Box Score Box Score
FAIRBANKS, Alaska - Sophmore
Cody Kunyk scored twice to lead five Alaska Nanooks who lit the lamp as the home team upset the fourth-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish 6-3 on Friday night in Central Collegiate Hockey Association action at the Carlson Center.
Kunyk notched a pair of goals in the second period and added an assist en route to First Star honors, while junior
Andy Taranto netted the game-winning goal and an assist to earn the game's Second Star. Sophomore defenseman
Michael Quinn notched three assists in the win and was recognized as the games Third Star.
The win improves the Blue and Gold to 9-12-4 on the season and 6-11-4-2 in CCHA play, while dropping the Fighting Irish to 14-10-3 on the year and 9-7-3 in the conference.
Alaska also got goals from junior forward
Jarret Granberg, senior forward
Justin Filzen and junior forward
Chad Gehon as they moved to 1-2 against the Irish this season.
Granberg opened the scoring at 13:53 of the first period with a backhanded and unassisted strike, while the teams were skating four-on-four after offsetting minors were assesed by rookie defenseman
Justin Tateson and UND's Jeff Costello.
UND's Austin Withrich answered back for the visitors just over two minutes later to make it 1-1 at 16:13.
Filzen helped the Nanooks regain their advantage, making it 2-1 with his third goal of the year at 18:44. Sophomore forward
Colton Beck dug the puck out of the right corner and sent it along the boards behind UND's cage. Senior forward and team captain
Ron Meyers collected the puck below the goal line and sent a smart pass through the crease and between the circles, where a streaking Filzen connected on the doorstep to beat Summerhays over his glove.
Coming back from the first intermission, the Irish wasted little time trying to take control of the game netting the equalizer off the stick of T.J. Tynan at 1:10 to make it 2-2.
After suffering a pair of one-goal losses in South Bend earlier this season, the Nanooks were not about to lay down or suffer a similar fate and racked up three straight goals, including a pair of power-play tallies, in the 13 minutes that followed.
Kunyk got his first man-advantage marker of the night, when he lit the lamp with the go-ahead goal at 6:12. Defenseman
Aaron Gens and Quinn collected assists on the score that made it 3-2 in favor of Alaska.
The Nanooks' widened the gap with Taranto's seventh goal of the season at 8:23 of the second stanza. Quinn fed Kunyk in the neutral zone, who skated in two-on-one with Taranto and fed him a pin-point pass that the junior winger tapped past Summerhays to make it 4-2.
UND pulled Summerhays in favor of Mike Johnson but the change did little to stop the Nanooks momentum, who charged ahead and wasted little time solving the new netminder. Kunyk cashed in a rebound off an
Andy Taranto shot that rang the pipe to make it 5-2 for Alaska at 14:52.
A pair of penalties late in the middle frame gave the Irish a two-man advantage at the start of the third period, an opportunity they didn't waste. Billy Maday beat Greenham and the Nanooks 5-on-3 at 1:05 of the final frame to cut the lead to 5-3, but Gehon's first goal of the season at 9:21 kept the visitors at bay and the three-goal cushion held for the rest of the game.
For the game, the home team was 2-for-4 on the power play and 3-for-4 on the penalty kill. UND outshot Alaska 29-22 and got seven saves from its starting goalie Steven Summerhays and nine from Mike Johnson, who came in mid-way through the second period after Taranto scored the Nanooks' fourth goal of the game on Summerhays.
Senior goalie
Scott Greenham turned aside 26 shots in the win, his eighth of the season and 45th of his career.
The Nanooks will look to even the season series against Notre Dame, when the teams meet again in tomorrow night's regular-season finale at 7:05 p.m.
