Nov. 1, 2008
Box Score
by Danny Martin, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
OXFORD, Ohio — The Alaska Nanooks expected — and encountered — a different Miami RedHawks team on Saturday night in the Steve Cady Arena.
In the finale of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association series, the league-leading and seventh-ranked RedHawks weren’t the same ones whom the Nanooks upset 2-1 Friday and held to no shots for the first 18 minutes of the game.
“Anytime you lose at home on a Friday night,” said Alaska senior left wing Trevor Hyatt, “you know you’re going to come out the next night with guns blazing, you’re going to be more energized, you’re going to be putting every puck on the net and you’re going to be hitting guys.”
Alaska did see all that from Miami in the finale, but one thing that wasn’t different for the Nanooks was a struggling power play, and it hurt them in a 5-0 loss Saturday.
Alaska, with 20 saves from senior goaltender Chad Johnson, slipped from a five-way tie for third place to a five-way tie for fifth (2-2-0 CCHA, 4-3-1 overall). A reason for the drop was an 0-for-10 power play that led to an 0-for-16 weekend.
Alaska’s missed opportunities Saturday included a two-man advantage and a 4-on-3 in a scoreless second period. For the season, Alaska is 3-for-53 for a 5.6-percent efficiency.
“It’s a concern of mine right now,” Alaska head coach Dallas Ferguson said.
Ferguson commended Miami’s penalty killing, which leads the CCHA and ranks third nationally at 96.3 percent efficiency (43 for 45), while Alaska’s ranks third in the league and eighth nationally at 93 percent (40 for 43).
Ferguson noted that the Nanooks need to win loose pucks to raise their power-play efficiency.
“I don’t think you can sit back and just think that you’re going to play on the perimeter,” Ferguson said. “When we got pucks to the net, we were getting some scoring chances ... At the same time, if any power play is going to be successful, you have to have work ethic and commitment, and it seems like we relax a little bit on the power play, where we have to take it the other way and almost pick it up a notch.”
Miami (4-1-1 CCHA, 4-2-2 overall) picked up its intensity in the first period Saturday for a 3-0 lead.
Sophomore center Carter Camper, en route to a two-goal night, scored with a slap shot from the top of the slot at 4:23 and assisted sophomore center Pat Cannone’s power-play goal at 7:36. At 12:20, sophomore Andy Miele scored his first of two goals while laying on his stomach in the low slot to swipe back in a rebound of Cannone’s shot.
“Our main goal was to come out with a purpose and have them match our intensity instead of us matching their intensity,” Camper said. “We came out and made the smart plays that we needed to make.”
After getting outshot 12-3 in the first period, the Nanooks had an 12-6 advantage in the second period, but they also failed on six power plays and their best chance to score was on Ryan Hohl’s penalty shot at 1:38 of the second.
The sophomore right wing got the puck on a RedHawks turnover in the neutral zone and broke along the left wing before Miami left wing Justin Mercier dove to trip him in the low slot. On the penalty shot, Hohl attempted to beat Connor Knapp on the glove side but the unbeaten Miami freshman goaltender (3-0-1) snatched the puck for one of his 23 saves.
“I just went down and looked for what was open,” said Hohl, “and I saw the glove side, and I thought I had him but he made a good save.”
Camper and Miele added their second goals in the third period while adding to Alaska’s frustration.
Camper deposited a shorthanded goal at 4:43 of third period, 35 seconds after an apparent Nanooks power-play goal by sophomore left wing Dustin Sather was waved off because he kicked it in. Miele closed the scoring at 7:04 by redirecting in Vince Loverde’s blast from the high slot.
The loss dropped Alaska’s scoring defense to fourth nationally at 1.34 goals allowed in eight games after it entered the game leading the country with an average of 0.86 in seven games. Despite allowing five goals on Saturday after conceding just six all season, the Nanooks still have the best defense in the CCHA.
“A couple of things didn’t go our way tonight, and that’s the reason we didn’t come up, obviously, with success,” said Hohl. “We’re just going to go back to work Monday, have a good week of practice and stay focused and not get down.
“Like coach said, take this as a learning experience because it’s a tough place to come in and get four points (in the standings), let alone two ... and we took away two.”
