Jan. 17, 200
Box Score
Fairbanks, AK - Alaska blanks No.20 Nebraska-Omaha 2-0 at the Carlson Center on Friday night and gains two points in the conference standing, and with a Miami loss, now sits tied for second place in the CCHA.
Braden Walls scored his seventh goal of the season just 3:23 into the game when he found the loose puck and back-handed past UNO's junior goalie Jeremie Dupont. Walls team-leading 15th point of the season brought Alaska into the locker with a 1-0 lead at the first intermission.
Freshman Adam Cardwell recorded his first point as a Nanook on Walls' goal, and Dustin Molle also tallied his third assist. Netminder Chad Johnson saved all 10 shots he faced, but the Mavericks hit the post twice. Both the Nanooks and Mavericks had 10 shots on goal in the first 20 minutes.
Alaska doubled their lead in the second stanza as Walls scored his second goal of the night with five seconds remaining before the intermission.
The Nanooks were beneficiaries of a 5-on-3 power play with UNO's Rich Purslow and Eddie DelGrosso in the sin-bin. The puck trickled to Walls on the weak side who took his time and found the opening past Dupont.
Walls, the Toyota Player of the Game, gave the Nanooks a 2-0 lead, which proved to be plenty for a stout Alaska defense, as they rode Johnson's 32 saves to a shutout victory.
Johnson, the second star of the game, recorded his forth shutout of the year, and the fifth of his career.
For the game, Alaska outshot UNO 43-32, including 33-22 in the final two periods. The 43 shots are the second most this season, as they had 47 against Mercyhurst. The Nanooks killed all seven penalties they faced and have blanked the Mavericks in two of their three games this year..
Alaska moves to 11-8-4 on the season and 9-7-3-2 in the CCHA. The loss for UNO drops them to 13-8-3 (8-6-3-2 CCHA). The two teams will go at it again tomorrow night as Alaska looks for their second sweep on the season.
