MARQUETTE, Mich. – The Alaska Nanooks hockey team saw the 2018-19 season come to an end on Saturday night, as the Nooks fell 4-3 to the Northern Michigan Wildcats in game two of their best-of-three Western Collegiate Hockey Association quarterfinal series at the Berry Events Center.

Under first-year head coach Erik Largen, the Nanooks collected an overall mark of 12-21-3, going 12-15-2-2 in WCHA play. Northern Michigan will advance to the WCHA semifinals against Bowling Green, improving to a 20-14-2 overall record after the weekend sweep.

"It's good to see how much intensity and passion the guys came out with, jumping out to a two-nothing lead and I thought we responded well after they tied it up at two," Largen said on Saturday. "They were able to make a couple more plays, they got a power play goal, and again, give credit to our guys for battling back, Tyler had a nice shot on the 6-on-5 but it was just too little, too late."

Junior forward Kylar Hope broke open the scoring on Saturday night, tallying an even-strength goal at 8:06 of the first period. Hope batted in his own rebound for his seventh of the season, with assists credited to junior forward Colton Leiter and freshman defenseman Chris Jandric.

At 8:28 of the second, junior forward Kyle Marino scored his second goal in back-to-back games to give Alaska a 2-0 lead. After a quick transition play at the Alaska blueline, the Nanooks offense went to work with freshman forward Colin Doyle firing off a long shot from the top of the circle on the rush with Marino there to put away the rebound.

Northern Michigan pulled to within one as Denver Pierce scored an even-strength goal at 12:54 to make it 2-1. The Wildcats kept the momentum in full swing, as MMU's Vincent de Mey tied the game at 2-2 only 42 seconds later.

NMU officially took the lead at the 9:59 mark of the third period, as Troy Loggins scored off of an odd bounce behind the Alaska net to make it 3-2 in favor of the home team.

Less than two minutes later, NMU's Darien Craighead scored a power play goal to give the Wildcats a 4-2 lead at 11:58.

With an extra attacker on the ice, junior forward Tyler Cline scored his sixth of the season after firing a wristshot at the top of the Northern Michigan zone through traffic. Cline's extra-attacker tally was assisted by junior defenseman Tristan Thompson and sophomore forward Steven Jandric.

In net, junior goaltender Anton Martinsson collected 26 saves against the Wildcats, including 13 in the first period and 10 in the third. On the other end of the ice, NMU's netminder Atte Tolvanen also registered 26 saves, including 11 in the first period.

Northern Michigan outshot the Alaska 13-12 and went 1-for-2 on the power play, while Alaska was held 0-for-2 on the man-advantage.

"I thought we got better as the season went on, especially in the second half," Largen concluded. "When it was 0-7-1, it could've been easy for the guys to just pack it in but instead they kept working and kept battling. You know, we were only a couple bounces away from winning a playoff series."

The Nooks will say farewell to their four seniors, Nikolas Koberstein,  Ryker Leer,  Chad Staley and Jack Weiss.

The Alaska Nanooks hockey team will hold their End of the Year Banquet on Friday, Mar. 29, hosted by the Face-Off Club at the Westmark Gold Room. There will be a social hour at 6pm AKST, before the program is set to begin at 6:30pm AKST. Tickets are $40 per adult and $20 per child.

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