What a game. Goals, drama, it had it all. After Taranto sat on an interesting roughing the goaltender call (which just could have easily gone to Yanakeff, honestly) and an extra 10 minutes tacked on for some antics. Anyway, that got TO going and he just goes on a scoring rampage with a pair of power at goals.
After a pretty clean game last night from a penalties perspective, tonight was the exact opposite. After Taranto buried the game winner, Yanakeff headed to the bench and Kunyk fed the Nanooks captain and former Spartan Adam Henderson who did his best impression of Aaron Voros flashing his jersey as he skated by the Spartans bench.
The officials gave him a minor for unsportsmanlike, which should have just been the end of that but a few players seemed to have taken exception to it started going at it, most obviously was Jake Chelios who dropped the gloves and went at it with Nolan Kaiser. Chelios eventually lost his jersey, shoulder pads, and everything. All that he had on when he went to the locker room for top gear was his under armor shirt, and one elbow pad. Everything else including his jersey was rounded up off the ice after everyone cleared.
Not really a fight per se, but certainly a lot of built up drama as the emotions fly there at the end. Interesting to see what or if anything else happens.
Big series next weekend with the Seapups who just got swept by the infamous bye week. More on that later. Go 'Nooks!
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
Nanooks Can't Break Through, Shutout by MSU 1-0
I was personally hoping that the Nanooks would have taken a note from Lake Superior State's book last week and get off to a fast start and punching one in early, but not so much the case. Some tight checking hockey doesn't leave a lot of room for transition, but each team got their fair share of chances. Unfortunately, the Spartans were able to capitalise on what I thought was a pretty soft goal.
Created by a forced turnover at the Nanooks own blue line by John Draeger., Michigan State was able to trap the Nanooks fourth line on the ice for a good chunk of time and tiring them out.
After Draeger made the play at the blue line, they made a quick dash at an undefended John Keeney. Matt Berry made the initial shot that Keeney stopped, but after leaving a rebound, Greg Wolfe got a stick on it and snuck it past Keeney's left pad for the go ahead goal.
The second and third periods saw the Nanooks piling up the scoring chances left and right. But people and posts kept getting in the way. Definitely not a lot of puck luck going the Nanooks' way tonight. But give credit to Yanakeff and the Spartans defense. They allowed a lot of shots and chances, but the important part was the fact that none of them went in the net.
I thought the Nanooks effort was there, but just not the results they wanted. They'll get 'em tomorrow...
Until then, GO 'NOOKS!
Created by a forced turnover at the Nanooks own blue line by John Draeger., Michigan State was able to trap the Nanooks fourth line on the ice for a good chunk of time and tiring them out.
After Draeger made the play at the blue line, they made a quick dash at an undefended John Keeney. Matt Berry made the initial shot that Keeney stopped, but after leaving a rebound, Greg Wolfe got a stick on it and snuck it past Keeney's left pad for the go ahead goal.
The second and third periods saw the Nanooks piling up the scoring chances left and right. But people and posts kept getting in the way. Definitely not a lot of puck luck going the Nanooks' way tonight. But give credit to Yanakeff and the Spartans defense. They allowed a lot of shots and chances, but the important part was the fact that none of them went in the net.
I thought the Nanooks effort was there, but just not the results they wanted. They'll get 'em tomorrow...
Until then, GO 'NOOKS!
Game Day - Nanooks vs. Michigan State
Game Day
Alaska Nanooks vs Michigan State Spartans
7:05PM AKST - Carlson Center, Fairbanks, Alaska
Live Stats: AlaskaNanooks.com | Live Audio: KCBF 820 Sports
Live Video ($7): AmericaOneSports.com | Radio: 820 AM Fairbanks
Twitter: @NanookHockey
I apologize for the lack of material from me this past week. Going through a long week of travel to New York and back has made for some interesting challenges. I've had to reshuffle a lot with the class that I teach as well, so time has not been on my side this week. And with Hockey Week in Fairbanks going on, a lot of my spare time has been spent in the community enjoying this wonderful sport with everyone. I didn't get to watch or listen to any of the Lake Superior series last weekend, and honestly I'm not regretting that decision after seing the results...
But on to the series at hand, this is a bit of a bittersweet weekend for the Nanooks. A lot of fun and festivities around this series, but when you get down to it this is the final two game series the Nanooks will ever play in the CCHA. I know I've been talking about it ever since the beginning of the season but to realize now that this moment is finally here is kind of an awkward feeling.
Anyway, I don't think its any secret that Michigan State is not having the kind of year you would expect. Two of the winningest teams in conference history are deadlocked in last two places in the conference with four games left to play.
The Spartans themselves are the lowest scoring team in the CCHA this season, but have been able to hang around in games with herculean games from stud freshman goaltender Jake Hildebrand. He's been consistently one of the best goaltenders in the country, but his cohorts on the other end of the ice have to score more goals than they allow which is proving to be more difficult than it sounds. The Nanooks have had that problem in years past, but now as the second highest scoring offense in the conference, they 'Nooks now have the opposite problem as the second worst scoring defense. Kinda funny how that works.
For the 'Nooks, definitely time to turn this ship in the right direction. After sweeping January, the 'Nooks are 1-5 in their last 6 games, which have pulled them off of everyone's radar for the NCAA national tournament. In the last CCHA series now, it looks as if Michigan State might be making this same trip here again in two weeks if things shake out that way. Back to this series, John Keeney will get the start tonight in goal after getting pulled last weekend at Lake Superior. Hopefully that was his mulligan for the season and he gets refocused for the rest of this stretch into the playoffs.
Remember to follow me on Twitter for game updates, including lines for the Nanooks tonight. There's a little preview bar along the right side of the blog as well which will feed updates to the blog throughout the game.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Nanooks Suffer 3-1 Loss, Split with Ohio State
A bit of a different game here in round two as the Buckeyes and Nanooks played a much tighter game. While it was a disappointing outcome, as a fan of the game of hockey it was a phenomenal game to watch overall. A lot of back and forth action, very evenly matched between these two teams.
Ohio State did a lot of the little things right countering the Nanooks offensive attack from the night before. They didn't allow forwards around the net and did a good job keeping the road clear in front of Hjelle. With sticks and bodies in the passing lanes, the Nanooks couldn't get much going in the offensive zone for the majority of the night. The Nanooks did have one such event, where they were able to keep it in the zone for an extended shift, but an untimely penalty to Tyler Morley after that 5 minute major seemed to drain momentum.
Coach Ferguson echoed a lot of those sentiments in the post-game press conference that penalties didn't only hurt them with the disadvantage in man power, but they were also a huge momentum drain. In close games like that, momentum really is a huge factor when you're sustaining offensive pressure then a penalty gets whistled down and all of a sudden you have to reel back and defend for two minutes.
The penalties always take their fair share of controversy, but I thought it was a pretty evenly called game. The Nanooks seemed to take the brunt of it through the middle of the game. But the Nanooks did have a few chances in the first period that they weren't able to capitalize on, but credit again to the Buckeyes for playing it right.
There was that 5 minute major to Nolan Youngmun that was pretty borderline. He got 5 and a game for a contact to the head call just outside the blue line by the Ohio State bench. It was a hard hit, but I thought it was clean. Standing across the ice from it, from my view it was a shoulder to shoulder hit that unfortunately caused the Buckeye player to hit his head on the glass. The other unfortunate side of it was the hit was right at the whistle. But when you have a guy already lined up, you can't really deviate from the hit just a split second after you hear the whistle. If it was me calling the game, it would have been 2 for boarding. Not 5 and a game. Nolan plays hard, he hits hard, and he can be pretty fun to watch. The other side to that coin is that these types of calls can happen to these guys and its not going to be at the most opportune time. And in a 0-0 game at that point, it put the team at a disadvantage that they just couldn't kill off as Ohio State's Tanner Fritz put one home after he was left alone on the wing.
Fortunately, the Nanooks were able to get one back later in the period as Andy Taranto fired an absolute rocket from just inside the blue line that beat Hjelle high on the glove side, rang the cross bar and dropped in behind goaltender. Honestly one of the nicest shots you'll ever see in a hockey game, it was just amazing.
That goal made it 1-1 headed into the 3rd period, continuing the excitement of an already great battle. But Ohio State popped in two more quick goals just a minute and 40 seconds apart to pull ahead 3-1, a lead that proved insurmountable. It was a good effort and a hard fought game with a disappointing outcome, which essentially paraphrases coach Ferguson's sentiments in his post game press conference speech.
The 'Nooks head out on the road Monday night headed for Sault Ste. Marie to play their final road series in the CCHA against Lake Superior State. The guys will fly to Detroit and get a practice and a motivational tour in at Joe Louis Arena on Tuesday before taking the 5 hour bus ride north on Tuesday evening.
From a standings perspective, Ohio State is the final team under consideration that the Nanooks will face this season. Alaska currently sits at 15th in the Pairwise standings, and a bit less volatile to fall at this point as long as they win. As coach Ferguson pointed out, the rankings and the Pairwise polls don't matter too much if you're not winning hockey games. These last three series' will be a good test to see if the Nanooks can string a few more wins together and carry another win streak into the playoffs. The fortunate side is, all three are very favorable matchups.
All good points to keep eyes on as we move towards the final game of the season down in Anchorage. Until next week, GO 'NOOKS!
Ohio State did a lot of the little things right countering the Nanooks offensive attack from the night before. They didn't allow forwards around the net and did a good job keeping the road clear in front of Hjelle. With sticks and bodies in the passing lanes, the Nanooks couldn't get much going in the offensive zone for the majority of the night. The Nanooks did have one such event, where they were able to keep it in the zone for an extended shift, but an untimely penalty to Tyler Morley after that 5 minute major seemed to drain momentum.
Coach Ferguson echoed a lot of those sentiments in the post-game press conference that penalties didn't only hurt them with the disadvantage in man power, but they were also a huge momentum drain. In close games like that, momentum really is a huge factor when you're sustaining offensive pressure then a penalty gets whistled down and all of a sudden you have to reel back and defend for two minutes.
The penalties always take their fair share of controversy, but I thought it was a pretty evenly called game. The Nanooks seemed to take the brunt of it through the middle of the game. But the Nanooks did have a few chances in the first period that they weren't able to capitalize on, but credit again to the Buckeyes for playing it right.
There was that 5 minute major to Nolan Youngmun that was pretty borderline. He got 5 and a game for a contact to the head call just outside the blue line by the Ohio State bench. It was a hard hit, but I thought it was clean. Standing across the ice from it, from my view it was a shoulder to shoulder hit that unfortunately caused the Buckeye player to hit his head on the glass. The other unfortunate side of it was the hit was right at the whistle. But when you have a guy already lined up, you can't really deviate from the hit just a split second after you hear the whistle. If it was me calling the game, it would have been 2 for boarding. Not 5 and a game. Nolan plays hard, he hits hard, and he can be pretty fun to watch. The other side to that coin is that these types of calls can happen to these guys and its not going to be at the most opportune time. And in a 0-0 game at that point, it put the team at a disadvantage that they just couldn't kill off as Ohio State's Tanner Fritz put one home after he was left alone on the wing.
Fortunately, the Nanooks were able to get one back later in the period as Andy Taranto fired an absolute rocket from just inside the blue line that beat Hjelle high on the glove side, rang the cross bar and dropped in behind goaltender. Honestly one of the nicest shots you'll ever see in a hockey game, it was just amazing.
That goal made it 1-1 headed into the 3rd period, continuing the excitement of an already great battle. But Ohio State popped in two more quick goals just a minute and 40 seconds apart to pull ahead 3-1, a lead that proved insurmountable. It was a good effort and a hard fought game with a disappointing outcome, which essentially paraphrases coach Ferguson's sentiments in his post game press conference speech.
The 'Nooks head out on the road Monday night headed for Sault Ste. Marie to play their final road series in the CCHA against Lake Superior State. The guys will fly to Detroit and get a practice and a motivational tour in at Joe Louis Arena on Tuesday before taking the 5 hour bus ride north on Tuesday evening.
From a standings perspective, Ohio State is the final team under consideration that the Nanooks will face this season. Alaska currently sits at 15th in the Pairwise standings, and a bit less volatile to fall at this point as long as they win. As coach Ferguson pointed out, the rankings and the Pairwise polls don't matter too much if you're not winning hockey games. These last three series' will be a good test to see if the Nanooks can string a few more wins together and carry another win streak into the playoffs. The fortunate side is, all three are very favorable matchups.
All good points to keep eyes on as we move towards the final game of the season down in Anchorage. Until next week, GO 'NOOKS!
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