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Alaska at Ohio State Series Notes 02-12-10]
FAIRBANKS, AK - The Alaska Nanooks are in Columbus, Ohio, this week where they will take on the Ohio State Buckeyes in a pair of Central Collegiate Hockey Association games Friday and Saturday nights at Value City Arena. Friday's game is being televised live on the Big Ten Network at 7:05 p.m. EST. Here are the need to know notes about the OSU series and Alaska Hockey:
• The Nanooks narrowly trail the Buckeyes 21-23-3 in the all-time series and are 6-13-1 in Columbus.
• The teams met five times last year in Fairbanks - twice during the regular season and three times in the second round of the CCHA Playoffs. Their first two encounters saw Alaska upend OSU 4-1 on Jan. 30, before their guests got their revenge with a 6-2 decision the following night. After finishing fourth in the league standings, Alaska earned its first playoff bye in the CCHA tournament and drew OSU in the second week of action. The Blue and Gold sandwiched their only loss of the weekend (1-3) with a pair of shutout victories (4-0 and 1-0) to advance to Joe Louis Arena for just the third time in program history.
• SR F
Dion Knelsen leads all Nanooks with 6-6-12 in 11 career games against Ohio State. JR F
Kevin Petovello has the second highest career totals against the Buckeyes with 4-3-7 in nine career encounters.
• This weekend marks the Nanooks' final regular season road trip in the lower 48. On the year, Alaska is 2-5-3 during visits to Ohio and Michigan, including an 0-4-1 record in series-opening games.
• Alaska was held scoreless by Michigan State through six power-play opportunities last weekend. It marked just the second time this season that they were unable to score with the man advantage in a two-game series as the previous occasion was an 0-for-4 effort against Notre Dame.
• With all three of Alaska's goals on the weekend, SR F
Dion Knelsen is tied for 23rd among Alaska's all-time scoring leaders with 103 career points. Currently riding a four-game scoring streak (4-1-5), he is just one point shy of matching second-year head coach
Dallas Ferguson's four-year total (104), which ranks 21st overall.
• Last Saturday's tie was the Nanooks eighth of the season and seventh in CCHA play, matching the program's record for most ties (overall and in conference games) in a season set during the 2000-01 campaign.
• The Nanooks dropped Saturday's shootout 2-1 to move to 4-3 on the season when fighting for an extra point. After sweeping their first four CCHA shoot outs, they have been on the losing end in each of the last three chances.
