Cats rally, but penalties are too much Friday night in Alaska Fairbanks

                Despite their comebacks in the second and third, the Wildcats’ penalties provided too big of a hole to climb out of Friday night, as the Nanooks hold on and take a 5-4 victory over NMU Friday night/Saturday morning.

Michael Doan got the start in net for the Wildcats, before getting pulled in the second where he was replaced by Mathias Dahlstrom.

                Ryan Daugherty committed two penalties early on in the game during the first period for the Wildcats, as Alaska capitalized on their second opportunity when Tyler Morley scored at 12:44 to give Alaska a 1-0 lead early on. A little over two minutes later, Tyler’s brother, Brandon Morley would score to give the Nanooks a quick 2-0 lead.

                Stephan Vigier got the ‘Cats on the board with 2:07 left in the first period. Cohen Adair’s first goal of the season would tie the game 4:28 into the second period, and suddenly it seemed NMU was taking control of the game until five minutes later when Luke Eibler committed a five minute boarding penalty that gave Alaska a golden opportunity to get back in the game. Less than a minute later, CJ Ludwig was called for tripping and gave the Nanooks a two man advantage, which resulted in an Alaska goal by Marcus Basara to give Alaska the lead again at 3-2. Just as Beck scored, which ended Ludwig’s penalty, Wade Epp was called for crosschecking which gave the Nanooks back-to-back two man advantages. Colton Beck capitalized on their given opportunity and scored at 10:10 to give Alaska a 4-2 lead. Shawn Hochhausen scored with three minutes left in the second to give Alaska a 5-2 lead and send Michael Doan to the bench, as Mathias Dahlstrom relieved him of his duties for the night.

                Dahlstrom saved all eight shots he faced in the third period, and kept the Wildcats in the game as they made things interesting late in the third. CJ Ludwig scored with six minutes left in the third to make it a 5-3 lead for the Nanooks, and Cohen Adair got his second goal of the evening and season to make it a one goal game with 2:04 left on the clock. Reed Seckel made a great attempt at tying the game shortly after, but NMU was unable to tie the game and send it into overtime as the Nanooks held on and defeated them in the opening game of the weekend series.

                Penalties were the deciding factor in the game, as the Nanooks only committed two penalties with 4 PIM, as opposed to the Wildcats who committed six penalties that added up to 15 PIM.

                The decision by Walt Kyle to sit Mathias Dahlstrom in the game to put Michael Doan in was also possibly a costly decision, as Doan let in some cheap shots in the first two periods, while Dahlstrom made some marvelous saves in the third to keep his team alive and almost help them to overtime. Kyle has praised the play of Dahlstrom through his first four games, but sat him to start Friday's game, possibly due to the team’s overall poor performance last week at Michigan Tech to help build confidence in him. However, one would think that if Dahlstrom’s play is as good as it’s been hyped, he should be receiving the starting nod from the coach in the similar fashion that Coreau seemed to always receive from Kyle week in and week out.

                With the loss, the ‘Cats fall to 1-2 in conference play, 2-5 overall and fall to sixth in the conference. Alaska’s win tonight gives them a 1-0 conference record and a 4-1-2 record overall, moving them up to second in the WCHA. NMU will have some tape too look over, with some costly penalties and turnovers highlighted which essentially changed the game for the ‘Cats. Give NMU credit for sticking around and competing until the game was over, and hopefully they can carry that attitude over into Saturday night’s game with a better disciplined form of play. If they do so, they should have a good chance at leaving Alaska with a split heading back to Marquette.
          The puck drops Saturday night at 11:07 pm, which can be heard on 100.3 The Point and seen on AmericaOneSports.com.