FAIRBANKS, Alaska – Senior forward Marcus Basara scored his fifth goal of the season on Saturday night but it wasn't enough to keep the Michigan Tech Huskies at bay, as the Alaska Nanooks hockey team dropped their second-straight Western Collegiate Hockey Association game to MTU 2-1 at the Carlson Center. The Nooks' overall record drops to 4-9-1, 3-6-1 in conference play, while the Huskies improve to 9-6-3 overall, 8-2-2 WCHA.
"It's disappointing again, you look at tonight and it was a great effort. The guys worked hard, they competed and they battled, but the message is, we have to do that every night consistently," assistant coach Lance West said following Saturday's game. "It was a good hockey game, Michigan Tech also worked hard and battled and they got the second one and we didn't tonight, it's as simple as that."
Michigan Tech scored the opening goal of the game at the 11:41 mark of the first period, when Brent Baltus scored an even-strength goal to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead, with Reid Sturos awarded the lone assist.
The Huskies made it 2-0 in the second period, when Shan Hanna capitalized on a faulted breakout by the Nanooks, scoring an unassisted even-strength goal at the 7:35 mark. Hanna was floating in the slot of the Alaska defensive zone and was able to make a quick wrist shot past Alaska sophomore goaltender Jesse Jenks off of a scrum in front of the net.
Five minutes later (13:00), Alaska pulled to within one point when Basara tapped in a loose puck behind Michigan Tech rookie goaltender Angus Redmond. Junior defenseman Nick Hinz brought the puck low into the Tech defensive zone, circling around the net before dishing a pass to senior forward Brandon Morley, who was alone at the blue line covering for Hinz. Morley wound up for a slapshot that Redmond was able to make the initial save on, but couldn't cover the puck before Basara was able to tap it in.
Despite a strong, energetic push late in the third period, the Nooks weren't able to make the equalizer, giving Tech the weekend conference sweep at home.
The Nooks were outshot by their opponent overall 30-27 but was able to get 12 shots on net in the second period to MTU's 11. Michigan Tech went 0-2 on power play opportunities, while the Nooks were held a 0-6. Jenks collected 28 saves on the night, including 10 in the second and third period, while his counterpart on the other end of the ice, Redmond, registered 26.
"The message we gave in the locker room is that we need to compete at that level throughout the entire weekend. As coach calls it, it should be our standard of play. If we can do that, we should be pulling points out of the weekend," West concluded.
Alaska travels to Mankato this week, taking on the Minnesota State Mankato Mavericks in a two-game WCHA series on Friday, Dec. 2 and Saturday, Dec. 3 at the Verizon Wireless Center. Puck-drop both nights is slated for 4:07pm AKST.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks hockey team, follow @NanooksHockey on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Hockey team page on Facebook.
