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Box Score]
FAIRBANKS, AK - The brothers Knelsen, right wing Brandon and senior center Dion, finally got to hold an Alaska Airlines Governor's Cup.
So did the rest of the Alaska Nanooks after Saturday's 3-2 victory over the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves at the Carlson Center in a penalty-heavy series finale and the last game of the regular season for the host team.
“It's unbelievable,” Brandon said as he enjoyed the postgame ceremony with this teammates at center ice. “It's been four years, and it was a tough (first) three years; but we really battled hard tonight.”
Each sibling, before they got ahold of the large trophy, got control of the puck in the third period for the respective go-ahead and eventual game-winning power-play goals for the Nanooks, who raised their February unbeaten streak to eight games (6-0-2), while ending the Seawolves' three-year grip on the Cup.
“Everyone had such a great game and we came together as a team. It feels awesome,” said Dion, who had a six-point Governor's Cup weekend with a goal and an assist Saturday and four assists in a 7-4 win in Friday's series opener at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage.
The Nanooks, 16-9-9 overall, got a first-period goal from sophomore defenseman
Joe Sova, 19 saves from sophomore goaltender
Scott Greenham, and assists from freshman right wing
Andy Taranto, freshman center
Jarret Granberg and sophomore defensemen
Scott Enders and
Aaron Gens. Taranto finished his first Governor's Cup series with five points, including a hat trick and an assist Friday.
The 10-20-2 Seawolves of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association got 27 saves from senior goaltender Jon Olthuis and their goals from a pair of defensemen — junior Kane LaFranchise in the first period and senior Luka Vidmar during an extra-skater power play in the third.
While there was a postgame celebration among Alaska's four seniors — who include defenseman
Dustin Molle and wing
Cody Rymut, who didn't play Saturday but carried the Cup to the postgame media conference in the Pioneer Room — there were long faces from the Seawolves' seven seniors, whose three-year reign of the Cup included an 8-0-2 streak against the Nanooks heading into this weekend's 17th edition of the series.
“It's obviously tough because we had won it for three years,” Vidmar said. “It's the first time I'd lost a game against them.”
The Seawolves also lost a player and their head coach in a game that featured 17 total penalties for 64 minutes (10 for 39 for UAA and seven for 25 for Alaska) and an audience of 4,459, just 86 people short of a full house.
UAA defenseman Brad Gorham received a major and a game disqualification for a contact-to-the-head hit to Alaska center
Justin Filzen in the neutral zone at 7:05 of the third, just 12 seconds after
Brandon Knelsen's power-play goal.
Seawolves head coach Dave Shyiak collected an unsportsmanlike minor and a game misconduct at 8:06 for throwing a water bottle while arguing with the referees for not calling a penalty after UAA left wing Tommy Grant was hauled down in front of the crease during a shorthanded breakaway. Shyiak had also stepped out on the ice to further argue with referees Brian Hill and Stephen McInchak.
The Nanooks saw
Dustin Molle leave with a game-misconduct for a checking-from-behind major at 17:25 of the third.
Before all the exits, the Nanooks scored two goals.
Brandon Knelsen popped in Granberg's centering pass at 6:53 to make it 2-1, and
Dion Knelsen, with help from Sova, buried his team-high 17th of the season at the right side of the crease at 8:21 during a five-minute power play.
UAA scored on its five-minute man-advantage session at 18:18 after pulling Olthius for the extra attacker. Vidmar deposited the puck at the right side of the crease off of Grant's rebound.
The teams ended first period in a 1-1 deadlock.
Taranto won a battle on the back boards, slipped the puck to
Dion Knelsen, who skated near the right of the crease to center a pass to Sova for a high wrist shot into an open left side of the net at 5:10.
LaFranchise tied the score for UAA exactly 6 minutes later, ripping a shot from the left point that got past the block of Nanooks defenseman
Bryant Molle before beating Greenham low on the glove side.
The Nanooks remembered the first period Friday when they trailed 2-0 before leading 3-2. As in the opener, they didn't panic Saturday.
“We played our game and we executed,” Alaska head coach
Dallas Ferguson said. “We were composed and we didn't panic with the puck.”
