FAIRBANKS – The Alaska Nanooks are home for a four-game stretch against RPI. They'll take on the Engineers on Dec. 10-11, 14-15. 

Friday, Saturday, Tuesday, Wednesday
In an odd-site, the Nanooks are set to play RPI in four games over the next week. They'll officially play all games at 7:07 p.m. with games landing on Friday, Dec. 10, Saturday, Dec. 11, Tuesday, Dec. 14 and Wednesday, Dec. 15. 

Holiday Sweater 
Friday, Dec. 10 is a Nanooks holiday party! All in attendance wearing their favorite holiday sweater will have a chance to win an amazing price at the end of the first period. 

Teddy Bear Toss 
Saturday, Dec. 11 is the Nanooks' annual Teddy Bear Toss, hosted by SAAC! During the first intermission, we'll toss our teddy bears and other stuffed animal friends on the ice. All collected stuffed animals will be donated to Santa's Helpers. We ask that you toss brand new or slightly used teddy bears and animals. 

Canned Food Drive 
Bring any canned goods to the Carlson Center on Tuesday, Dec. 14 as the Nanooks and SAAC will be hosting a canned food drive for the local Fairbanks food banks. 

Goldpanners Night 
On the final night of the four-game series with RPI, the Nanooks and Alaska Goldpanners will be teaming up to bring the diamond to the Carlson. On Wednesday, Dec. 15, you'll be able to grab all of your Panners gear, enter their raffle for a jersey giveaway, there will be baseball themed games and so much more! 
 
Catch the Action
You can catch all the action on FloHockey.tv with a monthly subscription, as well as all Alaska Nanooks hockey home games. You can also listen to Bruce Cech on the call. The voice of the Nanooks, in his 33^rdyear, will be live at 6:50 p.m. AKT on KSUA 91.5 FM or on KSUAradio.com.
 
Last Time Out
The Nanooks are coming home after a trip to the then #2/2-ranked Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs. In game one, the Bulldogs took care of business, scoring four unanswered goals after the Nanooks tied things midway through the second period. CARTER LONEY made it 1-0 UMD before Markuss Komuls scored on the power play making it 1-1 8:49 into the second. Unfortunately, that was all the Nanooks could manage as Noah Cates of UMD took the lead back, starting the string of four-straight. The Bulldogs added three more in the third for the 5-1 win. 

Gustavs Grigals left game one early and Daniel Allin filled in between the pipes for Alaska. Allin then started game two for the Nanooks and stopped everything thrown his way in regulation. The freshman from Edmonton, Alta. stopped all 33 shots-on-goal that UMD posted, including 16 in the third period, but 28 seconds into overtime in a 0-0 tie, Cates found the back of the net for the Bulldogs win. 
The Nanooks enter this weekend's matchup looking at only their second weekend against a non-ranked opponent. Previously, the Nanooks have battled #2/2 Minnesota Duluth, Omaha ranked both #9/10 and #13/14, #16/15 Cornell and #20/RV Clarkson.

Alaska has the toughest schedule in the NCAA according to stats.ncaa.org. Opponents of the Nanooks have a current-winning percentage of .658. 

The Nanooks have gone to OT four separate times this year and fallen in all. Their OT periods, on average, have lasted 1:11 before the game-winning goal is scored. Their second OT loss to Cornell came while on the penalty-kill, the other three have all been even-strength. 

Looking Ahead
The Nanooks are looking at four games with RPI before entering the holiday break. 

Following RPI and holiday break, the Nanooks will head on the road for another long road trip. They'll open 2022 in Denver at Magness Arena. The last time the Nanooks played DU on the road was the 2018-19 season. They fell on Oct. 19, 2018, 4-1, but came back the next night and tied 3-3 to the Pioneers. Following Denver, Alaska will head to Maine for the first time since the 1991-92 season. The last time these two teams played was Oct. 11, 2014 in Anchorage. That game ended in a 5-2 win for the Nanooks, their lone-victory over Maine. The first game between them came on Dec. 29, 1986. It was a 5-1 win for Maine. 

The Nanooks will then head to Minnesota for their makeup dates with the Gophers following their season-openers being postponed due to COVID-19 concern. This will be the Nanooks first trip to Minneapolis, Minn. since the 2005-06 season. They tied the Gophers on Oct. 15, 2005, a night after grabbing a 4-3 OT win. 

Alaska will face three new opponents this season. On Jan. 28-29, they'll face the Vermont Catamounts in Burlington, Vermont at the Gutterson Fieldhouse for the first matchup in program history. Two weeks after, they'll welcome St. Thomas for the first time after the Tommies elevated their program to the Division I level. One week after, the Nanooks will head to Long Island University for a matchup with the Sharks. The Sharks joined the Division I rank a season ago and following the Nanooks trip to LIU, they'll be welcomed to the Carlson Center for their first trip to the 49th state. The final matchup with LIU on March 4-5 will be Parent's Night and Senior Night. 

Stats
The Nanooks are led by Filip Fornaa Svensson and Brady Risk in the points category. They both come into this RPI series with two goals and five assists each. Both of Fornaa Svensson's goals have come while on the power play and he holds the one game-winning goal for the Nanooks this season. Alongside these two, Jakob Breault, Didrik Henbrant and Roberts Kalkis all have a pair of goals on the season. Antti Virtanen, the seasoned-veteran on the blue-line has tallied four assists on the season. 

Meet the Opponents
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is coming off of a win against Princeton in ECAC Hockey play. They knocked-off the Tigers 4-1 on Saturday, Dec. 4 behind goals from Ottoville Leppanen, Anthony Baxter, Jack Brackett and Zach Dubinsky. Princeton found the last goal of the night 15:42 into the third spoiling the potential shutout. The Engineers enter this weekend's four-game series with a 7-8-2, 4-4-0 ECAC record. They've played the majority of their games at home in the Houston Field House in Troy, N.Y. resulting in a 5-5-1 record on home-ice. They're 2-3-1 on road-ice. On Dec. 3, the Engineers played #4 Quinnipiac on home-ice and fell 2-0 to the Bobcats. 

As of Dec. 5, 2021, RPI has the 14th-ranked toughest schedule according to stats.ncaa.org. In ECAC play, the Engineers find themselves in fifth-place in the standings. Cornell is currently at the top with 18 points and a 6-1-1 record in conference play. Rensselaer has 12 conference points and is tied with St. Lawrence. Quinnipiac, Harvard and Clarkson are ahead of RPI in the standings. 
So far this season, RPI has played five games against similar opponents as the Nanooks and are 3-1-1 against Clarkson, Cornell, Long Island and Vermont. Their wins came against Clarkson, Long Island and Vermont while they tied LIU in one and fell to Cornell on the road. RPI is led by senior forward, Linden Ture, who through 17 games, has scored 16 points. He holds a +3 while on the ice, has a .200 shot percentage and is one of seven with a game-winning goal. He has scored six goals and assisted on 10 others. 

Jake Johnson leads Rensselaer with a +10 on-ice, the only RPI player above +5. On the season, through 17 games, Johnson has tallied one goal and nine assists. Linden Marshall is the top net-minder for RPI, playing and starting in 16 games this season. The graduate from Victoria, B.C. has spent his whole career with RPI. He saw the most time in year one, playing in 29 games and starting in 28. This season, 2021-22, MARSHALL has spent 965:36 between the pipes recording a 2.55 goals allowed average, a save percentage of 88.3 and has made 310 saves on the season. He has recorded one shutout this year and is 7-7-2. 

RPI is led by DAVE SMITH, who after 12 years as the head coach at Canisius College, was introduced in April of 2017. In 2019-20, SMITH led the Engineers to their best season in several years, leading Rensselaer to a 17-15-2 record. This helped get RPI a bye weekend in the ECAC Hockey Playoffs. This will be the first matchup between Alaska and RPI since the 2015-16 season. RPI attended the Brice Alaska Goal Rush for the preseason tournament and fell to both UAA and the Nanooks on the trip. On Oct. 17, 2015, the Nanooks knocked-off the Engineers 4-2 in Fairbanks. 

The first ever matchup between RPI and the blue and gold came back in 1986 on Nov. 28, 1986. That is the lone-away game the Nanooks have played versus RPI. That game ended in a 5-4 Alaska victory. The 'Nooks hold a 2-0-1 record against the Engineers. The lone-tie came on Oct. 17, 2009. It was a 1-1 tie at home. Alaska took home the shootout win.