Ferris State Falls In Series' Finale On The Road Against Nanooks In Alaska

Ferris State Falls In Series' Finale On The Road Against Nanooks In Alaska

Big Rapids, Mich. - It was a tough night on the road for the Ferris State University men's ice hockey team as the Bulldogs wrapped up a two-game Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) road series with a 6-0 setback against the Alaska Nanooks on Saturday (Jan. 3) night at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks, Alaska.

The host Nanooks scored the only goals of the night to complete a weekend sweep of FSU and move into fourth place overall in the league standings with the home ice win.

Ferris State, which has now dropped its last four outings to date, fell to 9-11-1 overall and 6-6-0 in the WCHA, but remains only two points out of fourth place and a potential home ice spot for the postseason tournament at this stage of the campaign.

Alaska improved to 12-8-0 overall and 7-7-0 in league competition with the win by outshooting FSU 36-21 for the night. The Nanooks tallied a 12-10 edge in shots in the first period and recorded a 12-4 advantage in the final period after FSU had registered a 12-7 margin in the middle frame.

The host Nanooks struck first with a pair of goals in the opening frame to build a 2-0 edge. Marcus Basara notched his ninth goal of the year 9:26 into the contest off assists from Kyle Froese and Colton Parayko to account for the initial score.

The second UAF goal came off the stick of Garrick Perry at 18:18 of the first frame and was his third of the season as lost faceoffs hurt FSU early. Josh Atkinson and Basara both recorded helpers on the second goal of the night.

Alaska pushed its lead to 3-0 heading into the final period with a single goal in the middle 20 minutes of action. This one came from Tayler Munson, who picked up his fifth lamplighter of the season at 16:53 of the second assisted by Zach Frye.

In the final period, the Nanooks added on three more goals in less than a six-minute span to account for the final margin. Nolan Kaiser tallied his third of the season 7:10 into the period off a Tyler Morley assist. Then, UAF added two final goals only 22 seconds apart with Josh Erickson picking up his second of the season at 13:32 followed by a goal from Frye at 13:54 of the third. Alec Hajdukovic had the assist on Erickson's marker with Peter Krieger credited on Frye's second goal of the campaign.

Ferris State was called for seven penalties totaling 14 minutes in the box with Alaska whistled eight times for 16 minutes. FSU was held scoreless in four tries with the extra skater while UAF went one-of-four on the power play.

For FSU, senior goaltender CJ Motte made 25 saves in suffering the setback while Alaska's Davis Jones stopped all 26 Bulldog scoring chances to earn the win and claim the game's first star.

Ferris State will try to get back on track as the Bulldogs continue their four-game swing in Alaska by squaring off against Alaska-Anchorage on Thursday and Friday, Jan. 8-9, in Anchorage. Both games get underway at 11:07 p.m. (ET). FSU previously swept the Seawolves earlier this year in Big Rapids.