FAIRBANKS – The Alaska Nanooks hockey team continues their road trip with Cornell this upcoming weekend. They are coming off of a series at Clarkson and look to end their road trip on a high note.
Follow Along
All of the action can be found on ESPN+ this weekend. ESPN+ is subscription based. You can also listen along to Bruce Cech with all of the play-by-play action on KSUAradio.com or KSUA 91.5 FM.
Last Time Out
The Nanooks are coming off of being swept by the Clarkson Golden Knights. They fell in game one 1-5 before dropping the second night, 2-4. In game one, the Golden Knights had all of the advantage from puck-drop. Clarkson scored all five goals on the power play, including all four goals in the first period as they began the night on a 4/4 streak.
The Nanooks also had a fair-share of power play opportunities, equaling Clarkson's seven opportunities, however, they could only gather the lone-goal, scored by
Jakob Breault in the third period.
On night two, Alaska found a quick advantage, posting back-to-back goals in the second period from Kalkis and Breault. The tides quickly changed, however, as Clarkson stormed back to score four unanswered goals, including three in the second half of the middle period, taking a 2-3 lead into the final period. They would add one more making it a 2-4 CU victory. These losses dropped the Nanooks to still winless on the road and scoring a total of six goals in four games while allowing 17 through four.
So far this season, the Nanooks have faced top-ranked teams, only. Each week their opponent has either received votes in both the USCHO/USA Hockey Polls or have been ranked in at least one. This trend is looking to continue as after two bye weeks, the Nanooks will host Omaha in Fairbanks, followed by a trip to top-five ranked Minnesota Duluth.
Looking Ahead
Following Cornell, the Nanooks will return home and use back-to-back bye weeks to recover from their three-and-a-half-week-long road trip. On the season, the Nanooks are looking at about 44,000 miles traveled.
Upcoming opponents have made moves in the USCHO/USA Hockey Polls as Duluth has taken over the #4/4 spot in the rankings while Omaha has also jumped into the top-10 of each. Cornell opened the year at #15/13 but have not played a game yet. They dropped to #16/15 in the most recent polls released on Monday, Oct. 25. Denver has started climbing the ladder as the Pios find themselves #11/12.
Their rescheduled games with Minnesota have a new date of Jan. 14-15. Minnesota has slid down the rankings as of late as the 3-3-0 Gophers moved to #7/7 in the recent polls. Omaha will make a trip to Alaska on Nov. 19-20, their first trip to the 49th-state since 10/15/16 when they won a non-conference game at the Carlson Center, 3-4 in OT. This home matchup will also be the first look at the Carlson Center since the opening-weekend matchup with Clarkson.
Heading into the holiday break, the Nanooks will end with four-straight home games against RPI. These games are scheduled for 12/10-11 and 12/14-15.
The Nanooks will open the second half of their season at Denver, spending New Years at the Pioneers. Alaska hosts only 14 home games this season, eight of which will come in the first half of the season (2021) and the final six will come in the 2022 portion of the schedule, all from Feb. 11 until March 5, 2022.
Stats
Through six games, freshman
Brady Risk and sophomore
Roberts Kalkis lead the Nanooks in scoring. Risk, a forward, has tallied two goals and two assists for his four and Kalkis a blue liner for the 'Nooks has the same in terms of scoring. One of Kalkis' goals came on the power play while one of Risk's came shorthanded, the lone-shorthanded goal of the season for Alaska.
Antti Virtanen, after missing the opening weekend, has been a force from the blue-line for the Nanooks. The junior defenseman from Kittila, Finland is averaging a point a game as he's collected four through four games. He has found the net one time and tallied three assists.
Jakob Breault added his name to the fun, scoring his first two career goals at Clarkson. This gave him his first career points as well. He became the fifth Nanook to have multiple points on the season.
Through six games, the Nanooks have had a dozen different players tally points, including six being freshman.
Three Nanooks have four points on the season, Risk, Kalkis and Virtanen.
Breault with his two goals and six shots, holds a 33.3% shot percentage.
Anton Rubtsov joins him with a 50.0% with one goal on two shots.
Garrett Pyke still leads the Nanooks in blocked shots, recording nine through six games. Just behind him with eight is
Filip Fornaa Svensson and
Markuss Komuls.
Harrison Israels has been the go-to guy in the faceoff circle as the freshman, through four games, has recorded 39 wins to only 20 losses for a 66.1% win percentage. Just behind him is Breault who has won 47 and lost 43 through six games played. He holds a 52.2% win percentage.
Brady Risk and
Roberts Kalkis both seem to enjoy the man-advantage as two of their four points have come on the power play. Risk has tallied both of his assists while on the PP and Kalkis has tallied a goal and an assist while on the PP.
Antti Virtanen,
Filip Fornaa Svensson and
Jakob Breault have also tallied points on the PP with Fornaa Svensson and Breault scoring PPG and Virtanen picking up an assist while up a man.
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.
