March 9, 2008
Box Score
By Danny Martin
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Published Sunday, March 9, 2008
OMAHA, NE -- The Alaska Nanooks wanted to stay in Omaha for a long time, and on Saturday night, they earned another 24 hours here with a 5-3 victory over the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks in Game 2 of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association first-round playoff series at the Qwest Center.
Tonight's deciding Game 3 marks the Nanooks' sixth day in Nebraska's largest city and a victory would mark the fourth straight year that Alaska advances to a quarterfinal round.
"I don't think a lot of people realize that the longer we stay here, the better off we're going to be," said Alaska head coach Doc DelCastillo, "because when you travel, it takes something out of you. I was proud of the way the guys played and the boys are excited to get that 60 minutes (again). We'll use all the gas in the tank tomorrow night."
Mavericks head coach Mike Kemp was one of those people who understood the benefit of a longer stay for the Nanooks, who lost 4-3 in Thursday's Game 1.
"I thought they were much more aggressive in the first two periods and as a result, their second and third efforts were better than ours for two periods," Kemp said.
The Nanooks, ending a seven-game winless streak against the Mavericks, displayed sharper defense, more physicality and better puck control Saturday than two nights earlier. Also, the power-play success they had in Game 1 (3-for-6) continued in Game 2 with a 3-for-10 effort.
"It's a good time for the power play to wake up," DelCastillo said. "There's guys working really hard to get loose pucks on the power play, and probably the best thing our power play did tonight was not give up a short-handed goal. In the two previous times we've played them, we've given up short-handed goals and that just kills you in hockey."
All of the power-play goals on Saturday night for Alaska (9-20-5) occurred during its first four chances, giving the Nanooks a 3-1 lead early in the second period. Junior center Adam Naglich assisted on the extra-skater tallies by freshman wings Landon Novotney and Ryan Hohl in the first period and sophomore center Dion Knelsen in the second.
"On the power play, they (Mavericks) were pressing real hard," said Naglich, "and I just saw guys in front of the net open, and I just tried to get the puck to the front of the net."
Alaska junior defenseman Tyler Eckford scored on a 4-on-4 situation in the second period; freshman center Derek Klassen provided an empty-net goal in the third and goaltender Wylie Rogers, one of five seniors hoping to capture first-round series the fourth year in a row, registered 28 saves.
"I think all of the guys had intensity and we knew it was do or die," Naglich said. "We were playing for each other and for the seniors who want to play tomorrow (today)."
Junior goaltender and former Fairbanks Ice Dog Jared Kaufmann had 22 saves for the 16-17-4 Mavericks, who got goals from freshman defenseman Eric Olimb, senior left wing Brandon Scero and freshman center Joey Martin.
The Nanooks, pulled ahead 2-1 in the first period -- their first lead of the series -- with their fourth and fifth power-play goals of the postseason.
The visitors gained 6 minutes, 13 seconds of man-advantage time en route to their first goal. They had 1:13 left in a power play, courtesy of Mavericks defenseman Juha Uotila's hooking minor, and they inherited five more minutes after fellow UNO blueliner Eddie DelGrosso received a game misconduct for a checking-from-behind major.
"I wasn't expecting it. I had my back turned, he hit me pretty hard and I headed into the glass," Knelsen said. "I got my bell rung quite a bit. Luckily, I was all right but I was pretty shook up at the start."
Knelsen recovered well enough to skate into the slot to collect the puck from a scramble in front of the crease and quickly feed to Novotney, who tapped a low shot off the left post at 7:43, when there was 24 seconds left in the extended power play.
The Mavericks responded for the tie with Olimb's first career goal, a blast from the top of the right circle that beat Rogers low into the left corner of the net at 15:41.
Hohl, with his first postseason marker and second career tally, regained the lead at 18:38, taking left wing Aaron Lee's backhand pass from in front of the crease and one-timing it high from the right side of the crease.
Knelsen continued Alaska power-play parade at 4:03 of the second period for a 3-1 lead.
Aided by Novotney and the third assist of the night by Naglich, Knelsen bolted through the left circle and across the front of the crease to slip a backhand around Kaufmann's glove side.
Eckford gave the Nanooks a three-goal cushion at 18:03 of the second, taking Novotney's centering pass from the right side of the net and flipping a shot from the slot over the shaft of Kaufmann's stick.
Scero, with left wing Dan Charleston's third assist of the playoffs, scored the Mavericks' first power-play goal with a one-timer off the left post at 5:43 of the third period and Martin zipped across the right circle to poke the puck through Rogers' pads at 17:12 to make it 4-3.
Kaufmann was pulled for an extra attacker with 24 seconds left, and 15 seconds later, Klassen forechecked the puck away from Uotila at the left point and planted it into an empty net to assure a deciding game today.
"We know that in order for us to be successful, we have to be aggressive and we can't get on our heels," Knelsen said. "You saw today that when we got on our heels, they took the game to us.
"Our goal is probably going to be to just keep on playing our game, being aggressive and hopefully, that will get us a win tomorrow.
