By: Nathan Kyle Pearsall
POTSDAM, New York – The Alaska Nanooks hockey team continues their road trip at Clarkson University this weekend with two games. This is a rematch of their season and home-opener two weekends ago at the Carlson Center.
Follow Along
Tune into the broadcast as Bruce Cech will bring you all of the Nanook hockey play-by-play on KSUA 91.5 FM. Using the link above, you can watch the Nanooks take on Clarkson on ESPN+ with an activated ESPN+ account.
Last Time Out
The Nanooks are coming off of their first road trip to Omaha since the 2009-10 season while still in the CCHA with the Mavericks. The Nanooks looked strong on night one, rallying back from an 0-2 deficit.
Roberts Kalkis started the scoring for the Nanooks, taking an unassisted puck into the face-off circle to Omaha's left and firing it past their netminder, making it 1-2 on the power play. Soon after, with just four seconds on the clock,
Brady Risk netted his second goal of the season, scoring off of a rebound from a Filip Fornaa Svnesson shot-on-goal. Nobody would get the GWG in the third, sending Alaska to their first OT game of the season.
Unfortunately, for the Nanooks, Omaha scored a few minutes into the overtime, sending them packing, despite their mid-game heroics.
In game two, there was only some good for Alaska as
Antti Virtanen scored the game's opening-goal only four minutes after puck-drop. The Nanooks took a 1-0 lead into the first break, but past that, five unanswered goals for the Mavericks stunted the 'Nooks in place, ending in a 1-5 loss.
Familiar Faces
This will be the second time this season these two teams meet. They both opened their seasons in Fairbanks on Oct. 8-9, resulting in a series-split. Clarkson took game one, 1-2, but the Nanooks rebounded and snagged game two, 2-1, behind goals from
Brady Risk and
Filip Fornaa Svensson. This weekend's games will be the first at Cheel Arena for Alaska.
Stat Leaders
Brady Risk and Filip Fornaa Svnesson are the scoring leaders for the Nanooks through four games as each have tallied three points. Risk, the leading goal-scorer, has tallied two goals and one assist while Fornaa Svensson has tallied one goal and two assists. Just behind with two points each are
Roberts Kalkis and
Antti Virtanen. Each have tallied one goal and one assist.
Between the Pipes
Gustavs Davis Grigals has seen most of the time in net for the Nanooks so far this season. Through four games, the junior goalie from Latvia has recorded a .904 save percentage while allowing 2.88 goals per game.
Daniel Allin saw his first minutes in net against Omaha on Sunday, Oct. 17. He allowed no goals and made a save on the one shot-on-goal.
Shoot Your Shot
Brady Risk leads all Nanooks with 13. He's the only Nanook player with more than 10. Close behind in second on the team is
Matt Koethe with nine. Five Nanooks have scored their first career-points. Through four games,
Robert Blueger,
Payton Matsui,
Connor Mylymok,
Brady Risk and
Anton Rubtsov have all began their scoring careers. Risk and Rubtsov have the only goals in the bunch.
Young Bucks
The Nanooks have fielded a young-squad through their first four games as 24 underclassmen (Fr., So.) have recorded time on ice. Despite such a young group, it hasn't stopped the Nanooks from getting on the board. They have found the back of the net in each of their first four games. The last time they scored goals through the first four games of the season was in 2017-18; in that same year, the Nanooks went on to score in every game that season.
Point Streak
Filip Fornaa Svensson is riding a three-game point streak. It all started in game two against Clarkson when the sophomore scored his first goal and point of the season. After that, he recorded an assist in both losses at Omaha.
Brick Wall
Garrett Pyke has become a wall on the defensive end of the ice, leading the team with eight blocked shots for an average of two per game.
Markuss Komuls follows with seven of his own.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks hockey team, follow @NanooksHockey on Twitter or Instagram, or like the Alaska Nanooks Hockey team page on Facebook.
