HOUGHTON, Mich. – Not the start the Alaska Nanooks hockey team was looking for on Friday evening, as the Nanooks fell 7-1 in game one of their Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoff series against the Michigan Tech Huskies at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena. The WCHA playoffs are a best-of-three series, with Saturday's (Mar. 12) contest acting as a do-or-die scenario for the Nanooks. Friday's loss drops the Nanooks to an overall record of 10-21-4, 8-17-4 in WCHA play, while the Huskies improve to 23-8-5 overall, 18-7-3 WCHA.
Alaska was outshot by their opponent 41-21, with junior goaltender Davis Jones making 26 saves in the first two periods before relieved by rookie goaltender Jesse Jenks, who saved nine shots in the third. On the other end of the ice, Husky goaltender Jamie Phillips made 20 saves on the night. Both Alaska and Tech were 0-for-3 on the power play Friday evening, as all eight goals were scored at even strength.
The Huskies broke open the scoring at the 8:36 mark of the first period when Joel L'Esperance scored his 14th goal of the season to put the Huskies up 1-0. MTU's Cliff Watson took a slapshot from the blueline that connected with Malcolm Gould, who was in front of Jones. Gould was able to control the puck but was quickly swarmed by the Nanooks defense, trying to strip him of the puck. Gould was unable to stuff the puck past Jones, so the forward gave a behind-the-back to L'Esperance, who was sweeping through the slot to one-time it past Jones.
The Nooks answered back two minutes later (11:36), when senior forward Tyler Morley tied it up 1-1. The play began when senior forward Nolan Huysmans chased the puck hard into the offensive zone on the forecheck, beating the Huskies to the puck in their own end. Huysmans made a heads-up play, passing to senior forward Alec Hajdukovich, who was crashing the net. A Husky defender was able to tie-up Hajdukovich, so Huysmans' pass ended up right on T. Morley's stick at the face-off dot. T. Morley looked up and saw a lane in front and threw a backhand shot on net, passing Phillips to knot the game at one a piece.
MTU took the 2-1 lead going into the first intermission when Dylan Steman scored at the 13:09 mark of the first. MTU's Matt Roy made a pass from the blueline inside the Nanook defensive zone to WCHA Regular Season Scoring Champion Alex Petan, who was sitting just below the goal line. Petan tried to give a cross-ice pass to a Husky crashing back-door, but the pass was blocked by a Nanook defender. Unfortunately, Steman was right there to pick up the loose puck, turn and shoot it past Jones to make it 3-1.
The second period proved to be rough one for the Nooks, as Michigan Tech extended their lead to 5-1 at the end of 40 minutes. Jake Lucchini scored a short-side goal on Jones after the Huskies capitalized on a neutral zone turnover at the 4:05 mark of the second (3-1), with assists from Max Vallis and Roy. MTU made it 4-1 when L'Esperance scored his second goal of the game, walking off the wall and firing it past Jones (13:12. Heinonen). One minute later, Alex Gillies scored off of a rebound in front to make it 5-1 Huskies (14:28, Lucchini, Hanna).
The Nooks relieved Jones with Jenks to start the third, but unfortunately the goaltender change couldn't swing MTU's momentum. The Huskies struck two more times in the final 20 minutes of regulation as Watson (7:38) and Eick (15:24) each scored to make a 7-1 final.
The Alaska Nanooks hockey returns to the MacInnes Student Ice Arena on Saturday, Mar. 12 for game two of the WCHA Playoff series against the Huskies. If the Nanooks can pull out a victory on Saturday, the series will be tied 1-1 and will be decided in a game three on Sunday, Mar. 13. If the Nooks aren't able to pull out a win on Saturday, their season will sadly come to a close.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks hockey team, follow @NanooksHockey on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Hockey page on Facebook.
