UAF hockey ties Anchorage, but earns mental victory

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) - On their record, the Nanooks hockey team left the ice Saturday night with a 2-2 tie against their in-state Anchorage rivals, but mentally, the squad went home with a little more.

They secured the morale-boosting shootout victory after two scoreless overtime periods, and the end of the game only marked the beginning of the celebrations, as the Nanooks entered the Carlson Center knowing a date on the ice parading the Governor’s Cup awaited them at the end of the night.

But first, they had to face off against the Seawolves.

Neither team rushed out of the gates with sharp offense, the first period ending scoreless and the two keepers standing stalwart between the sticks.

The scoresheet did see some movement in the second. Nanooks defenseman A.J. Macaulay received the puck in the slot and sent it flying into the top corner of Greg Orosz’s net for a 1-0 lead.

The teams tallied the other three regulation goals in the third.

The Seawolves pulled two back just six minutes into the final period for a 2-1 advantage through Brett Bamber and Porter Schachle.

It was Nanooks forward Chase Dafoe who grabbed a short-handed goal a few minutes later, showing off his speed after Macaulay knocked the puck into an opening near center ice.

Dafoe picked up the puck and outskated an Anchorage defender for the breakaway chance, eking his shot past Orosz to tie the game at two.

Dafoe’s effort was followed by a longstanding goal drought, though, which pushed the game through two overtime periods and into a shootout.

Capping off the shootout was Dafoe again. He put the game to bed and kept his good night rolling, beating the Anchorage keeper to give the night a winning feeling.

“The resolve that the group had tonight was pretty remarkable ... it goes down as a tie just in the stat sheet, but I just think it meant a lot more. It meant a lot more to our group, it meant a lot more to our community, to the fans that were in the stands tonight,” Head Coach Erik Largen said in a post-match interview.

The shootout kickstarted fist bumps and happy shouts, but that eventually transitioned to all out Governor’s Cup celebrations.

The Nanooks clinched their 13th-straight Governor’s Cup victory back in December after a 3-1 win down in Anchorage, but the team got to carry the trophy onto their home ice Saturday night in front of the Fairbanks crowd.

That was a welcome experience for Nanooks Saturday standout Chase Dafoe, who was glad to combine Governor’s Cup celebrations with positive weekend action against their rivals.

“I remember last year when I found out I was transferring, I think the first thing I did was google and I watched the documentary on the series, so I knew the importance of it, and I think we did an unreal job of securing the win tonight, and it was cool to do it on home ice, too,” the forward said.

The Nanooks next game is at Long Island University on Jan. 26 at 10:30 a.m.

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