[Box Score]
FAIRBANKS, AK — A 1-1 overtime tie and ensuing shootout loss on Saturday night against the 12th-ranked Michigan State Spartans gave the Alaska Nanooks only one point in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association standings.
However, combined with Friday's 2-0 win against the second-place team in the CCHA, Saturday's outcome at the Carlson Center gave the Nanooks confidence as their conference season winds down.
“We're having close games and we're out there to battle,” sophomore defenseman
Aaron Gens said. “We showed that we could beat Michigan State last night, and get a point tonight and play extremely well all the way through. To get a point tonight, it was good for us going into the next two weekends. I think it's a big momentum boost for our team.”
The Nanooks, with a first-period goal from senior center
Dion Knelsen, 32 saves from sophomore goaltender
Scott Greenham and a shootout tally from junior left wing
Ryan Hohl, moved to 8-9-7-4 CCHA and 11-10-8 overall to remain in a fourth-place tie — this time with Nebraska-Omaha, a 4-3 winner Saturday over Ohio State. The Nanooks meet the Buckeyes on Friday and Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, and end CCHA play at home against Lake Superior State on Feb. 19-20.
Fourth is the lowest a team can finish in the CCHA regular season to earn a first-round bye in the playoffs and host a quarterfinal series against the winner of a first-round series. Alaska placed fourth last season.
First-place Miami (Ohio) and the two teams who played at the Carlson Center this weekend are the only CCHA squads this season to earn at least a point in every conference series.
“It's a big point,” Alaska head coach
Dallas Ferguson said. “Every one is precious, so we've got to keep doing what we're doing.”
Knelsen did on Saturday night what he did one night earlier — score.
The two-goal scorer on Friday provided Saturday's first marker at 11:12 of the opening period.
Defenseman
Joe Sova fed to right wing
Dustin Sather near the left corner and he relayed the puck to Knelsen in the left circle. The senior lined a shot between the left post and Spartans goaltender Drew Palmisano's stick hand after it cleared a screen set by Alaska's
Andy Taranto and Michigan State's Andrew Rowe and Jeff Petry.
“
Andy Taranto went to the net real hard and he stood right in front of the goalie and Dustin gave me a nice pass back,” said Knelsen, who leads Alaska with 15 goals. “I just put it on net and I think it went off a d-man's stick and went in.”
Palmisano remembered Knelsen when the teams reached the shootout following scoreless second and third periods and the overtime session.
Knelsen was trying a forehand-to-backhand move when the Spartans sophomore pokechecked him to secure the 2-1 shootout win for Michigan State (12-7-5-2, 17-10-5).
“Right before the shootout, our coaches were telling me that they watched film and he just went to his backhand every time,” Palmisano, who had 28 saves in regulation and overtime, said. “ When I saw that he got on his backhand, I just threw out the stick and luckily, it hit my stick.”
Palmisano had stopped Taranto on a wrist shot but Hohl opened the shootout for Alaska by scorching a wrister that bounced in off of the Spartans goalie's glove.
“He almost made a good save,” Hohl said. “It's just a shot I'm pretty confident with. I haven't had great success in the shootout this year but I went back to high glove and it went in for me.”
Junior center Corey Tropp converted Michigan State's first shootout opportunity with a forehand that went in off of the crossbar and Rowe, a junior left wing, later followed with the winner on a high backhand to the glove side.
“I just kind of faked the shot and he bit on the shot, and then I went high glove,” Rowe said.
The Spartans, though, had respect for Greenham, who in the series only allowed a power-play blast by Petry, a junior defenseman, at 19:27 of the first period Saturday.
“He was just a solid tender. He controlled his rebounds very well,” Rowe said.
