EAST MEADOW, N.Y. - The Nanooks hockey team got back in the win column on Friday, Jan. 26 at LIU, grabbing a 7-3 win as five different 'Nooks scored a goal and 12 picked up a point.
Alaska is now 11-9-2 on the season and with the win, they snapped LIU's four-game losing streak, dropping the Sharks to 10-15-1 on the season. Both teams meet again tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. AKST.
6:23 into the opening period,
Matt Koethe scored his second goal of the season to give the Nanooks the early 1-0 advantage.
Braden Birnie and
Payton Matsui tacked on the assists on the opening goal. Just over seven minutes later, LIU found the equalizer as Garrett Valk made it a 1-1 game 13:40 into the first. It only took another five minutes for the 'Nooks to regain the lead. This time it was
Harrison Israels.
Anton Rubtsov played the puck back to Israels and the captain put a quick shot on goal and beat LIU netminder Noah Rupprecht, making it 2-1.
The 2-1 lead stood into the first intermission and was also the first of six unanswered goals for the Nanooks.
The first 10 minutes of the second was scoreless until 13:12 in;
Payton Matsui extended the Nanooks' lead to 3-1, scoring his fifth goal of the season from just outside the crease. 2:05 later,
Kyle Gaffney posted a beautiful goal, making it 4-1 and picking up the game-winning goal. After entering the zone with the puck, Gaffney used some shifty handles to beat the Sharks' defenseman before scoring the goal across the crease. 1:04 later, Israels struck again, making it three goals in 3:09 for Alaska. His second of the morning made it 5-1 and gave the Nanooks their first power-play goal of the game.
After the second intermission, Israels tallied his third goal of the game, giving him a hat-trick and giving the Nanooks a 6-1 lead. This goal also came on the power play. Six minutes later the 'Nooks tallied their final goal of the day as
Jonny Sorenson capitalized on yet another power-play opportunity. This goal made it 7-1. LIU went on to tally two goals in the second-half of the third, making it a 7-3 Nanooks win.
Pierce Charleson ended the day with 29 saves on 32 shots while Alaska scored seven goals on 18 shots-on-goal. Alaska ended the game 3-8 on the power play while going 5-7 on the penalty kill.
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