FAIRBANKS, Alaska – Special teams proved to the be the difference-maker on Saturday night, as the Alaska Nanooks hockey team fell 5-1 to the No. 8/6th-ranked Minnesota State Mankato Mavericks in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association game at the Carlson Center. The Nooks fall to 9-12-2 on the season and 7-10-1-1 in conference play, while the Mavericks improve to 17-7-0 overall and 15-5-0-0 in league games.

The Nanooks and the Mavericks split the weekend, each earning three WCHA points in Fairbanks. At the time of article, Alaska remains in seventh place in the league standings with 23 points, while the Mavericks continue to sit in first place with 45 points.

In a game that saw 30 penalties and 87 penalty minutes, both teams tallied power play goals with the Mavericks going 3-for-10 on the man-advantage, while Alaska went 1-for-7. Mavericks' goaltender Connor LaCouvee registered 16 saves on the night, while Nanook sophomore goaltender Anton Martinsson registered 25 saves in the first and second periods alone and sophomore netminder Niko DellaMaggiore posted six saves in the third.

For the second-straight night, the Nanooks opened up the scoring against the Mavericks, taking advantage of a five-minute major on MSU's Parker Tuomie. Sophomore forward Tyler Cline netted Alaska's only goal of the night only 2:51 into the first period. Cline's fifth goal of the season was assisted by junior defenseman Nikolas Koberstein and redshirt-senior defenseman Justin Woods.

The Mavericks tied things up 1-1 at the 10:11 mark of the first period and never looked back, as Charlie Gerard scored MSU's first goal of the weekend for his second of the season. Gerard's goal was assisted by Edwin Hookenson and Jared Spooner.

Minnesota State would score twice more before the first 20 minutes concluded with a pair of goals from senior forward Brad McClure, including one power-play tally.

The second period saw two more goals from the Mavericks, both on the man-advantage. Sophomore forward Marc Michaelis tallied a PPG at the 14:38 mark, while junior defenseman Daniel Brickley made it 5-1 at the 18:40 mark.

The Alaska Nanooks hockey team hits the road this week, as they head to Houghton, Michigan to face the Michigan Tech Huskies in a two-game WCHA series this Friday, Jan. 19 and Saturday, Jan. 20. Puck-drop is scheduled for 3:07pm AKST.

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