SAULT STE. MARIE, MI - After seeing the host Lake Superior State jump out to an early 2-0 lead, the No. 10 Alaska Nanooks were unable to overcome the Lakers and fell 4-3 at Taffy Abel Arena Friday night in a tightly-contested game that saw the two teams battle down to the final second of the contest.
Despite the let down, Alaska head coach
Dallas Ferguson was pleased with how the Blue and Gold battled back from a 2-0 deficit after the first 20 minutes of play.
“I thought our guys responded well,” he said. “We came out and got it back to even with a couple of power-play goals; the good thing is we battled back and gave ourselves an opportunity (to win).”
Nik Yaremchuk (St. Albert, AB) scored twice for the Nanooks while his linemate and fellow forward
Andy Taranto (Woodridge, IL) had a goal and an assist in the loss. Sophomore defenseman
Joe Sova (Berwyn, IL) and freshman center
Jarret Granberg (Foremost, Alberta) set up a pair of goals each for Alaska. Taranto's goal came as a second-period five-on-three opportunity was expiring.
The Lakers were paced by Rick Schofield's pair of goals while Brad Cooper and Simon Gysbers also scored for the LSSU in the win.
Alaska netminder Scott Greenham (Addison, ON) turned aside 20 Laker shots in the loss, including nine in the first period when LSSU outshot the visitors 11-5. LSSU's goaltender Brian Mahoney-Wilson stopped 26 shots in the win, 21 of which came in the final two periods.
Following the loss, Ferguson admitted that the lack of a big save was important in the Nanooks second loss in the last three outings.
“I'd like to get that big save when it counts, but we didn't get that tonight,” he said.
The Blue and Gold finished the night two-for-five with the man advantage while the home team cashed in once in five power-play chances.
Following a seven-game undefeated streak in October, the Nanooks, are 2-3 in November after splitting CCHA series at home against Notre Dame and at Bowling Green last weekend. The 10th-ranked Nanooks hope to salvage another split this weekend against LSSU that would snap a five-game losing skid in the Soo and give Ferguson and the four-memeber senior class their first triumph at Taffy Abel Arena.
The two teams return to action Saturday night and close out their two-game series at 7:05 p.m. Live stats can be found at ccha.com, while live a live video webstream via B2 Networks and live audio webstream via KSUA 91.5 FM may be found in the Multimedia section of alaskananooks.com.
