined by junior left wing Kyle Greentree (Victoria, BC) on a two-on-one and carried the puck deep into the Irish zone before feeding across to Greentree who shoveled it into the goal for his team-leading 21st of the season.
For the second night in a row, the Nanooks out shot Notre Dame, this time by a 35-20 margin. Rogers finished with 17 saves in the game. For the night, the Irish were 2-for-5 on the power play while they killed off all six Nanook man-advantages. In two games, the Irish killed 13 Alaska power-play chances.
The loss drops Alaska to 9-17-6 on the year and 7-14-5 in conference play and 1-3-6 in overtime games this season. The victory ran Notre Dame's unbeaten streak to nine games (7-0-2). Notre Dame is now 26-5-3 overall and 20-3-3 in CCHA play. The Irish clinched their first-ever regular-season CCHA title on Friday night.
