Coming off a three-week break, the University of Alaska Fairbanks hockey team beat the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 3-1 Friday night in the first of a two-game series at Troy, New York.
With wins in three of their last five outings — all in the Lower 48 — Coach Erik Largen’s Nanooks evened their record at 5-5-1 in a game at Houston Field House where the visitors seemed to always have the upper hand. The Engineers, members of the Eastern College Athletic Conference, dropped their fifth game in six outings to fall to 6-6.
Brayden Nicholetts scored the first goal of the game — and his first of the season — 6:03 into the first period after a faceoff in Engineers territory came to him on a deflection from Markuss Komuls. Komuls put the puck right onto Nicholetts’ stick, enabling the sophomore forward to launch it past RPI goaltender Jack Watson.
The lead was short-lived though, as RPI defenseman Max Smolinski scored an unassisted goal from just beneath the blue to tie the game four minutes later.
The Nanooks, who have scored three power-play goals in their last three games, got their first 5-on-4 opportunity of the night thanks to a high sticking call on RPI’s Mason Klee, but the Engineers successfully killed the power play with a crowded net technique. That would be the Nanooks’ only man-up opportunity of the night.
Still, momentum noticeably changed and RPI began feeling the pressure in the final minutes of Period One. The Engineers elevated rough play inside their territory, leading to a check on a UAF player that pushed over the goal. The Nanooks, in turn, retaliated with Brady Risk eventually drawing a whistle for holding, giving the Engineers a power play with 1:10 before intermission.
UAF thus began the second period a man down, but a heavy offensive presence keeping the puck mostly in Engineer territory killed the power play. A questionable call against Garrett Pyke of the Nanooks for cross-checking gave the Engineers another power play a minute after they had returned to full strength.
A misread of a potential penalty that was not actually called when Pyke returned to the ice led to a gaffe by UAF goaltender Matt Radomsky, who skated to the bench believing there was a stoppage of play and leaving the goal open for RPI. The remaining Nanooks rallied and bought the senior netminder enough time to get back into place and block the Engineers’ next shot.
Back to even strength in both the net and the field of play, Kyle Gaffney scored his first goal — assisted by Arvils Bergmanis and Payton Matsui — to put UAF ahead for good at 2-1.
After killing the Engineers’ fourth power play of the night — two minutes on Anton Rubstov for slashing — the Nanooks scored their third goal with 1:15 to play when Matt Koethe put the puck past Watson before RPI had a chance to go into an open-net lineu. Gaffney and A.J. Macauluy assisted Rubstov on the final goal.
While shots were fairly close — 42 for UAF and 35 for RPI — the Nanooks had almost a two-to-one advantage in their quality, with 24 shots on goal to RPI’s 12. Radomsky ended up with a .921 save percentage.
The two teams will meet today at 3 p.m. before the Nanooks wrap up their pre-Thanksgiving road trip with games at No. 6 Penn State on Tuesday and Wednesday.
