MANKATO, Minn. – After a hard-fought and gritty 60 minute battle, the Alaska Nanooks hockey saw the 2016-17 season come to an end on Saturday night, as the Nooks fell 4-1 to the Minnesota State Mankato Mavericks in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoff series finale at the Verizon Wireless Center in downtown Mankato.

In addition to Friday's 3-0 loss to MSU, the Nanooks went 0-for-2 in the best-of-three quarterfinal series to the host team, concluding the 2016-17 season 12-20-4 overall and 11-13-4-3 in WCHA play. The Nanooks finished the season ranking sixth in the WCHA standings after being predicted to finish 10th in the league by the WCHA Preseason Coaches Poll and eighth in the WCHA Preseason Media Poll. The Mavericks move on to the conference's semifinal series and improve their overall record to 21-11-4 (15-9-4 WCHA).

"I thought our team battled from start to finish and Ross' goal at the start of the third period to get us to within one was huge, but overall, we had our chances," head coach Dallas Ferguson said following Saturday's game. "Mankato played well, they're a good hockey team and they stuck with it. They got some pucks to the net tonight and capitalized on their opportunities."

For the second-straight night, Mankato opened up the scoring with an even-strength goal at the 9:51 mark of the first period by Jordan Nelson. Minnesota State caught Alaska in the offensive zone, heading on a 3-on-2 odd-man rush going the other way. MSU's Max Coatta made a drop-pass to linemate Parker Tuomie, who dished the puck across the slot to Nelson, who converted on a one-timer.

The second period only saw one goal, as the Mavericks capitalized on the man-advantage to extend their lead to 2-1. Minnesota State's Zeb Knutson scored on a redirect in front of Alaska goaltender Davis Jones for his 14th goal of the season. Daniel Brickley and C.J. Franklin were awarded assists on Knutson's goal.

With their season on the line and only 20 minutes of regulation remaining, the Nanooks turned up the pressure and cut Mankato's lead to only one when freshman forward Ross Heidt scored the Nanooks' lone goal of the weekend at the 2:11 mark of the third period.

The play began with freshman defenseman Tristan Thompson made a D-to-D pass behind the Alaska net to his defensive partner junior Zach Frye. Frye made a breakout pass to Heidt, who was along the wall in the Nanooks zone before picking up speed and skating the puck into the neutral zone. Heidt's quick feet caught Mankato's forwards flat-footed and the Red Deer, Alberta native continued to skate the puck past his opponents. Heidt faked entering the zone wide before cutting the middle, catching Mankato's defensive pairing on the wrong side of the puck before the rookie fired a wrist-shot low glove-side to make it a 2-1 game.

Despite drawing a penalty on Heidt's goal, Alaska wasn't able to convert on either of their two additional power play opportunities throughout the third period, keeping the game at 2-1 in favor of the home team.

"I think it got open in the first period with the up-and-down play, but we mostly wanted to focus on being better with the puck. I think we were a little bit more composed with it and made some good plays but we gave up a couple of turnovers," Ferguson continued. "We asked the team to play harder and to be better with the puck and I thought we did that, we just weren't able to finish."

Mankato's Max Coatta scored each of Minnesota State's following two goals, including a floating tip-in off of a face-off play at the 15:10 mark before scoring the empty-netter at the 19:44 mark to seal MSU's 4-1 victory.

Alaska's Jones collected 33 saves on the night, including 14 in the first period and 12 in the second. On the other end of the ice, Mankato's Jason Pawloski tallied 29 saves against the Nanooks.

The Nanooks were outshot by their weekend opponent 37-30 on Saturday and went 0-for-3 on the power play, while Mankato went 1-for-3.

"Almost daily you're planning for something progressive and then all of a sudden your season ends and you never plan for that," Ferguson added. "It's hard. It'll take some time to sink in that our season is over but I'm really proud of how our team played and competed. We were developing our game and identity throughout the season and I thought we had great leadership from our captains and our seniors and I also think we had great development with the rest of our team, as far as how we want to play moving forward."

The Nanooks say goodbye to four seniors after Saturday's loss, including forward Marcus Basara, alternate captain Josh Erickson, goaltender Davis Jones and Captain Brandon Morley.

"You've got four seniors whose collegiate careers just ended tonight and they've each put a lot into the program," Ferguson concluded. "Most importantly, I was proud of the team and how they stuck together throughout the season by playing hard and getting themselves into a playoff spot. Hopefully people can recognize we're a good hockey team and I'm proud of every one of those guys."

The Face-Off Club will be hosting their annual End of the Year Banquet for the Alaska Nanooks hockey team on Saturday, Apr. 1 at the Westmark Hotel in Fairbanks.

For more information on the Alaska Nanooks hockey team, follow @NanooksHockey on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Hockey team page on Facebook.