FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks hockey team rolled to a 6-2 victory over the Ferris State Bulldogs in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association contest at the Carlson Center on Saturday night, marking the Nooks' first sweep of the season. Alaska improves to 4-10-2 overall and 4-5-1-1 in WCHA play, while the Bulldogs drop to 4-10-0 on the season and 1-6-0-0 in league contests.
Alaska walks away from the weekend earning six WCHA points with back-to-back wins, tying them for fourth in the league standings with Bowling Green, each with 14 points.
"Our group stuck with the game plan for 60 minutes tonight," head coach
Erik Largen said on Saturday. "There were a lot of positives to take away from a good weekend of hockey. Now it's time to reset and refocus for next week's series against a very good Lake Superior State hockey team."
With six goals, nine of Alaska's 19 skaters appeared on the scoresheet on Saturday night, six of which earning multi-point efforts.
The Nanooks were led by junior defenseman
Tristan Thompson and junior forward
Kylar Hope, who each tallied one goal and two assists for three-point nights. After not recording one point in the first eight games of the season, Thompson has collected nine points in his last eight games. The Canmore, Alberta native is currently riding a three-game goal streak and point streak, posting six points in his last three appearances.
After earning the game-winning assist last night, Hope finishes the weekend with four points, including on goal and three assists.
Also chipping in multi-point efforts on Saturday was sophomore forward
Steven Jandric (one goal, one assist), junior forward
Colton Leiter (two assists), junior forward
Kyle Marino (one goal, one assist) and senior forward
Chad Staley (one goal, one assist).
Sophomore forward
Max Newton scored a power play goal on Saturday against the Bulldogs, his third of the weekend, while sophomore forward
Brennan Blaszczak and freshman defenseman
Chris Jandric each picked up an assist against Ferris State.
On the back end, Alaska freshman goaltender Gustavs Grigals picked up his second-straight win, stopping 33 of 34 shots he faced. On the other end of the ice, Ferris State's Roni Salmenkangas collected 16 saves against the Nanooks.
The Alaska Nanooks hockey team continues conference play at home next weekend, as they host the Lake Superior State Lakers in a two-game WCHA series next Friday, Dec. 7 and Saturday, Dec. 8 at the Carlson Center. Puck-drop both nights is scheduled for 7:07pm AKST.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks hockey team, follow @NanooksHockey on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Hockey team page on Facebook.