SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Two first-period power-play goals equaled three more points for the Alaska Nanooks as they beat No. 4/5 Notre Dame 2-1 on Saturday night at the Compton Family Ice Arena and completed a Central Collegiate Hockey Association series sweep for the second consecutive weekend.
The Nanooks (10-8-4, 8-7-3-1 CCHA) got man-advantage markers from senior
Nik Yaremchuk (St. Albert, Alberta/Business Management) and freshman
Tyler Morley (Burnaby, B.C./General Studies) and freshman netminder
John Keeney turned aside 19-of-20 UND shots in helping Alaska capture their fourth straight victory.
"Their team came out pretty hard and had a real strong push but we weathered the storm," Alaska head coach
Dallas Ferguson said. "I think for two periods it was pretty even but our guys played hard and I thought they did a really good job."
All of the goals were tallied in the first 20 minutes of play and Notre Dame's Mario Lucia opened the scoring with the lone Irish strike of the contest at 11:50.
Both Alaska goals were notched during a five-minute major (hitting from behind) whistled against UND's Thomas DiPauli at 14:46. Senior
Jarret Granberg (Foremost, Alberta/Business Administration) got the puck from sophomore defenseman
Trevor Campbell (Kansas City, Mo./Mechanical Engineering) and fired a shot on goal that Yaremchuk redirected mid-air past Irish goalie Steven Summerhays at 16:24 to tie the game 1-1.
Just 35 seconds later Granberg set up the Nanooks' second score of the period in similar fashion, putting the puck on net from center ice. This time Summerhays got a piece and made the initial stop, but Morley jumped on the loose rebound and flicked it into the back of the net to make it 2-1 at 16:59. Rookie defenseman
Josh Atkinson (Spruce Grove, Alberta/Petroleum Engineering) fed the puck to Granberg, picking up his second assist of the weekend.
After a high-scoring shootout that saw nine goals scored in Friday's contest, both teams clamped down defensively the rest of the way and the goalies shut the door at each end to keep the game locked 2-1 for the final 40 minutes.
The Irish outshot Alaska 20-17 in the game and the Nanooks were 2-for-6 on the power play and 6-of-6 on the penalty kill.
Alaska travels back to Fairbanks on Sunday and will take the day off on Monday before returning to practice on Tuesday. They host Northern Michigan, who swept Ohio State in Marquette, Mich. this weekend, next Friday and Saturday, Jan. 25-26 (7:05 p.m.) at the Carlson Center.
"It's been a great two weekends for our guys, but it's only four games out of our schedule and we know that Northern Michigan is a team that's always played hard against and they've had our number over the last couple of years," Ferguson said.
"We'll enjoy the moment and feel good about what we've done but it's about putting it all together for the rest of the season and playing weekend by weekend and being prepared each time we come out."
Nanook Notes:
