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Box Score]
COLUMBUS, OH - The Alaska Nanooks got goals from three different players as they rallied from a 3-1 second period deficit to hold on for a 3-3 tie in overtime against the Ohio State Buckeyes in Saturday night's Central Collegiate Hockey Association series finale at Value City Arena. OSU stole the extra point away in the deciding shootout via a 1-0 decision.
OSU's Kyle Reed opened the game scoring, getting one past Alaska's
Scott Greenham (Addison, ON) at 5:29 of the first period. The Nanooks responded just 33 seconds later, when sophomore
Ron Meyers (Prince Albert, SK) deposited the puck past Buckeye netminder Dustin Carlson at 6:02. Meyers' linemates
Justin Filzen (Proctor, MN) and
Ryan Hohl (Northville, MI) assisted on the play.
Alaska moved to 12-9-9 on the season and 9-9-8-4 in the conference good for 39 points and a fifth place tie with Northern Michigan in the CCHA standings. The Buckeyes (11-15-4, 9-11-4-2 CCHA) moved up one spot with the shootout win to ninth place at 33 points.
The score remained knotted for the majority of the second period until a power-play tally by the Buckeyes at 14:15 sparked a goal-scoring surge in the three minutes and nine seconds that followed that gave the home team a 3-2 advantage at the end of the second stanza.
A Nanook penalty to
Bryant Molle (Anchorage, AK) set the Buckeyes up for their second score of the night, which came off the stick of Zac Dalpe. OSU forward John Albert made it 3-1 at 16:04, before the Blue and Gold would cut the lead back to one goal at 17:24. Junior
Dustin Sather (Wanham, AB) took a feed from
Dustin Molle and
Kaare Odegard (Red Deer, Alberta) and found the back of the OSU net for his sixth goal of the season.
Down by one as the teams jumped into third period action, Alaska got two prime opportunities to pull even with their hosts when the Buckeyes were whistled for penalties at 11:39 and 15:18. After failing to net the equalizer on the first attempt with the man-advantage, the Nanooks'
Carlo Finucci (Burnaby, BC) made good on the second when he sent a
Scott Enders (Edmonton, AB) shot rebound past Carlson to make it 3-3. Rookie winger
Nik Yaremchuk notched an assist on the tally.
The Nanooks outshot the Buckeyes 3-2 in overtime, but neither team would score again through the 5-minute extra session.
For the game OSU outshot Alaska 34-30 and was 1-for-2 on the power play, while the Nanooks went 1-for- 6. Greenham finished the game with 31 saves while his counterpart made 27 saves for the Buckeyes.
The Nanooks return to Fairbanks to host their final regular season CCHA series when they host the Lake Superior State Lakers Feb. 20-21 at the Carlson Center. Opening face off both nights is at 7:05 p.m. AKT.
