FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks hockey team in dramatic fashion on Saturday night, as the Nooks dropped a 3-2 Western Collegiate Hockey Association decision to in-state rival Alaska Anchorage at the Carlson Center. Saturday's game also closed out the 2017-18 regular season for Alaska, as the loss drops their overall record to 11-20-3 and 9-17-2-1 in conference play, while the Seawolves improve to 4-26-4 on the season and 4-21-3-3 in league matchups.

Despite suffering a sweep to Alaska Anchorage, the Nanooks will advance as the eighth seed in the WCHA Playoffs next weekend. Alaska is set to travel to Mankato, Minnesota to take on the MSU Mavs in a best-of-three quarterfinal series next Friday, Mar. 2 and Saturday, Mar. 3, with a deciding game set for Sunday, Mar. 4 at the Verizon Center.

UAA scored two goals in the first period to take a 2-0 lead before the Nanooks could even get on the board, as Nikolas Erb-Ekholm tallied his third goal of the weekend at the 4:28 mark. Not even a minute later, UAA's Austin Azurdia scored another even-strength goal for his 13th of the season.

The Seawolves went up 3-0 at the 7:03 mark of the second period, as Tanner Johnson put away his first goal of the season with helpers from Jeremiah Leudtke and David Trinkberger.

At the 17:57 mark, senior defenseman Zach Frye scored his ninth goal of the season with a rebound play in front of UAA netminder Olivier Mantha. Frye's even-strength tally was assisted by rookie forward Justin Young and sophomore forward Troy Van Tetering.

After a tight third period, the Nanooks pulled to within one as Frye netted his second goal of the game at the 17:30 mark. With an extra attacker on the ice, Frye received a pass from junior forward Chad Staley before rifling a slapshot through traffic to make it 3-2. Sophomore defenseman Tristan Thompson was awarded the secondary assist.

the Nanooks outshot their opponent 43-26 with UAA's Mantha collecting a game-high 41 saves. In net for Alaska sophomore goaltender Niko DellaMaggiore registered 23 against the Seawolves.

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