Box Score
FAIRBANKS, Alaska - After 60 minutes of scoreless play, it took just 57 seconds for the #19 Michigan Wolverines to break the deadlock for a 1-0 overtime victory against the host Alaska Nanooks on Saturday night at the Carlson Center.
U-M's Alex Guptill scored the game's only goal while pressuring the Nanooks in their end. Junior forward
Adam Henderson was attempting to clear the puck in front of senior goalie
Scott Greenham, when Guptill crashed the net and found the puck on his stick. He quickly sent a wrister toward the cage that snuck past Greenham between his stick and right pad into the left corner of the net at 00:57 of the extra session.
Hungry for their first win in seven games, the Wolverines got off more twice as many shots as the Nanooks in the first period, with a 18-8 margin. Both teams got one power-play chance, which included a 5-on-3 for Michigan after Alaska assessed simultaneous minors at 18:25, but neither could convert.
The visitors continued to press Alaska's defensive corps and Greenham, outgunning them 14-6 behind three more power-play opportunites and a second, albeit brief, 5-on-3 man-advantage. Neither team could solve their opponents netminder and the game remained scoreless after 40 minutes.
Alaska turned up the heat in their offensive zone, generating almost as many chances in the last 20 minutes as they had combined in the first and second periods, with an 11-9 shot advantage. Despite two man-advantage opportunites, Hunwick and the U-M defense continued to stymie the Nanooks as the teams needed the extra session to decide the outcome of their final encounter of the weekend.
For the game, Greenham made a season-high 41 saves, while his counterpart Shawn Hunwick had 25 in the shutout victory.
The Nanooks are idle for the four weeks, before opening the 2012 portion of their schedule on their annual two-week road trip at Northern Michigan on Jan. 6-7.
