FAIRBANKS, Alaska – For the first time in tournament history, a lower-48 team has captured the Brice Alaska Goal Rush title. The Alaska Nanooks hockey fell victim to a second-straight overtime loss to the Omaha Mavericks on Saturday night, falling 4-3 in a non-conference game at the Carlson Center. The Nanooks drop to an overall record of 1-3-0 (0-0-0 WCHA), while the Mavericks improve to a perfect 2-0-0 overall (0-0-0 NCHC).
"Obviously not the result we wanted but we liked the effort put forth by our guys," assistant coach
Erik Largen said following Saturday's loss. "They battled back and tied the game up to force overtime but I think it was a pretty good growing weekend for us."
Marcus Basara led the Nanooks' offense on Saturday night, posting a goal and an assist for two points. Basara scored a power play goal late in the third period to tie the game 3-3 and to force overtime. Basara's power play goal marks the fourth-straight game a Nanook has scored on the man-advantage.
Omaha's Mason Morelli was the lone skater to put a point on the board in the first period, scoring at the 15:55 mark off of a netural zone turnover, which led to a breakaway goal to make it 1-0 Mavericks.
Junior defenseman
Zach Frye answered back by scoring at the 1:57 mark into the second period off on a weak-side rebound to tie the game 1-1. Frye's second goal, third point of the season was assisted by junior forward
Tayler Munson and Basara.
Omaha's Tyler Vesel scored a four-on-three power play goal at the 3:40 mark in the second period, giving the Mavericks the lead once again. Vesel's goal was assisted by Austin Ortega and Jake Randolph. Thirteen minutes later (16:31), UNO's Luc Snuggerud scored to make it 3-1 with assists awarded to Randolph and Parizek.
Freshman forward
Troy Van Tetering opened the third period by evading net-front coverage to get a stick on a point pass from redshirt-junior defenseman
Justin Woods. Van Tetering's second goal of the season was also assisted by freshman forward Colton Letier for his first collegiate point, while the Nooks cut the Mavericks' lead to one goal.
After Basara's game-tying goal, UNO's Austin Ortega scored only 1:15 into overtime to give the Mavericks' the go-ahead to claim the 2016 Brice Alaska Goal Rush title.
Mavericks goaltender Evan Weninger made 22 saves on the night, including 10 in the third period, while Alaska's senior goaltender
Davis Jones collected 24.
"I think this weekend really helped us move forward as a hockey club, we had some really great moments and we had some moments we can learn from. I think we even made improvements from Friday to Saturday, we went from learning how close out a game to learning how to battle back. Overall, I think there were a lot of positives and we're excited to get going into league play," Largen concluded.
Alaska hockey went 0-2 in this weekend's ninth annual tournament, marking the first time the Nanooks have never won a game in their own tournament and also giving the coveted gold pan to a team from outside Alaska, as only the Nanooks and the Seawolves have won the championship.
Sophomore forward
Chad Staley was named to the Brice Alaska Goal Rush's All-Tournament team as the lone pick for the Nanooks. The rest of the All-Tournament Team included:
Forwards:
Chad Staley (Alaska)
Jake Randolph (Omaha)
Dylan McLaughlin (Canisius)
Defensemen:
Geoff Fortman (Canisius)
Chase Van Allen (Alaska Anchorage)
Goaltender:
Olivier Mantha (Alaska Anchorage)
Tournament MVP: Austin Ortega (Omaha)
The Alaska Nanooks return to their old stomping grounds next weekend, as they open conference play against the Mankato State Mavericks at the Patty Ice Arena on Friday (Oct. 21) and Saturday (Oct. 22). Puck-drop is slated for 7:07 pm AKT on both nights. More information regarding ticketing and seating for the series at the Patty Center will be available next week on alaskananooks.com.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks hockey team, follow @NanooksHockey on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Hockey team page on Facebook.
