FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks hockey opened conference play with a loss to the #9th-ranked Minnesota State Mavericks on Friday night, falling to 7-1 at the Patty Ice Arena. Alaska drops to a 1-4-0 overall record and 0-1-0 in Western Collegiate Hockey Association play, while the Mavericks improve to 5-0-0 overall and 3-0-0 in conference games.
"Obviously, tonight's game was a tough one to swallow. We talked about it before the game that we need to play smart by minimizing odd-man rushes and power play opportunities, because they are a skilled team and we gave them too many advantages tonight," head coach Dallas Ferguson said following Friday's game. "Against good teams like that, you have to make your margin of error very minimal. We got behind early and couldn't quite get anything going after that. One good thing from tonight was our first seven to eight minutes, we had a lot of energy and hit a couple posts, but would it have changes the landscape of the game overall? Maybe, but not many positives in a 7-1 loss but we've got to reset and get it going tomorrow."
Junior forward Austin Vieth scored the lone goal the for Nanooks, marking his second goal of the season and first shorthanded goal of his career. Forty-one seconds into the third period, Vieth hopped on the ice and caught a pass through the neutral zone, sending him on a two-on-two into the Mavericks zone. Vieth used the Mankato defenseman as a screen before shooting the puck on net to give Alaska their only goal of the night. Junior defenseman Zach Frye was awarded the assist.
Despite the Nanooks coming out with plenty of energy and hitting two posts within the first ten minutes of the game, Mankato scored three goals in the second half of the first period to go into intermission with the lead. Mankato's Max Coatta, Nicholas Rivera and Marc Michaelis combined for the three first-period goals.
MSU's Alec Vanko gave the Mavericks a 4-0 lead off of a power play at the 1:52 mark, before Rivera struck again at the 12:49 mark to make it 5-0 going into the second intermission.
Despite Vieth's third period goal at the 00:41 second mark, Mankato tacked on two more goals, both on the power play, to capture the three WCHA points with a final score of 7-1.
The Nanooks were outshot 45-16 on the night, with senior goaltender Davis Jones recording 20 saves, including 13 in the first period, before sophomore goaltender Jesse Jenks came in for relief, collecting 18 saves. On the other end of the ice, Mankato's Cole Huggins tallied 15 saves.
The Alaska Nanooks hockey team returns to the Patty Ice Arena tomorrow (Oct. 22) for another WCHA conference matchup against the #9 Minnesota State Mavericks at 7:07pm AKT.
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