Oct. 3, 2008
Box Score
by Matias Saari, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
FAIRBANKS — It may have been an exhibition game — and one played on pink ice no less — but that didn’t diminish the importance of the Alaska Nanooks’ 3-2 victory over the University of British Columbia Friday night at the Carlson Center.
“We try to treat this just as a normal game,” said Alaska senior center Adam Naglich, who scored in the third period. “We don’t look at it as an exhibition. We just looked at it as a game that we have to come out and win.”
Before 2,652 fans in their first game this season at the Carlson Center, the Nanooks seized the lead four minutes into the game and built a three-goal cushion before holding off the Thunderbirds behind the solid goaltending of senior Chad Johnson and freshman Scott Greenham.
“I really like the exhibition schedule that we have that’s going to lead us into (Central Collegiate Hockey Association) play,” first-year head coach Dallas Ferguson said. “I know it’s great for the fans to finally see hockey again. ... You’ll see us get better every day and it will be because of the evaluations from the exhibition season like this.”
What the fans first saw entering the Carlson Center must have surprised them: an ice sheet dyed pink to recognize Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Though it looked pretty and was for a worthy cause, the color was a challenge for Johnson in net.
“Being a goalie trying to see the puck there was a little tough,” Johnson said, adding that practicing on it Thursday helped him adjust. “I’ll probably never have another opportunity to play on pink ice. It’s for a good cause so we were excited to play on it.”
When Johnson was lifted about midway through the game, he’d seen just four shots on net and saved them all. The Nanooks at that point dominated in the shot department 18-4 and led on the scoreboard 2-0.
But almost immediately after Greenham entered, he was faced with a 5-on-3 UBC power play that the Nanooks killed off. Then with 90 seconds left in second period, Greenham preserved the two-goal lead by robbing UBC right wing Matt Allen with a glove save as he fell forward to the ice.
After a streaking Dion Knelsen took a pass from Dustin Sather and deked UBC goalie Francois Thuot with a pretty backhand move for the first score, the opportunistic Nanooks used a power play goal with eight seconds left in the first period to go ahead 2-0. That’s when Sather, who finished the night with three points, took a feed from defenseman Joe Sova at a tough angle near the right post and fired it home.
“That was a big goal,” said sophomore Derek Klassen, who was instrumental in helping the Nanooks kill off all six Thunderbirds’ power plays. “Any time you get a goal in the last minute of the period, you get the momentum going into the dressing room, especially being up two (goals) instead of one.”
UBC coach Milan Dragicevic said the Thunderbirds “shot ourselves in the foot” in falling behind.
“We had two blatant turnovers for their first two goals,” Dragicevic said. “We just handed it to them and you can’t do that at this level.”
The NCAA Division I level is something that UBC may be experiencing regularly in the future. UBC is currently reviewing whether to apply to the NCAA for admission, as Canadian schools are now permitted to do so.
“The possibility is pretty good that ... UBC will apply, and whether it goes through, that’s up to the NCAA,” Dragicevic said.
After getting outshot 12-3 in the first period, the Thunderbirds thereafter nearly matched Alaska in shots and made the final score tighter than the Nanooks wanted with goals by Jordan Inglis (at 9:24 of the third period) and Max Gordichuk — who swatted a puck from midair past Greenham — with just four seconds remaining.
Until Inglis scored, the Nanooks had gone more than 109 minutes over two exhibition games without allowing a goal.
“As the game went on, I think we kind of were pressing a little bit,” Ferguson said, adding that overall he was pleased with his team’s effort. “Sometimes you need to be patient, play your systems and good things will happen.”
The next times the Nanooks take the ice, the games will count in the standings, but they won’t affect the CCHA standings. On Oct. 10-11, Alaska will meet Northeastern and Connecticut, respectively, at the Kendall Hockey Classic in Anchorage.
