Feb. 3, 2007
Box Score
By Danny Martin, Staff Writer
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Published February 4, 2007
Aaron Lee had no points Saturday night at the Carlson Center, though he was elated about Kyle Greentree scoring two points and his brother Jeff Lee producing the game-tying goal.
But it was Aaron Lee's resiliency that assured the Nanooks of a 3-3 tie against the 10th-ranked Miami RedHawks, giving Alaska one point to move up in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association standings.
One night after scoring the game-winner in a 2-1 overtime victory, the junior left wing delivered again for the Nanooks. This time, Lee used his body rather than his stick.
Lee blocked a shot by RedHawks center Matt Christie at the right point with 20 seconds left in overtime. His sacrifice prevented Miami from generating an opportunity for a split in the series and helped Alaska move to 7-10-5 league and 9-13-6 overall for an eighth-place tie with Northern Michigan and Western Michigan, the Nanooks' opponent this coming weekend in Kalamazoo, Mich. The Nanooks were in sole possession of 10th place coming into the series finale and eighth place is the lowest a team can finish in the regular season to secure home ice for the first round of the playoffs on March 2-4.
"The puck went out to my point man (Christie) and in the dying seconds of a game, you've got to sacrifice your body to make a play," Lee said. "I just laid down hoping I would get a piece of it, and sure enough, the puck went off my shin pads. It was a pretty good feeling."
It was also redemption for a turnover in the second period which produced a 3-2 lead for the third-place RedHawks (13-7-4, 18-10-4) before his younger sibling knotted the score very early in the third.
Fifteen seconds after Greentree made it 2-2 with his 20th goal of the season, Aaron Lee was skating across the crease in front of RedHawks junior defenseman Mitch Ganzak, who was positionally patient.
Ganzak was parked in front of the crease when he just tipped the puck off Lee's stick and between the pads of Nanooks junior goaltender Wylie Rogers at 10:24 of the second.
"There was a little turnover in the corner there," said Lee, "and the puck came out to me and I carried it across the crease, which I should never have done. Give credit to their guy, he made a good play -- he hit my stick, and bad bounce and bad luck."
Lee's resiliency, though, helped prevent a bad night for an Alaska squad that's unbeaten in four straight games after suffering through a nine-game losing streak.
"To bounce back is not easy to do as an athlete," Nanooks assistant coach Wade Klippenstein said. "I think a lot of times when we get frustrated with ourselves, we have a tendency to remember bad plays. He found a way to fight through that and block that shot after he had that turnover in front of our net."
The Nanooks bounced back Saturday night with two goals from junior left wing Greentree and freshman right wing Jeff Lee's score after Miami held leads of 1-0 in the first period and 2-1 and 3-2 in the second.
"At this time of the year, points are very important and you've got to get them and take them when you can," said Klippenstein.
Greentree made it 1-1 on a 4-on-4 situation at 10:09 of the second period, as he skated off the right-wing boards to the front of the crease and drew RedHawks goaltender Jeff Zatkoff to the right post before tucking the puck around him.
After Ganzak's 10th goal of the season put the RedHawks ahead 2-1, Greentree knotted the score again, taking Braden Walls' pass through the slot and tipping it in to make him Alaska's first 20-goal scorer in a season since Jeff Trembecky finished the 1996-97 campaign with 24 goals.
"It feels to get over that little hump there, definitely, on the 20th goal," said Greentree, who had three goals for the weekend and raised his team-high points total to 35 (20 goals and 15 assists). "Wallsie's pass was just a beauty and I just put in the open net."
Senior right wing Joe Cooper regained the lead for Miami at 16:17 of the second with a desperation backhand that snuck past a screen in front of the crease and bounced in off the left post.
"I just stood of front of net and (the Alaska defender) tried to pass it to his winger and I got a stick on it," Cooper said. "It went to my winger's (Bill Loupee) stick and he kind of put in front and I got a lucky bounce off the post.
"It was one of those bounces I wish we had more of."
Jeff Lee, with the second goal of his career, needed only the first 28 seconds of the third period to tie the game at 3.
Lee skated through the right circle, weaved by Kevin Roeder and muscled off the pressure of Roeder's defensive partner Ganzak and managed to control the puck with one hand on stick and dip it between Zatkoff's pads.
The Nanooks also persevered for the last 5:27 of the third and for all of overtime without senior center Curtis Fraser, who was assessed a misconduct for saying something to referee Kevin Hall.
"I think what's most impressive about tonight is the way we hung around," Klippenstein said. "We had some reasons to quit. We had some bad things happen to us and we had some guys make mistakes who don't usually make those mistakes, and unfortunately, the puck ended up in the net off those mistakes. The guys found ways to battle back and that was a huge goal by Jeff Lee in the third to preserve the tie."
Rogers, 2-0-2 in his last four appearances, registered 18 saves, including two in overtime, while Zatkoff stopped 23 shots.
Senior right wing Marty Guerin's power play goal at 16:28 of the first period gave Miami a 1-0 lead.
The Nanooks had killed all five RedHawks power plays on Friday while getting a goal from Greentree with the extra skater. On Saturday, the Nanooks were 0-for-5 on the power play while Miami finished 1-for-4.
