Box Score [
Box Score]
FAIRBANKS, Alaska - Junior center Jarrett Granberg scored with 33 seconds left in the game to ruin Ferris State goalie Pat Nagle's shutout bid, but it was of little consolation as the Bulldogs came away with a 2-1 victory and three key points in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association Saturday night at the Carlson Center.
Facing a two-goal deficit headed into the final two minutes of the contest, Alaska pulled junior goalie
Scott Greenham in favor of an extra attacker. After the Bulldogs thwarted the Nanooks first several attempts, the Blue and Gold finally solved Nagle at 19:27.
Junior defenseman
Joe Sova fired a shot from the point that was blocked down but not cleared. Senior center
Derek Klassen collected the puck and skated across the slot near the right face-off circle where he sent a shot towards the cage. Nagle made the stop, but could not control the rebound and a quick-handed Granberg tapped it through the five-hole.
The Bulldogs opened the scoring at 18:40 of the first period, when Travis Ouellette found the back of the Nanooks net. FSU forward Eric Alexander fired a shot wide to the right of Alaska's net that Mike Fillinger collected and fed to Ouellette near the left post. He lifted the puck over Greenham's right legpad to make it 1-0.
FSU doubled up in the middle frame, when Matthew Kirzinger used some nifty stick handling to beat two Nanook defensemen and send a back-handed shot over Greenham's left shoulder from just inside the left circle near the slot. Mike Embach assisted on the score.
For the game, Alaska outshot their guests 32-25, but both teams were scoreless with the man advantage. The Nanooks were 0-for-5, while the Bulldogs were 0-for-3. Greenham made 30 saves in the loss, while his counterpart had 24.
The loss snapped Alaska's (12-11-4, 9-10-4-2 CCHA) 10-game home winning streak against FSU and dropped them to sixth place in the league standings. The win helped the Bulldogs leapfrog the Nanooks in the standings with 35 league points.
The teams play a rematch and series finale on Sunday at 7:05 p.m.
