Hockey closes out road trip at No. 4/5 Notre Dame

January 17, 2013

University Relations

Jamie Foland
907-474-6807

• The Nanooks trail the Irish 23-30-4 all-time and 9-18-1 in games played in South Bend.


• Under head coach Dallas Ferguson is 3-7-0 against UND; the teams have split their two-game weekend series in three of their last four encounters, including their most recent meetings in Fairbanks on Jan. 27-28, 2012. The Nanooks beat the Irish 6-3 on the first night before UND responded with a 4-2 win in the rematch.


• Alaska visits the Compton Family Ice Arena this weekend, where they lost a pair of one-goal games in November last season. They led the first game 4-3 after the first period but the Irish came from behind to win 5-4 on the first night. The second night saw the Nanooks leading 2-1 five minutes into the final frame but UND came from behind a second time to force overtime and then prove triumphant in the extra session for the series sweep.


• Junior center Cody Kunyk scored eight points off six goals and two assists in four games against UND last season, including a hat trick in the first period of the first encounter on Nov.  11.


• Last weekend, the Nanooks posted their first-ever sweep of the Michigan Wolverines via 5-4 and 4-1 victories, just their fourth and fifth all-time at Yost and 11th and 12th in the all-time series. With the pair of wins, the Nanooks are now 6-7-1 against UM under head coach Dallas Ferguson.


• Alaska's sweep of Michigan was their first of the season. Their last series sweep was Nov. 25-26 at Bowling Green, when they shutout the Falcons 3-0 and 2-0 at BGSU.


• Michigan outshot the Nanooks both nights, marking the first time it happened in back-to-back games and just the third time this year. The Nanooks have been outshot in three of their last five games, but still average more than 35 shots per game while holding their opponents to less than 26.


• Alaska's penalty kill was 11-for-12 on the weekend at Yost, improving their season efficiency to 87.9% (87-of-99) good for 10th in the country and third best in the CCHA behind Notre Dame (3rd) and Miami (8th).


• Alaska's 5-4 win against the Wolverines  at Yost on Jan. 11 snapped a seven-game winless skid that dated back to Nov. 17, 2012. They were 0-5-2 in the stretch that began with a 3-2 loss at home to Western Michigan.


• With last Saturday's win, the Nanooks have a 4-2-2 record through eight road games this season, surpassing last year's road win total of three in 16 away games.


• Freshman forward Tyler Morley notched the short-handed game-winning goal on Jan. 11, giving him the team lead in goals with seven. It was the third short-hander scored by a Nanook this season.