March 22, 2009
Box Score
by Danny Martin, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
DETROIT, MI — A good bounce last weekend at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks helped the Alaska Nanooks reach the CCHA Championship tournament at Joe Louis Arena. A bad bounce on Saturday afternoon at the Joe helped end a remarkable season for them.
The Nanooks fell 2-0 to Northern Michigan in the tournament’s third-place game after Wildcats right wings Tyler Gron and Nick Sirota scored in the third period to break a scoreless deadlock.
Alaska, after losing 3-1 to Michigan in a semifinal on Friday night, hoped for a win in its first appearance in four years in the CCHA’s marquee event. The fourth-seeded Nanooks had to settle for fourth place and memories of the tournament, including frustration on Saturday afternoon.
The Nanooks outshot the Wildcats 31-28 before they ended they season at 17-16-6 for their fifth overall winning record since officially joining the CCHA in 1995-96.
“We had some good chances, we were creating a lot of offense and we had some good chances on our power play,” team captain and center Adam Naglich, one of five Nanooks seniors who ended their careers Saturday, said. “Both goaltenders played well and they kept most of our shots to the outside.
“We ran into a hot goalie (Northern Michigan’s Derek Janzen), and obviously it’s frustrating, being our last game of the season.”
Northern Michigan (19-17-5) added to the frustration at 5:58 of the third period.
Wildcats defenseman Derek May won a faceoff and cleared the puck along the boards. Alaska defenseman Joe Sova was ready to intercept it at the left point but the puck hopped over his stick blade while rolling on the ice.
“The stick was down in time and it just hit something on the ice and jumped right over it,” Sova said. “It was an unfortunate bounce but that’s the way it goes in a tight game like that.”
Gron collected the loose prize and steamed along the left wing before cutting into the slot to pop a backhand past the blocker side of Alaska goaltender Chad Johnson.
“I don’t know if he mishandled it or just tried to throw it on net,” Johnson said. “It was kind of a rolling puck and it just kind of drifted by my blocker and went into the far side.”
It was a difficult shot to handle for the 2008-09 CCHA Player of the Year, who made 26 saves in his final time in his No. 30 Nanooks jersey.
“It was a tough goal because it was obviously the game-winner,” Johnson said, “but with a lucky roll or bounce that’s kind of what happens, and they got that tonight.”
Last Sunday night, the Nanooks got a bounce to go their way with 50.7 seconds left in the deciding game of a quarterfinal series against Ohio State at the Carlson Center. Alaska won 1-0 after freshman right wing Ron Meyers fired a shot from near the right corner that struck the stick of Buckeyes goaltender Dustin Carlson and bounced off his blocker-side knee pad into the net.
On Saturday in Joe Louis Arena, Janzen was a bounce spoiler on the way to his first career shutout.
Janzen started in place of fellow junior Brian Stewart, who worked between the pipes in Friday’s 2-1 loss to Notre Dame.
“I think the main thing was I really went to bed last night preparing for this game,” Janzen said in the postgame media conference, “ because I wanted to send our seniors out on a good note ... I just wanted to win it for them and as the game went on, it got easier and easier, and the puck looked bigger to me.”
Sirota assured the win by intercepting a pass in the high slot and parking the puck into an empty net with 12 seconds left in the game.
The Nanooks had pulled Johnson for an extra attacker with 1:05 remaining, the same time they took a timeout after junior right wing Brandon Knelsen was stopped on one of Alaska’s best efforts to tie the game at 1.
Senior defenseman Steve Vanoosten threw the puck from the right point and to the back boards. The carom came out to an onrushing Knelsen, who one-timed the puck high at the left edge of the crease before Janzen fell forward to cover it. Knelsen could only raise his stick and put his hands over his facemask in frustration.
Converting three power plays may have helped Alaska have its best postseason finish since taking third in the 2005 CCHA Super Six at the Joe.
Janzen encountered only three shots Saturday from an Alaska power play that was successful in three of its first four postseason games.
“Northern did a good job, they were just contesting shots and taking away time and space,” Alaska head coach Dallas Ferguson said, “... but I thought we were moving the puck around well .”
Ferguson also thought highly of his team this season, which in the CCHA’s preseason polls was picked for 11th place.
“Just to me, it was about having good kids in the lockerroom, guys that came to work everyday and were proud to put the jersey on,” Ferguson said. “I think as a first-year coach, I couldn’t have asked for a better group of kids.”
