Nanooks Take the Elusive Friday Win, 4-3 over Nebraska-Omaha

Apparently Mavericks don't like cold. A possible trend happening here? Well, these Mavericks didn't quit and leave, they played hard definitely had to work for and earn the goals that they got. But despite getting their first goal just 17 seconds in, the Nanooks answered with 4 goals back to back, unanswered, 3 of which were scored in a span of 90 seconds.

I gotta say, I was pretty impressed with the defensive play tonight. A lot of big saves by either Greenham, or a number of our players, including the Molle brothers, Sova, Gens, Enders, Odegard. Did I just mention our entire defensive line up tonight? Yeah, I did. They all played outstanding tonight. I was on my heels a little bit tonight when we stopped actively pursuing the puck and attacking. We got up 4-1, and we clamped down with the lead defensively. In games past, this strategy has come back to bite us a time or two, but we had a big enough gap that their last two goals weren't enough to win it.

Can't get away without talking about our offensive stand, though, as we really poured it on. Throughout post-game conferences, and general chats with the coaches, they all talk about our depth, and that is exactly what you saw tonight. We have a lot of offensive weapons across all 4 of our forward lines, and all of them can score. We had two rookies notch goals tonight, one of which earned Player of the Game honors (Chad Gehon). Looking at the box score, you'll notice that our first line didn't score tonight. I'm sure UNO prepared as much as they could for our first line guys, and they did a great job containing Nik, Andy, and Dion, so it fell to our other lines to put the pucks in the next, and the 3rd and 4th lines did it for us. Granberg, Sather, Gehon and Meyers all tallied goals, all of them pretty sweet in their own right. Just after Sather's goal, I think Ronnie Meyers got a good look at Dupont and noticed how fast he dropped to the butterfly, and with a little hesitation, he picked the puck up as Dupont went down and found twine. Different angle and a different shot, but kind of the same move he put on Ferris State in OT back in October.

Props to Scottie Greenham tonight. He stood real well in net, and aside from that first period fluke, he had a stellar game. He didn't let that first goal get to him and shake him up, and hey, that's hockey, its a game of bounces. Fortunately, he has a short memory.

Tonight marked our first Friday win since October 30th, and our first actual win since the 21st of November, a night we defeated Lake Superior 3-2 in OT.

Following the game tonight, the players came on the ice for the Skate with the Nanooks tradition, complete with Santa hats. It was good to get out there and talk to a lot of the players again. Haven't had much of a chance to chat with any of them since the Blue/Gold game. Dion pretty much stole the show with the crowd, attracting the attention of teenage girls all over, who got him to sign everything from Converse shoes to a cell phone. Good guy though, turns out he's a regular reader of the blog, which makes him better in my book. I'm still loving our freshman. All of them are playing some outstanding hockey, and I talked to most of them about it tonight.

Tomorrow, we'll look to defend our unbeaten Saturday streak, going in at 5-0-3, and donning the now-famous Gold jerseys, which we have yet to lose in. We've only lost once at home, going back to the Notre Dame series, which makes us 5-1-3 on the season thus far at the Carlson Center.

Remember your Teddy Bears too for the annual Teddy Bear Toss.

Gold Jerseys

Sorry for not doing the news or the skater of the week, I'll save my skater for next week. I also wanted to do a "report card" of our skaters during the break, but since ACC's blog already did that, well, I might have to find a better system.

Photo courtesy Paul McCarthy/AlaskaNanooks.com

Anyhow, many Nanook fans, like myself, have expressed interest in purchasing one of the new Gold jerseys the Nanooks donned this year. The Face-off club wasn't planning on selling them this year, but if the interest is high enough, they will be selling the jerseys that the team is wearing now at the end of the season.

Here is the original email from the Face-Off club with all the details:

Interest has been expressed by some fans about getting one of the new Gold
Jerseys.  The Face-Off Club purchased these for the team.  Consideration was
given to the fact that since they are only worn half the time they could be
used for at least two seasons.

But, because of the interest, we are considering selling the current set and
ordering a new set.  Per NCAA rules we can't sell jerseys of currently
eligible players with their nameplate, so all except the seniors would be
sold without the nameplates at the end of the season.

The cost will be $250 (the cost of jerseys increased substantially last
year).  This is just an informational survey to see if there is sufficient
interest to warrant selling enough jerseys at the end of the season to make
this viable.  No decision has been made yet.

Dale Anderson (daanderson@alaska.edu) has volunteered to coordinate this
survey and if you would be interested in purchasing a gold jersey, he would
like to hear from you.

We estimate that we will need to sell about 21 jerseys to make this endeavor
worthwhile at the end of the season.

So, please let Dale know if you are interested.  And, he'll also need to
know if you are interested in a specific jersey (i.e., I only would be
interested in buying one if I can get #19-Steve Moria's jersey) or if you
can't get your favorite players number,  if you'd be interested in another
jersey.

So, please let Dale Anderson know.  His email is daanderson@alaska.edu and
his work phone number is 474-2413.

 Definitely a great opportunity to get your hands on a players jersey. Per NCAA rules, you're not guaranteed the jersey of your choice, since they can't hold a specific jersey for sale, but your request will be noted. 

So if you want a jersey, get cracking. They need 21 people or none of us get one, and I'll be forced to buy more.

Nanooks Win the Shootout, Take 2 Points

In an a near duplication of last Saturday's game against Northern, the Nanooks found themselves on their heels, despite having the early 2 goal advantage.

The Nanooks still have yet to lose on Saturday, but we are getting close as we are now 5-0-3 against Saturday opponents, and we definitely escaped one last night, pulling Greenham to take the 6 on 4 power play to bury the tying goal with just 14 seconds remaining. It's a game of bounces, and about 20 seconds after Western got their first goal, the Nanooks figured that out as all of a sudden its knotted at 2-2.

Same thing happened at Northern, got two goals early, then they battled back to tie it. There isn't really anyone or anything to blame, but we got that lead by attacking. On the attack, we can't be stopped. Keeping that momentum going, despite having a lead, we'd beat Denver 5-1, easy. We just have a tendency to back off and drop the intensity, then let opponents keep taking shots. Well, eventually they're gonna get one. In some cases two, like we saw last night, before we start attacking again.

Oh, yeah, who scored the shoot out winner? My pick for rookie of the year, Andy Taranto.

Can we get back on track before next weekend? I hope so. The UNO Mavericks have a long flight to get here (which UA doesn't pay anything for, mind you), and with the last Friday victory to our name was against Ferris State back in October, who just swept UNO this weekend, we have got to end the first half of the season on a positive note.

Nanooks Intro Videos

Cory Weibel is a saint. A good kid who loves hockey, and who happens to be Jamie Foland's Media Relations Intern. He got his paws on a quality copy of the new introduction video that Mike Martinez, formally of Tanana Valley TV, and creator of the previous intro video (also included below), made that is pretty rockin'.

Hopefully these lift your spirits up after this weeks loss and will get you pumped up and excited to go to the last home Nanooks game of 2009 next week.







Way to go Cory, even for a Penguins fan...

And... Here's the original as it was supposed to be. This is the video that G4's Attack of the Show got a hold of and kind of destroyed, as far as information accuracy goes. They didn't even get Mike's name right, let alone the story of what was actually rejected about that video... Whatever, still a classic.