Nanooks complete third straight sweep with 4-2 win over Wildcats
January 28, 2013
Jamie Foland
907-474-6807
Junior center Colton Beck (Langley, B.C./Business Administration) scored twice, including the game-winning goal, to lead the Alaska Nanooks to a 4-2 victory over the visiting Northern Michigan Wildcats on Saturday night at the Carlson Center.
The win improved the Nanooks to 12-8-4 on the year and 10-7-3-1 in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, putting them in a three-way tie for fourth place in the league standings. It was their sixth consecutive win, a feat last accomplished during the 2009-10 season. It also marked the first time in program history the Nanooks swept three straight CCHA series.
Beck scored the game-winning goal for the second straight night, also his second of the contest, and was named the Pearni Cup first star. Freshman defenseman Colton Parayko (St. Albert, Alberta/Business Administration) was the second star with a multi-point game off a goal and two assists and senior right wing Andy Taranto (Woodridge, Ill./Communication) was the third star after notching a pair of assists in the win.
NMU's goals book-ended Alaska's four, opening the scoring with a tally by Ryan Daugherty and Scott Macaulay's lamp-lighter capping the goals in the second.
Daugherty beat Alaska's freshman goalie John Keeney (Twin Peaks, Calif./Business Administration) 1:34 into the game with assistance from Stephan Vigier and Justin Rose.
Beck answered for the home team at 15:35, when Taranto picked off an NMU pass between two 'Cats defensemen below the goal line, skated to the leftside of the crease and found the left winger sitting on the backdoor ready to score his sixth goal of the season and tie the game 1-1.
Alaska rookie Tyler Morley (Burnaby, B.C./General Studies) scored the go-ahead goal at 5:06 of the second period when he backhanded the puck past NMU's Jared Coreau to make it 2-1. Parayko gathered the puck in Alaska's defensive zone and fed it up the leftside boards to senior Nik Yaremchuk (St. Albert, Alberta/Business Management) in the neutral zone. The right wing tapped it towards the 'Cats' blueline, where Morley collected it and staked towards the slot where he flicked the shot past Coreau and into the back of the net.
NMU killed off a minor penalty assessed by Kory Kaunisto at 8:17 of the second period but just three seconds after his return, Beck burried the eventual game-winner, successfully converting passes from Parayko and Taranto for his seventh tally of the year and second of the game at 10:20.
The penalties continued to pile up for the visitors as Erik Higby was charged a five-minute major and game misconduct for elbowing and then Wade Epp took a high-sticking minor less than a minute later giving the Nanooks a five-on-three power-play chance for a full two minutes. They took just 14 seconds to cash in, as Parayko lit the lamp with his fourth goal of the season, tapping in misfires by juniors Cody Kunyk (Sherwood Park, Alberta/Business Administration) and Michael Quinn (Surrey, B.C./Geography) at 11:51 to make it 4-1.
Still down a man, NMU managed to chip away at the lead, when Macaulay and Matt Thurber forced a turnover and converted short-handed at 13:44 of the second period to make it 4-2.
Just like the previous night, neither team would score in the final 20 minutes, though both team had one chance on the power play.
For the evening, Alaska outshot Northern 37-26 and was 1-for-6 on the power-play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
Keeney made 24 saves in the win, while Jared Coreau made 15 through just under 32 minutes of play and Michael Doan made 18 in the remaining 27 for NMU.
The Nanooks travel to Oxford, Ohio next, where they will look to continue their winning streak when they face the second-place Miami RedHawks. Miami swept Alaska at home on Nov. 30-Dec. 1 and took a pair of games from Bowling Green at home this weekend. Friday the teams will meet at 3:35 p.m AKT (7:35 p.m. EST) and Saturday they faceoff at 3:05 p.m. AKT (7:05 p.m. EST). Both games will be broadcast live on KFXF Fox7.