BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – In the third time in four games, the Alaska Nanooks hockey team found themselves tied with their opponent after 60 minutes of regulation. Unfortunately, the Nooks' luck in overtime came to an end, as Alaska fell to the Bowling Green University Falcons 2-1 in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association contest on Saturday evening at the Slater Family Ice Arena. Alaska's overall record drops to 8-15-3 and 7-10-3-3 in conference play, while the Falcons improve to 13-14-2 overall and 11-10-1 in WCHA contests.
The loss ends a two-week WCHA road trip for the Nanooks, where they went 2-1-1 against the Ferris State Bulldogs and the Bowling Green Falcons combined. The Nanooks collected eight out of a possible 12 points on the road, dropping them to sixth place in the WCHA standings with 28 points on the season.
"Hockey can be a hard game to understand; last night we weren't thrilled with our performance and ended up with three points, while tonight seemed like a more efficient game for us, minus the penalties, and we have nothing to show for it," head coach Dallas Ferguson said following Saturday's loss.
After a scoreless first period, senior forward Josh Erickson broke open the scoring at the 9:42 mark of the second period, giving Alaska a 1-0 lead over the Falcons. Erickson received a pass in transition from junior forward Austin Vieth and found himself on a 2-on-1 odd-man rush with sophomore forward John Mullally. Erickson looked off a pass to Mullally before firing a shot far-side low blocker on BGSU's Chris Nell to take the early lead.
Alaska found themselves killing off a five-minute major in the latter half of the third period, when Bowling Green struck a power play goal on the man-advantage to tie the game 1-1 at the 5:46 mark. Kevin Dufour was credited with the goal, while Sean Walker and Alec Rauhauser were awarded the assists.
"Our first period was as good of hockey as we've played all season," Ferguson continued. "The second period got away from us, our emotions got the best of us and it took us off of our game. However, I thought we reset and played a solid third period and overtime."
After a deadlock tie, Bowling Green forced Alaska into their third overtime in eight days before Bowling Green's Brett D'Andrea scored on a breakaway 3:57 into the five-minute OT to claim the three-conference points.
"We had our chances in overtime but couldn't capitalize," Ferguson said of his team's play in overtime. "Staley had a breakaway and Basara also went in alone, we made a fatal error and they finished it."
Alaska senior goaltender Davis Jones proved to be the highlight of Saturday's loss, collecting 29 saves on the night, including 14 in the second period and three in overtime. Jones, the WCHA's Defensive Player of the Week, was named the third star of the night.
On the other end of the ice, BGSU's Nell recorded 19 saves, including 12 in the first period.
"Davis was exceptional all weekend and really was there for us all road trip," Ferguson concluded. "I'm happy for him, as he showed how committed he is to this team."
The Alaska Nanooks hockey team will enjoy a bye-week before hosting the Alabama-Huntsville Chargers for a two-game WCHA series at the Carlson Center on Friday, Feb. 3 and Saturday, Feb. 4. Friday's game will be the Nanooks' annual Autism Awareness night in partnership with the Autism Society of Alaska, while kids 8th grade and under will receive free admission to both games if they are wearing a hockey jersey. Puck-drop both nights is scheduled for 7:07pm AKST.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks hockey team, follow @NanooksHockey on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Hockey team page on Facebook.
