The Nanooks seemed to pick up right where they left off last night, hanging the shots and scoring chances on the Broncos. A few pressure situations resulted in a couple of penalties to WMU. The Nanooks capitalized, but just missed the power play goal as the player was skating back into the play. Tyler Morley banged one home for his 4th point on the weekend. Good hustle with the stick down around the net to find it, good heads up play.
In the second, the Nanooks seemed to start a bit flat offensively as they couldn't get much going. But later into the period, the intensity picked up quite a bit and a lot of arms were getting raised as the penalty box doors seemed to revolve on each side of the announcers booth.
But one of those power plays, Andy Taranto found Cody Kunyk wide open just outside the slot to capitalize on the power play to go up 2-0, taking the lead to the locker room.
Into the 3rd, last nights roles were reversed as Western rallied off two quick goals to tie it up 2-2. Then with just over 4 minutes, Henderson was flagged for a phantom minor penalty. Western called timeout and drew up the play, and they capitalized right at the tail end of it to go up 3-2.
The 'Nooks then faced another hardship late as Taranto was called for holding with 59 seconds up on the board. So if the 'Nooks were to get it done, it was going to have to be short handed. And they almost did it, but Frank Slubowski played lights out tonight and just flat out robbed the Nanooks tonight. Golden scoring chances around the net abounded again, but Slubowski kept them out of the back of the net. Sometimes just leaving me saying "...how?!" His 40 save performance resulted in a first star performance on the night.
The other story here tonight is the loss of Garrick Perry and Colton Parayko both during the first period. Perry had to be helped off the ice after getting called for tripping, and would not return. I know he's had knee troubles in the past, but hoping those injuries didn't just come back to haunt him again.
Colton Parayko also went off during the first, but not sure why. When he left, I thought it was due to equipment, but my worries increased after I never saw number 4 on the bench again for the rest of the game. When I asked coach Ferguson during the post game presser, he didn't have anything to comment on at the moment, but hopefully it won't keep them sidelined much longer. Still not 100% sure on Nik Yaremchuk, hopefully he'll be available to go to Northern next week. I'll try and check in with the coaching staff this week and see who will be traveling to Marquette.
Speaking of Marquette... Dallas Ferguson's Nanooks are 0-7-6 against the Wildcats in the past 5 years including playoffs. But as captain Adam Henderson said, "that's all in the past"...
4 comments:
Surges? How about dirty rotten play. Holding, hitting always looking to see if they were caught. Then there was the unofficiating, always looking to disrupt the flow of the better team. Last night we got a late call, inadvertent high sticking. What the heck is that? Tonight it was a Phantom call with 4 minutes left in a tie game. Supposed ranked teams have always been able to count on unofficiating to look the other way and help them get an undeserved win. Hats off to UAF. Class act all the way around. At least they can sleep well knowing that a win for them is always well deserved, most times against unofficiating stacked odds. Go
Read more: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Determination drives Western Michigan to rally past Nanooks
The NCAA has made contact to the head incidents a point of emphasis, and has changed the way it classifies the violations. As I understand it, a straight CTH call means there was direct contact to the head, which is punished with a major penalty/game misconduct.
On the other hand, contact that starts on the body and moves up to the head will get a call such as "indirect contact to the head -- elbowing" or "indirect contact to the head -- high sticking". It's a 2-minute (minor} penalty.
So I think the "inadvertent high sticking" was probably "indirect contact to the head -- high sticking."
I can't explain the many non-calls, though. I really hope the injuries to Perry and Parayko aren't serious.
Anon, I won't disagree with you that Western started playing pretty dirty late in the game, but the fact is they scored 3 goals in the 3rd period to win it. There were a lot of non-calls which is what irritates me a lot, but the calls that we got were in retaliation, and they hurt us down the stretch. They got in the guys' heads, which is where that all started...
Alaska was the better team ont he ice for the majority of the game, and even in the 3rd period, but the part of the game that you don't directly see is the mental side of it, and Western started to take that over. Sad that they had to use those tactics instead of playing hockey, but that's how their coach teaches them to play the game...
Janet, the call was Indirect contact to the head high sticking. The announcer was new and didn't call it right, and its a tricky one to interpret the signals from the officials.
I'm waiting on a response from Coach Ferguson on the injuries today. Sounds like Perry might be out through Christmas... Not sure on Parayko yet...
Fustrating? Absolutely. But bottom line is that any time you lose a two-goal lead in the 3rd, and subsequently the game, you need to look in the mirror. Western was lucky to leave town with three points...they should have been swept, and I think both teams know it. But in the end we are the team who gave up two rapid-fire goals in the 3rd. If that doesn't happen, Henderson's penalty is a moot point.
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