FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks hockey team completed their first sweep of the season on Saturday night, defeating in-state rival Alaska Anchorage 3-2 in a non-conference matchup at the Carlson Center. The Nanooks improve to 2-3-1 overall on the season, while the Seawolves drop to 0-5-1 overall.
Although the games didn't count toward the Western Collegiate Hockey Association standings, the game did count toward the Alaska Airlines Governor's Cup. After Saturday's game, Alaska holds a 2-0 lead in the best-of-six game series between the rivals through the 2017-18 season.
"I thought the weekend was great, I thought the guys played very competitively all weekend and I thought we generated chances when we got the puck in deep tonight," assistant coach
Erik Largen said on Saturday. "It's really great to start the Governor's Cup this way and hopefully we keep it rolling into Bowling Green."
Unlike Friday, Alaska Anchorage broke open the scoring on Saturday, as forward Austin Azurdia found the back of the net at the 4:19 mark of the first period. Azurdia received the puck from fellow forward Jeremiah Luedtke before ripping a shot on Alaska sophomore goaltender
Anton Martinsson. Martinsson made the initial save but was unable to corral the rebound, which Azurdia promptly picked up and scored before Martinsson had a chance to square up to make it a 0-1 game in favor of the visitors.
The Nanooks responded when sophomore forward
Ross Heidt tallied his third goal of the season at the 17:44 mark to tie the game at 1-1. Heidt won a battle in the UAA defensive corner and walked to the net before shooting a wristshot past Seawolf goaltender Olivier Mantha.
The majority of the second period remained tied at 1-1 before senior defenseman
Zach Frye stole the lead for the Nanooks, making it a 2-1 game at the 17:51 mark. After Alaska's fourth line ran down the UAA players in their own defensive zone and caught them on a long change, Frye received the puck from freshman forward
Brennan Blaszczak before walking in from the point and waiting for Mantha to go down into the butterfly to score topshelf. Sophomore forward
Kyle Marino was awarded the secondary assist on Frye's second goal of the season.
Sophomore forward
Colton Leiter tallied an even-strength goal at the 7:37 mark of the third period to extend the Nanooks' lead to 3-1 in what would eventually become the game-winning goal. Freshman forward
Steven Jandric fired a shot through traffic on Mantha, who made the initial save but it was Leiter who cleaned up the rebound backdoor for his second goal of the season.
The Seawolves tallied one more on the scoreboard, as Jordan Xavier scored at the 10:11 mark to make it 3-2. Xavier's goal was assisted by Azurdia and Tad Kozun.
Between the pipes, Martinsson registered 15 saves on the night, while UAA's Mantha posted a game-high 34 saves. Alaska outshot their opponent 37-17 and collected 11 blocks to UAA's 12. Neither team was able to capitalize on special teams, as the Nooks went 0-for-5 while the Seawolves went 0-for-4.
The Alaska Nanooks will hit the road this week to take on the Bowling Green University Falcons in a two-game WCHA series this Friday, Oct. 27 and Saturday, Oct. 28. Both games are scheduled to begin at 3:07pm AKT.
"Going into next weekend, I think Bowling Green is always a pretty heavy team," Largen concluded. "They do a good job in their rink and on the forecheck and play a pretty fast and physical game. Hopefully we can match their pace and intensity and I like our chances with this group, they've been really good all year and I don't expect anything less than that against Bowling Green."
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks hockey team, follow @NanooksHockey on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Hockey team page on Facebook.
