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FAIRBANKS, Alaska – Rookie right wing
Nolan Huysmans scored a pair of goals and four more of his teammates lit the lamp as the Alaska Nanooks dominated the ninth-ranked Western Michigan Broncos from end-to-end en route to a 6-1 on Friday night at the Carlson Center.
It was a good night Alaska's rookies with Huysmans notching three points after adding an assist, rookie center
Tyler Morley chopping in three helpers and first-year goalie
John Keeney making 16 saves to secure his second win in three starts. The Twin Peaks, Calif. native got help from his teammates, who blocked 24 Bronco shots in the contest.
The senior class also stepped up their offense, contributing the other four markers off the sticks of right wing
Andy Taranto, defenseman
Kaare Odegard, left wing
Chad Gehon and center
Jarret Granberg.
Huysmans opened the scoring for the home team at 12:36 of the first period with assistance from Granberg and Morley.
WMU's Chase Balisy scored the Broncos lone tally in the contest, pulling even with Alaska at 4:02 of the second period with a power-play goal.
Taranto buried the unassisted go-ahead goal at 10:28 after he intercepted a clearing pass by a Bronco defenseman near the Nanooks bench and the blueline. Once he evaded his pursuers along the boards, he skated into the low corner and then stickhandled it towards the top of the crease, where he flicked the puck backhanded past WMU's Frank Slubowski to make it 2-1.
Less than four minutes later, Odegard gave the host Nanooks a 3-1 advantage after converting on a neat pass from sophomore winger
Nolan Youngmun at the top of the left circle. The Nanooks also killed of four penalties in the period, allowing just three shots on goal by WMU.
Coming back from the second intermission, the Nanooks wasted little time widening the gap as Gehon and Huysmans scored just 13 seconds to make it 5-1 just 36 seconds into the final frame.
Gehon netted his second goal of the season at 23 seconds with help from senior center and team captain
Adam Henderson and sophomore winger
Garrick Perry. Huysmans followed on the very next play, when he buried his second lamp-lighter of the game at 36 seconds off a feed from Morley, his second assist of the night.
The Broncos changed things up on the backend after that, sending freshman Lukas Hafner between the pipes in relief of Slubowski following Huysmans' second goal, also the second of the period on just the second shot.
It was of little reward for the visitors though, as Granberg capped the game scoring at 11:03 in a 3-on-1 situation that included his linemates Huysmans and Morley. As they broke into the offensive zone Huysmans dished the puck to Morley, who skated it through the left circle before lifting a cross-ice feed over a Bronco defenseman's stick to a wide-open Granberg who flicked it past a sprawling Hafner to make it 6-1.
Keeney stayed sharp down the stretch making some big saves to preserve the Nanooks' five-goal lead. Slubowski turned aside 20 Nanook shots before getting pulled and Hafner stopped 6-of-7 shots he faced in 19:24 of action.
For the game, Alaska outshot WMU 32-17 and was 3-for-4 on the penalty kill and scoreless on their only power-play chance in the game.
The teams meet for the weekend finale on Saturday night at 7:35 p.m.
