February 28, 2009
Box Score
by Danny Martin, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
ANCHORAGE, AK - The Alaska Nanooks sat in a makeshift locker room area deep in Sullivan Arena on Saturday night.
The area seemed as dark as their moods after they lost 3-0 to the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves in the finale of the Alaska Airlines Governor’s Cup Series.
The Nanooks of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association saw a jubilant group of Seawolves raise the Cup for the third straight year after shutting out Alaska for the second straight night and raising their unbeaten streak against their intrastate rival to 10 games (8-0-2).
“We’re frustrated, obviously, about not scoring a goal this weekend,” said Alaska sophomore center Derek Klassen. “We just needed to get more pucks to the net. We only got 14 or 15 shots, and that’s not good enough.”
Each team generated only 15 shots Saturday, but the Nanooks’ output in the regular season-ending contest followed a 31-shot effort in Friday’s 1-0 loss at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks.
The Nanooks generated seven quality chances in the Cup finale, but they couldn’t get the puck past Seawolves sophomore goaltender Bryce Christianson, who gave UAA its first consecutive shutouts since the 1992-93 season.
“It’s kind of been a little bit of a theme for us this season,” Ferguson said. “When we get our chances, we’re not burying them. But at the same time, we’ve been playing well enough away from the puck to give ourselves a chance.”
UAA, of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, capitalized on its low shot total Saturday. Sophomore defenseman Kane LaFranchise scored on a power play near the end of the first period; junior defenseman Nils Backstrom got a goal in the second from an unfortunate bounce for Alaska, and junior center Paul Crowder made an empty-net deposit on a short-handed play in the third for his second marker of the weekend.
Backstrom, like UAA’s eight other juniors, has known nothing but winning when it’s come to the Cup.
“When I came here my freshman year, I understood how important it was for the community and for the school to bring it back,” Backstrom alluded to Alaska winning the from 2002-06. “It’s a great feeling to have it three years in a row, and we want to keep going that way.”
Besides losing the Cup, the 15-13-6 Nanooks suffered back-to-back losses by shutouts for the second time this season. The other was by scores of 2-0 and 3-0 at then No. 1-ranked Notre Dame on Jan. 10-11.
Alaska also ended the regular season with nine losses which they finished scoreless.
Earlier Saturday, Alaska learned that fifth-place Ohio State lost 7-5 to second-place Miami (Ohio). With Miami’s win, Alaska secured fourth place in the standings, earned a first-round bye in the playoffs this weekend and gets to play host to a quarterfinal series during March 13-15.
That good news, though, didn’t distract Alaska from trying to wrest the Goverrnor’s Cup from UAA’s hands.
“The guys know how big of a series this is,” Ferguson said. “... You look for guys to rise to the occasion. I was kind of waiting all week for someone to step up, rise up other than Chad Johnson.”
Johnson, a senior goaltender and Hobey Baker and All-American candidate, had 12 saves Saturday following a 30-save performance Friday.
“Chad had a great series again and it reiterates that he should be under serious consideration for the Hobey Baker,’’ Ferguson said.
The teams produced three shots apiece in the first period, but UAA’s last shot was a power-play goal by LaFranchise with 2.9 seconds left on the clock.
Brian Bales took Tommy Grant’s pass from the right point and Bales steamed a pass from the right circle to LaFranchise at the left circle, and the sophomore whipped a shot that got past the block of Nanooks right wing Braden Walls and went under a diving Johnson.
Ferguson was upset by sophomore defenseman Bryant Molle’s interference penalty which led to UAA’s second man-advantage goal of the series.
“it was a retaliation penalty and it took away from a pretty good period for us,’’ Ferguson said. “They executed on the penalty kill and taking bad penalties like that takes a lot of momentum out of your steam.”
Ferguson, though, said he and his team put the penalty behind them.
“I think you’ve got a bunch of guys in there who realize they got 1-0 and 3-0,” he said. “They don’t feel good about it and I don’t feel good about it, because I feel for the most part, we didn’t put our best foot forward.’’
LaFranchise set up Backstrom for a 2-0 lead for UAA (12-15-5) at 15:48 of the second.
LaFranchise, screened by Nanooks left wing Kevin Petovello, fired a shot from the top of the slot that deflected off ofryant Molle’s stick. The puck then bounced off Johnson’s stick-side shoulder and was batted into the net by Backstrom at 15:48.
The Nanooks gambled on a power play at 16:26 of the third, pulling Johnson for an extra attacker. Crowder, though, took advantage of an Alaska turnover in the high slot and broke up the ice to slide the puck into an empty net one night after he scored the game-winner on a power play.
