Hockey ranked 20th on USCHO.com poll

February 12, 2013

University Relations

Jamie Foland
907-474-6807

For the second time in the last three weeks the Alaska Nanooks have been picked 20th in the USCHO.com Men's Division I college hockey poll.

Alaska (13-11-4) received 57 votes in the poll released on Monday for the week of Feb. 11, after garnering 46 in the previous week's poll that left them just outside the top-20 rankings as the first among other teams receiving votes.

The Blue and Gold posted a series split at the Carlson Center last weekend over the Ohio State Buckeyes in their penultimate Central Collegiate Hockey Association home series. The teams left the weekend, the same way they entered with OSU in fifth place and one point ahead of the Nanooks in sixth.

Friday night they partook in a goal fest, besting OSU 6-1. It was just the second time this season the Nanooks lit the lamp that many times and just the sixth time since head coach Dallas Ferguson took the reigns of the program in 2008-09.

Saturday the teams were even at 1-1 through 40 minutes of play, but the Buckeyes scored twice in the final 20 minutes to earn the series split.

This weekend the 20th-ranked Nanooks travels to Sault Saint Marie, Mich., where they will take on the Lake Superior State Lakers for their final CCHA road trip. The teams split their meetings in Fairbanks Nov. 2-3 with the Nanooks winning the first night 2-1 before LSSU responded with a 4-2 victory in the rematch.