FAIRBANKS, ALASKA – The Alaska Nanooks hockey team returns to the Carlson Center this week, hosting the Northern Michigan Wildcats in a two-game Western Collegiate Hockey Association series this Friday, Nov. 17 and Saturday, Nov. 18. Puck-drop for both nights is scheduled for 7:07pm AKST.
LAST TIME OUT
The Alaska Nanooks hockey team hit the road for the first and only time throughout the month of November last week, as the Nooks suffered a road sweep at the hands of the Ferris State University Bulldogs in Big Rapids. Alaska fell in a special teams battle on Friday 3-1 before dropping Saturday's contest 5-3.
WCHA STANDINGS
The Nooks are currently tied for eighth place in the WCHA standings with Alaska Anchorage and Lake Superior State, each with five points. Alaska holds a 1-4-1-1 record in conference contests this season. As of Wednesday, Minnesota State ranks first in the conference with 18 points, posting a conference mark of 6-2-0-0.
ALL-TIME SERIES
All-time against the Wildcats, Alaska trails 12-35-12 with the Nooks posting a 8-14-5 record at home. The first meeting between the two teams came as a 6-8 loss for the Nanooks on Dec. 1, 1989 in Marquette. Alaska enters the week on a three-game losing streak to NMU, with their last meeting coming as a 2-0 loss on Feb. 11, 2017. The last win Alaska posted against Northern Michigan was on Jan. 15, 2016 with a 3-2 overtime win in Marquette.
Individually all-time against Northern Michigan, redshirt-senior defenseman
Justin Woods has appeared in 10 games versus the Wildcats, the most of any other active player on the roster. Sixteen players on this year's roster have faced the Wildcats on at least one occasion. Six players have registered at least one point against NMU with senior defenseman
Zach Frye leading his teammates with one goal and two assists for three points in eight games throughout his career.
ROOKIE MOVES
For the third-straight week, freshman forward Steven Jandric leads all Alaska players in scoring with one goal and nine assists for a team-best 10 points. The Prince George, British Columbia native also leads his teammates in assists (9), assists per games played (0.75), points per games played (0.83) and plus (13). Amongst fellow league rookies, Jandric ranks second in scoring with his 10 points, only one point behind BGSU's Cameron Wright, whose collected 11 points in 11 games (5G, 6A).
Furthermore, Jandric has collected two multi-point games this season and has only been held without a point in a single game on five occasions. Of those five games, Alaska is 0-4-1 whereas the Nanooks are 3-3-1 in games Jandric registers a point.
WHAT SOPHOMORE SLUMP?
The sophomore forward duo of
Colton Leiter and
Kylar Hope have also played a large part in Alaska's offensive efforts this season, as each of the two Canadian-born players have posted nine points in 12 games. Hope (4G, 5A) and Leiter (2G, 7A) both tallied a multi-point night last Saturday (Nov. 11) against Ferris State with Hope registering one goal and one assist, while Leiter combined for two assists.
DANGEROUS WOODS
Redshirt-senior defenseman
Justin Woods has been, not only a vital part of the Alaska defensive-core, but also a major contribution on Alaska's offense this season. Woods currently leads the team in goals with six and also ranks first on the team in goals per games played (0.50), power play goals (2), power play points (3), and game-winning goals (1). Amongst fellow WCHA blueliners, Woods ranks first in goals and goals per games played and is tied for first in power play goals.
CENTURY MEN
After appearing in two games at Ferris State last weekend, senior forward
Austin Vieth appears to be the next closest active Nanook to play in 100 career games. Vieth, who's currently at 91 career games after four years, would join the elite company of Frye (109), Woods (112) and fellow senior forward
Tayler Munson (106). Following Vieth, senior defenseman
Nick Hinz would be the next likely candidate to reach 100 games, as he currently sits with 80.
SHARING THE WEALTH
Of the Nanooks' 23 skaters who have dressed for at least one game this season, 22 have collected at least one point with 15 of Alaska's skaters adding more than one point.
HOW SWEDE IT IS
Sophomore goaltender
Anton Martinsson currently leads all league netminders in games played (12), games started (12), minutes (725:31) and time percentage (98.9). Martinsson currently boasts a .904 save percentage and a goals against average of 2.81.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT - #20 NORTHERN MICHIGAN
The Northern Michigan Wildcats split a home-and-home weekend series with Michigan Tech last Friday and Saturday, which saw the team fall 4-1 at MTU before shutting out the Huskies 4-0 on home ice. The Wildcats are led by senior forward Robbie Payne, who's nine goals and three assists for 12 points rank him first amongst his teammates in scoring and ties him for fourth in the WCHA. On the back-end, NMIU's goaltenders Mathias Israelsson and Atte Tolvanen have been splitting time in the net with Tolvanen earning his first shutout of the season against the MTU Huskies last Saturday. It will be another special teams battle for the Nanooks, as the Wildcats have held opponents scoreless in their past 14 power play chances, shoring up the special teams. In the past two series, NMU is 18-for-19 on the penalty kill while also registering three power play tallies in the same four-game span.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks hockey team, follow @NanooksHockey on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Hockey team page on Facebook.
