FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks hockey team will hit the road for the first time this season, facing the No. 4/6th-ranked St. Cloud State University Huskies in a two-game non-conference series at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center this Friday, Oct. 13 and Saturday, Oct. 14. Friday's game is set for 4:37pm AKDT while Saturday's contest is scheduled for 4:07pm AKDT.
Where to Watch & Listen
Fans who can't make this weekend's games in St. Cloud can stream the games for $15.95 per day on NCHC.tv or follow along with the live stats at the link above. Please note that if you have purchased a package on WCHA.tv, it will not be applicable as the stream is produced by the home team.
Longtime Nanook hockey commentator Bruce Cech will be calling the games live from the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center on ESPN 820 AM Fairbanks or 820sports.com.
Last Time Out
The Alaska Nanooks opened the 2017-18 season last weekend at home, hosting the now-No. 19th-ranked Air Force Falcons for a two-game non-conference series at the Carlson Center. The Nanooks were edged in game one 3-2 on Friday before officially coming to a 1-1 tie on Saturday after 65 minutes of play. The Nanooks and the Falcons continued playing into a 3-on-3 five-minute overtime where rookie forward
Steven Jandric netted the game-ending goal.
All-Time Series
The Nanooks and the Huskies have met on 13 different occasions with the Huskies leading the all-time series record at 7-6-0. The first meeting between the two teams came on Jan. 4, 1981 as an 11-1 loss for the Nanooks on the road. Since then, Alaska is 3-3-0 at St. Cloud. Currently, the Nanooks are on a four-game losing streak against SCSU with their last meeting coming as a 3-0 loss for Alaska on Oct. 9, 2015 in Anchorage at the Kendall Hockey Classic.
Only six Nanooks have ever faced the St. Cloud Huskies throughout their career as a Nanook, including junior
Nikolas Koberstein, senior
Zach Frye, redshirt-senior
Justin Woods, senior
Austin Vieth, senior
Tayler Munson and junior
Ryker Leer. Of the six skaters, none have registered any points against SCSU but Munson and Leer each tallied two shots on goal against St. Cloud in Alaska's 3-0 loss on Oct. 9, 2015.
Couple First-Timers
Out of Alaska's 22 skaters that saw ice time in either game last weekend, it was a collegiate debut for five different Nanooks. Freshmen
Max Newton,
Steven Jandric and
Justin Young each cracked the line-up for their first official games in the NCAA, while sophomores
Anton Martinsson and
Kyle Marino also appeared in their first collegiate games after sitting out the 2016-17 season.
Fry(e)s with That
Senior defenseman
Zach Frye carried his offensive momentum into the 2017-18 season right out of the gate, as the Spokane, Washington native currently leads all Alaska players in points with two. Frye tallied one goal and one assist in Friday's 3-2 loss to Air Force last weekend to become the first Nanook to register two points and also a multi-point game so far this season.
West Era Beings
Last weekend not only started the beginning of the 2017-18 season but also the beginning of a new coaching era in Nanook hockey history, as first-year head coach
Lance West will officially made his coaching debut against the Air Force Falcons. West, who replaced former head coach and alumni Dallas Ferguson, has served as the Nanooks assistant coach under Ferguson for the last nine seasons.
2017-18 Captains
Last month, West and his staff announced this year's Alaska Hockey leadership group with redshirt-senior defenseman
Justin Woods donning the "C" for the 2017-18 season. Woods becomes the first in program history to be the captain of his hometown collegiate hockey team. Seniors
Zach Frye and
Tayler Munson, also a Fairbanks native, were selected as alternate captain for the season.
Scouting the Competition - #4/6 St. Cloud State University
Last weekend, the St. Cloud State Huskies played only one game, defeating Western Collegiate Hockey Association foe Minnesota State 4-0 in Mankato to kick-off the regular season. For their efforts, SCSU's junior defenseman Jimmy Schmidt was selected as the National Collegiate Hockey Conference's Defenseman of the Week, while junior netminder Jeff Schmidt was honored as the conference's Goaltender of the Week. Schmidt posted a plus-four rating and tallied one goal and one assist against the Mavericks. Smith stopped 42 of MSU's shots for a career- and game-high to post his first shutout of the season.
This past week, St. Cloud was recognized in both the USCHO.com Weekly Poll as the No. 6 selection and also the USA Hockey Poll as No. 4.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks hockey team, follow @NanooksHockey on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Hockey team page on Facebook.
