Oct. 25, 2008
Box Score
by Danny Martin, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
FAIRBANKS, AK — Chad Johnson ended a long drought on Saturday night, while the Alaska Nanooks halted an offensive skid this season.
The senior goaltender stopped 27 shots to secure a 3-0 victory over the Bowling Green State Falcons for a split of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association season-opening series at the Carlson Center.
The Nanooks, 1-1-0 CCHA and 3-2-1 overall, got a first-period goal from Dion Knelsen and second-period contributions from Justin Filzen and Braden Walls after being left off the scoreboard for a span of 128 minutes, 2 seconds that covered three games in two weekends.
Johnson earned his first win since a 3-1 victory over Lake Superior State on Nov. 25, 2006.
“It’s relieving, that’s for sure,’’ Johnson, sitting outside of the Alaska lockerroom, said of the win that was also his second career shutout.
Before Saturday, Johnson had gone 0-13-1 in 19 appearances since that CCHA win over Lake Superior. He started his sophomore season at 5-1-2 but had five losses for the rest of the way, and he went 0-6-0 last season while battling a high ankle sprain.
“It’s been a tough couple of years since my last win,’’ Johnson said. “The second half of my sophomore year I didn’t really play and I didn’t get an opportunity there. Last year, I was (0-6), and I felt like I played well and I just had some tough teams and I just didn’t get the wins there ... and obviously, I got hurt.
“I come here this early in the year and I get a win; I wish it had been last night. It’s obviously nice to get a win tonight and get it over after waiting two years to get a win.’’
Johnson rarely saw a second shot Saturday, and one his best saves was stopping Falcons right wing Kai Kantola point blank at the left post on a backdoor play at 15:05 of the second.
“I was coming around the net there, and as soon as I came out, the puck was on my stick,’’ the Bowling Green junior said. “I thought I could try to just swindle it under his pad there, but he just made a great save.”
Bowling Green head coach Scott Paluch knew that Johnson was probably going to be as tough Saturday as he was Friday, when he made 29 saves in a 1-0 loss.
“I’ve always known that he’s a goalie with a lot of ability. Last night, we saw him really kind of shine and tonight was no different,” Paluch said. “He’s a big goalie that gets really square to the puck, and he has a very calm demeanor.”
Adam Naglich, the Alaska team captain, said that in the pregame skate earlier Saturday, the Nanooks told Johnson they would score and get a win against the Falcons after they lost Friday night and fell 2-0 to the Maine Black Bears on Oct. 18.
“I think he had given up five goals this year in three games, and that’s pretty bad that he hadn’t gotten a win, yet,” Naglich said in the postgame media conference in the Pioneer Room. “I told him this morning that we’d score some goals, and we did. He did his job and we did ours.’’
The Nanooks added bonuses of 29 blocked shots and denying four power plays for a perfect weekend of penalty killing (12-for-12). The Nanooks’ penalty kill is tied for third nationally with a 97-percent efficiency (32 denials among 33 power plays).
Alaska’s shot blocking, which often occurred during the penalty killing, was more than double of Friday night’s 13 blocks.
“That’s paying the price,’’ Nanooks assistant coach Lance West said in the media conference.
Freshman defenseman Joe Sova accounted for a game-high nine blocks Saturday, two more than the Falcons had as a team. Bowling Green (1-1-0, 2-3-1) registered 16 blocks on Friday.
“They’re definitely the best shot-blocking team that we’ve faced this year,’’ Kantola said. “They were doing a great job of just getting in lanes. They just laid down and sacrificed the body, and that’s just something we need to get around and try to find those open lanes.
“I’ve got to hand it to them, they played really well, especially blocking shots.”
Dion Knelsen, a junior center, ended Alaska’s scoreless woes at 7:23 of the first period, following his brother’s Brandon moving screen into the high slot and putting a wrist shot over the glove-side shoulder of Jimmy Spratt.
The Falcons senior goaltender stopped 30 shots Friday for his first career shutout and made 22 saves Saturday.
Brandon Knelsen initiated the goal drought-ending play by backchecking the puck from Falcons left wing Patrick Tiesling near the left point and quickly feeding it to Nanooks left wing Kevin Petovello, who dropped it off to Dion.
It was the junior center’s 60th career point and it was Alaska’s first goal since Walls scored at 19:21 of the third period of a 5-0 win over Mercyhurst on Oct. 17.
Alaska padded its lead to 3-0 in the second Saturday with Filzen’s second career goal and Walls’ team-high fourth of the season.
Filzen, a freshman center, literally had the touch on his goal at 2:29.
Bowling Green defenseman and team captain Kyle Page backhanded a pass from the left corner that bypassed the sticks of three players before Filzen took it and blasted it from the top of the left circle.
“I think it kind of just had eyes to the net,” Filzen said. “I just got on the ice, and Ron Meyers and Trevor Hyatt were forechecking hard, and their (defenseman Page) kind of turned the puck over, and I just tried to get it on net.’’
Walls, with five seconds left in the second period, redirected in a backhand pass from Naglich from the left circle after the senior center took defenseman Steve Vanoosten’s break-out pass and drove wide to find Walls in front of the crease.
