Photo by Jessica Blunt
Sophomore Dustin Molle and junior Adam Naglich race with the puck up the boards during Saturday’s 3-2 victory against Western Michigan University.

This weekend’s sweep of the Western Michigan Broncos was a long time coming for the Nanooks’ hockey team. The last time the team swept an opponent was in October of 2006, with two wins over Ferris State.

This weekend’s victories over the now-12th ranked team in the CCHA weren’t an easy sweep. In Friday’s game, the Nanooks came back from a 2-1 deficit to force overtime, and take the win 3-2. Saturday, the Nanooks dominated early, but still fought hard for a 3-2 victory in regulation.

After last weekend’s damaging 7-2 loss to Miami, the Nanooks were determined to build back up. Despite that the Broncos were ranked 11th in the CCHA, the Nanooks had to play their game in order to win.

“You know they’re an eleventh place team, I don’t,” said coach Doc DelCastillo after Saturday’s game. “They’re a good hockey team. I don’t spend too much time looking at the standings.”

On Friday, the Nanooks were down 2-1 going into the third period. An early wrap-around goal by junior Braden Walls tied up the game.

In overtime, there were just 46 seconds left when sophomore Dion Knelsen took the puck up on a 2-on-2 with center Adam Naglich as a helper. Knelsen didn’t need his linemate though, and shot just out of reach of the Broncos’ defenders. The puck bounced off the crossbar and into the net, sealing the Nanooks’ first victory since early January against Ferris State, and their first home win since mid-December.

When asked about his strategy on the shot after the game, Knelsen said “To be honest, I basically just tried not to hit the D-man and just prayed it went somewhere in the net.”

The Nanooks out-shot Western Michigan 42-34 in the contest. Bronco goalie Jerry Kuhn was on his game; many of the shots were from point-blank range and seemed like sure things. His coverage on the net appeared impenetrable.

“A lot of credit has to be given to him, he played a great game,” said Knelsen of the freshman goaltender, “we had so many chances right in close and we just couldn’t put it upstairs though, we just kept shooting it where he was covering it, and it was one of those things we had to battle through.”

The game got off to a good start. Just four minutes into the game, the Nanooks got lucky with a delayed penalty call on the Broncos. Senior Brandon Gawryletz took to the ice as the extra man, and it paid off; freshman Dustin Sather slid the puck through the crease to Gawryletz, who put it past Kuhn for his first goal of the season.

The defenseman-turned-forward said after the game, “I don’t know if they forgot I was in front of the net or what, but (Sather) made a great pass; he put it right on my tape. I didn’t really have to do too much.”

The Nanooks’ suffered on the penalty-kill; both Bronco goals were scored with the advantage. The first came late in the first period. Nanook Ryan Hohl got a penalty for goaltender interference, and despite three full-ice clears, with just 20 seconds to go on the penalty, WMU’s Tyler Ludwig took a shot from the center slot that went through Nanook defender Tyler Eckford, attempting to block, and trickled through Rogers’ five-hole.

Again in the second period, on another Hohl penalty, the Broncos scored again, as senior Jeff Pierce tipped in a shot from defender Nathan Ansell on the point.

In the third, Alaska’s Walls collected the puck behind the net from Ryan Hohl, and reversed directions to beat the defender, bringing the puck up in a wide wrap-around and slid the puck low into the left side of the net.

After the game, DelCastillo said scoring was a problem for the team, but praised their hard work, “I thought the boys showed tremendous character being down 2-1 after the second period,” he said in the post-game news conference,

“It seemed like we were having a tough time like most nights scoring goals and frustrating after the second period to be down 2-1. I thought we were playing pretty good. The boys sucked it up and got that tie, and then Dion came down the ice and put her top shelf, so we’ll take her.”

Saturday’s game got off to a quick start for the Nanooks again. Freshman Landon Novotney scored his 11th goal of the season when he backhanded in a rebound from a Dion Knelsen shot.

The game’s physical intensity jumped up a notch from Friday, and the Nanooks had to fight that much harder to keep their game up. The Nanooks struck again when a Dustin Sather shot rebounded and sat invitingly in the crease. Senior defender T.J. Campbell saw his opportunity to crash the net, and scored his second goal of the season.

Alaska then found a 3-0 lead when Campbell took a shot on net late in the game. Novotney earned himself another goal, to take the team lead with 12 this season, when he tipped the puck up and over goalie Riley Gill.

The Broncos kicked back in the third period, and in the second game in a row, the six-on-five advantage produced. A delayed Nanook penalty early in the period brought Gill off the ice and added an extra attacker.

Defender Tyler Ludwig passed to Max Campbell, who came on as the extra attacker. Campbell then slid the puck up to Chris Frank, who was waiting on the back door of goaltender Wylie Rogers.

The Broncos found the back of the net again with just about five minutes left in the game. The puck was caught in a scramble of feet in front of the net, and freshman Ryan Watson calmly pulled the puck out of the mix-up and shot it through the tangle and into the lower left-hand corner of the net.

The third-period run wasn’t enough for the Broncos, though, as the clock ran out on them. Pulling their goalie with just over a minute left didn’t produce as it had earlier in the game, and the Nanooks found their first series sweep in over a year.

“It feels good; I forgot what the feeling was actually,” joked goalie Wylie Rogers after the game, “it feels good, this is a big accomplishment for our team, especially after what happened last weekend and putting a good week of practice together and then getting four points, this weekend is just huge.”

“We’re in that stretch of the season where you can’t get too high right now, you can’t get too low, but it was a gutsy performance from the guys,” said DelCastillo in the post-game press conference. “We are beat up right now, and some guys are playing extremely hurt, and that’s a gutsy performance all weekend.”

The extra physical intensity was apparent not only with DelCastillo’s comments, but from the players themselves. Campbell had a slight limp as he walked to the stage.

“In terms of the last minute there, it’s do or die and you have to be willing to sacrifice your body in situations like that,” he said, “It was a well-fought effort from everybody; everybody chipped in. It was probably the biggest team effort we’ve had all year.”

The sweep was an important one for the Nanooks, as they are now ranked seventh in the league. The top eight teams in the CCHA get home ice for the first round of the playoffs.

The Nanooks now prepare to head to Bowling Green, Ohio to face Bowling Green State University, the former team of Nanook Ryan Hohl. They return to the Carlson Center Feb. 15 and 16 to take on No. 4 in the CCHA, Notre Dame.