by Danny Martin
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
KALAMAZOO, MI — It was a moment for Dion Knelsen that pretty much reflected the Alaska Nanooks’ productive but painful Friday night in the Lawson Ice Arena.
With less than two minutes left in the opener of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association series, the Nanooks took a timeout to diagram a faceoff play and pull senior goaltender Chad Johnson for an extra attacker.
Knelsen got the puck from the faceoff draw and was in front of the crease looking at open net, as Western Michigan goaltender Riley Gill was in a low position. With 1:51 left in the game, the Alaska junior center quickly fired a high wrist shot that the Broncos netminder snatched wtih his glove. With the stoppage in play, Gill raised his glove to the delight of Lawson crowd as he skated to the right side of the crease.
Knelsen could only shake his fists in his frustration as Gill was holding one of his 41 saves that led to a 3-0 loss for Alaska.
It seemed that the Nanooks were doing what head coach Dallas Ferguson had asked — go hard to the net and get pucks on the net —, but they ran into a hot goaltender in Gill, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound junior.
“I think that pretty much sums it up,’’ Knelsen said. “I wouldn’t say we weren’t getting any bounces, but we have to be more intense in front of the net and finish plays like that.’’
The Nanooks had plenty of plays like that in the third of four games this season against Western.
At least 20 of Alaska’s shots were in front of the crease and the Nanooks generated 73 total attempts against Gill, who also withstood six power plays, including a brief two-man advantage at the start of the third period.
Friday’s performance gave Gill 128 saves in his last three games and made him the school’s first goalie to record back-to-back shutouts. His saves against the Nanooks were only five less thanhe had in last Saturday’s 5-0 win at fellow clustermate Nebraska-Omaha.
“I just tried to stay aggressive out there,” Gill said. “You know, pucks have just been able to find me these last couple of games and I just try to keep to my position out there and it worked out tonight.’’
Ferguson saw his team slip from a fourth-place tie with Ohio State into fifth place alone (10-10-5-3 CCHA, 12-11-6 overall) after he said he saw them do the things they needed to do— particularly as Alaska is in contention for a home playoff series but has only three conference games left in the regular season.
“But at the end of the day,’’ Ferguson reflected, “when you get that many scoring chances ... it wasn’t like we kept everytihing on the perimeter.
“We got things to the net, we got bodies to the net. The tale was when we called a timeout and run that faceoff play and Dion has a wide-open net, and it goes right in Gill’s glove. You know that’s when your fate is probably not going the way you want it.”
Alaska suffered its seventh loss of the season by a shutout, but Ferguson said he didn’t want his team to take for granted that it played a good game.
“We still didn’t get two points tonight and it’s important to get points at this time of the year,’’ Ferguson said. “We’ve got to find a way to get pucks behind him.’’
The defense of the Broncos, who moved from 10th place into ninth (6-11-6-2, 9-15-7), made sure the Nanooks’ shots stayed in front of Gill.
“With this (Alaska) team, they’re going to send (everything and) the kitchen sink at you all the time,’’ said Broncos junior defenseman Tyler Ludwig, who had a goal and an assist. “They’re fighting for a bye in the first playoff round (for teams who place in the top four) and they’re coming out hard. We just need to do what we did tonight and focus on getting the pucks out of our end, play a 200-foot game, eliminate turnovers and get it in deep through the neutral zone.”
Alaska had seemingly taken a 1-0 lead on Dion Knelsen’s power-play wrist shot from the left circle at 5:45 of the first period. The goal, though, was waved off after a video review showed that left wing Ryan Hohl’s right skate was in the crease.
The Broncos did score on a power play at 15:53, as Ludwig’s blast from the top of the slot cleared a screen, hit Johnson’s facemask and ricocheted off the right post into the net.
“It was one of those junk goals. It was disappointing and I can’t let in goals like that,” Johnson, a Hobey Baker Award and All-American candidate, said after a 19-save night.
After a scoreless second period, the Nanooks fell behind 2-0 at 9:25 of the third after Broncos freshman right wing J.J. Crew got past two Nanooks to whip a low wrister from the right side of the crease and into the left corner of the net. It marked the second time this season that Alaska had given up two power-play goals in a game.
Exactly 1 minute, 22 seconds after Gill robbed Knelsen, senior left wing Patrick Galivan buried an empty-net goal to seal Western Michigan’s second win of the season against Alaska. The teams split in December at the Carlson Center.
