ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Junior defenseman Justin Woods and sophomore forward Ryker Leer each contributed a goal and an assist on the night, as the Alaska Nanooks hockey team officially opened the 2016-17 season with a 4-1 win over in-state rival Alaska Anchorage on Saturday evening at the Sullivan Arena.

The matchup was a non-conference, non-Alaska Airlines Governor's Cup meeting between the two Alaska teams, with the Nanooks improving to 1-0-0 overall (0-0-0-0 WCHA), while the Seawolves drop to 0-2-0 overall (0-0-0-0 WCHA).

"It was nice to get the win and get up early, which helped relax us a little bit," head coach Dallas Ferguson said following Saturday's game. "We killed off two, 5-on-3's, which isn't the recipe for success if we continue to put ourselves in those types of positions. But overall, the guys got it done. We had good jump today and stayed pretty focused on our game."

Three goals in the first period alone helped the Nanooks to their first season-opening victory since defeating the Wisconsin Badgers on Oct. 10, 2014. In total, six Nooks recorded at least one point on the night, led by Leer and Woods, who registered two each.

As a team, Alaska outshot the Seawolves 27-20, with senior goaltender Davis Jones recording 19 saves. On the other end of the ice, junior goaltender Olivier Mantha collected 23 saves for the Seawolves, including 10 in the first period. Alaska also dominated the face-off circle, winning 30 draws to UAA's 27, led by junior forward Tayler Munson who tallied nine wins.

"Everyone was pretty solid tonight, throughout the first two periods, I don't think we gave up a lot of chances but in the third period, I thought Davis made some nice saves to keep the game where it was," Ferguson explained. "I thought we were a little opportunistic on some of the goals we were able to finish on, which I thought our guys did a good job of finishing plays and following through."

Woods got the Nooks on the board first, scoring a power-play goal at the 6:13 mark of the first period to give Alaska the 1-0 advantage. Sophomore forward John Mullally was alone in the corner before kicking the puck up the wall to Woods, who walked across the blue line and fired a slapshot past a screened Mantha. Sophomore defenseman Nikolas Koberstein was awarded the secondary assist on Woods' first goal of the season.

Three minutes later, the Seawolves had stripped the puck from the Nanooks' two forecheckers in the UAA defensive zone to begin their breakout. A bad pass from the Seawolf winger back to his defenseman ended up on Leer's stick, who was alone along the goal line. Leer drove the puck to the net to get a shot off, which was initially denied by Mantha short-side. Fortunately, Mantha was unable to control his rebound, which slide directly out to a net-crashing Munson for a quick shot upstairs to give the Nooks a 2-0 lead at the 9:40 mark in the first period.

With only twenty seconds left in the first period, Woods rushed the puck up-ice past four tired UAA skaters and through all three zones to come down and take a wrist shot on Mantha, who once again, couldn't hang on to the rebound. A loose puck bounced past both Seawolf defensemen and landed directly on Leer's stick, who was following up the play behind Woods. A quick shot high glove-side gave the Nooks a three goal lead going into intermission. Woods was awarded the lone assist on Leer's goal.

After a scoreless second period, sophomore Chad Staley scored at the 2:08 mark of the third period to put the Nooks up 4-0. Staley's linemates, senior Brandon Morley and Munson, were pressuring UAA defenseman Tanner Johnson behind the net, before Johnson mishandled the puck in front of his own net. Staley was the high-forward in the offensive zone and jumped on the loose puck to rifle a quick shot past Mantha.

The Seawolves denied Joned the shutout when they scored at the 16:48 mark of the third period. UAA's Jarrett Brown was the lone goal-scorer for the Seawolves, while Alex Jackstadt and Nolan Nicholas was awarded assists.

"Going into tomorrow, I think we need to just continue to stay focused on our game," Ferguson concluded. "I don't think we played a perfect game by any means, but I thought there were a lot of quality shifts getting put in by most of our guys. We're going to face a very talented team tomorrow and we're going to have to stay extremely disciplined and continue to work hard in the gritty areas for us to be successful tomorrow."

The Alaska Nanooks face the No. 11/13 ranked Minnesota Gophers tomorrow, Oct. 9 at 4:07 pm AKT at the Sullivan Arena to conclude the UAA Hockey Classic. The game can be watched live on Fox 7 Fairbanks, with coverage starting at 4pm AKT.

For more information on the Alaska Nanooks hockey team, follow @NanooksHockey on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Hockey team page on Facebook.