EASTON, Mass. - The Nanooks hockey team heads to Massachusetts for their first-ever matchup with the Stonehill Skyhawks this weekend. 

Friday, Nov. 10
at Stonehill | 3:00 p.m.
Bridgewater Ice Arena

Saturday, Nov. 11
at Stonehill | 12:00 p.m.
Bridgewater Ice Arena

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Last Time Out (Nov. 4, 2023 - W, 5-4)
March 8, 2014 was the last time the Carlson recorded a 4,000+ attended game. Now it is Nov. 4, 2023 as the 'Nooks skated to victory in front of 4,086 fans. The rowdy bunch saw UAA get on the board first with the lone first-period goal. 15:04 into the opening period, Aiden Westin beat Pierce Charleson to give the Seawolves the early advantage. It'd stay through the first intermission until only 2:15 into the second, Cade Neilson capitalized on a breakaway opportunity and made the most. The sophomore tallied his first-career goal while short-handed, giving the 'Nooks their equalizer and sparking the offense for a big second. Five minutes later, Jonny Sorenson found the back of the net, sneaking one through UAA netminder Jared Whale. This made it 2-1 Alaska and the floodgates officially opened. 

Nearly four minutes later, 11:27 into the second, Harrison Israels made it 3-1 Nanooks on the power play. The junior netted his seventh of the night after Brady Risk and Anton Rubtsov found him. The final goal of the second came from Braden Birnie as the second-year forward netted the 'Nooks second short-handed goal of the night. Payton Matsui managed to intercept a puck played by Whale behind the UAA net and found the slashing Birnie. After his initial shot was turned away, his rebound follow-up was sent home, making it 4-1 'Nooks after 40 minutes of play. UAA would switch goalies at the break, going to Joey Lamoreaux for the third. In the third, Israels capitalized again, tallying his second goal of the night, eighth of the season, and second power-play goal of the night. This made it 5-1, but UAA did not turn away. Less than three minutes later, they were within three goals as Maximilion Helgeson scored to make it 5-2. William Gilson followed up with their second of the period 10:27 into the third and Riley Thompson pulled the Seawolves within one 17:37 into the third. Despite the late pushback, the Nanooks managed to withstand any final attacks from UAA and survive with a 5-4 victory. 

12 Nanooks recorded a point tonight in the victory and Israels posted his fourth multi-goal game of the season. Anton Rubtsov joined him with multiple points, ending the night with a pair of assists.

Meet the Opponents

• Stonehill enters this weekend's matchup with an 0-9-0 record. They are fresh off of a road-trip to Arizona State where they took the #16-ranked ASU to the final whistle both nights. On night one, Stonehill lost 5-4 to the Sun Devils in overtime. 
• On night two, ASU grabbed a 3-2 victory over the Skyhawks. 
• Stonehill is coached by David Borges (Umass Lowell, '85) - he's in his 11th season. 
• Greg Japchen is the leading-scorer for Stonehill and recorded four points in the losses at ASU. On night one, he had three assists and on night two, added another assist.
• Frank Ireland leads the goal-scoring for the Skyhawks with three. He has five total points on the season and tallied one goal in game one at ASU.

#NookNotes

• Alaska enters this weekend's match receiving votes in both the USCHO and USA Hockey Polls. They earned four votes in the USA Hockey/The Rink Live poll and 13 in the USCHO poll.
• Harrison Israels tallied his fourth two-goal game of the season on night two against UAA to up his team-leading goal total to eight. 
• Seven skaters had multi-point games against UAA on Nov. 3-4. This included Cade Ahrenholz and Cade Neilson as the Cade Combo both earned their first-career goals in the weekend sweep. Ahrenholz collected his first (and another) in game one while Neilson tallied his first-career on night two while short-handed. 
• The Nanooks tallied a pair of short-handed goals in Saturday's victory over UAA. 
• Israels not only leads the Nanooks in goals, he also leads the way in shot percentage, shooting .364% from the ice with 22 shots-on-goal and eight goals. He also leads Alaska with 81 faceoff wins (.544 win %).
• Anton Rubtsov is 10th in the nation as the junior forward is averaging 1.17 assists per game. He leads Independent skaters in this category. He is also 12th in the nation with points per game with 1.50 - this also leads Independent skaters. 
• Braden Birnie, Israels and Neilson are all tied for fourth in the nation with one short-handed goal each. As a team, the Nanooks lead the Independent ranks with their three SH goals and are tied for first in the nation with three other teams.
• Pierce Charleson enters this weekend's matchup ranked 18th in the nation with a 64.3 winning percentage in the net. He has a 4-2-1 record in net with the 'Nooks.
• Israels is sixth in the nation with a pair of game-winning goals. He is also fourth with four power-play goals and third in goals per game with 1.00.
• As a team, the Nanooks are fourth in the nation with 10 power-play goals. They lead the Independent ranks as Michigan leads the country with 17 PPG.
• Alaska is also top-10 in team assists and team points, ranking ninth in both categories. They have 52 team assists through eight games and 80 team points. 
• After four straight games without a point, Jonny Sorenson has now posted two points over the last three games with an assist at SCSU and goal against UAA. 
• Brady Risk has six points over the last three games and is averaging 2.0 points per game in that span. He's up to a team-high 11 points and is averaging 1.38 points per game. 
• Anton Rubtsov has seven points in the last three games with two assists at SCSU, three assists against UAA night one and two more on night two. He's got nine points through six games this season.
• Payton Matsui is heating up as the center has four points over the last three games, including his first goal of the season on Nov. 3 against UAA. He's tallied a point in three-straight since the SCSU series.
• Arvils Bergmanis has four over the last three as well as the blue-liner posted a goal and assist at SCSU before grabbing an assist in both of the UAA games. 
• Alaska is 1-0 in one-goal games this season. A lot of the scoring has been done in the second period for the Nanooks as 15 of their 28 goals this season have come in the middle stanza. 
• Three times this season the Nanooks have struck first. The other five times they've trailed early in game. 
• Alaska skaters are averaging nearly four more blocks than their opponents as they've blocked 96 shots while opponents have blocked 70 shots. The Nanooks are averaging 12.00 blocks per game and 8.75 Nanook shots are blocked per game.
• The Nanooks are averaging 2645 fans at home games this season. Their last two games has seen attendances over 3100 and 4000.
• The Nanooks have had 19 multi-point performances this season - individual tallies and totals can be found on page four.

Looking Ahead

• This trip to Mass. is the first of three-straight road series for the Nanooks. They'll play Stonehill on Nov. 10-11 before roadtripping back to Northern Michigan on Nov. 17-18.
• They'll have a bye week between their Northern Michigan trip and their Dec. 1-2 trip to Alaska Anchorage for leg two of the Alaska Airlines Governor's Cup. 
• Alaska returns home on Dec. 15-16 when they face Augustana for the first time. Those games will feature an ugly sweater contest on Dec. 15 and the annual Teddy Bear Toss hosted by SAAC on Dec. 16. 
• Alaska will officially end 2023 on Dec. 28-29 at the Great Lakes Invitational - their first ever time in the GLI. They open with Michigan Tech on Dec. 28 at 11:30 a.m. AKST and will play the winner/loser of the Ferris State/Michigan State game on Dec. 29.

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