Game 2 of the Alaska Airlines Governor’s Cup was all University of Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks.
The Nanooks took charge right from the opening faceoff, taking a 3-0 lead in the opening 20 minutes, and never looked back in cruising to a 7-2 victory over the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves in front of 3,044 fans on Saturday night at the Carlson Center.
The win gave the Nanooks a sweep of the two-game series against their intrastate rivals, following a 5-2 triumph Friday in the first meeting between the two teams in more than 1,000 days.
The next two meetings of the 2022-23 Alaska Airlines Governor’s Cup Series are slated for 7:07 p.m. Friday and 6:07 p.m. Saturday at UAA’s Seawolf Sports Complex.
“I thought we played well again tonight and it’s great to be up 2-0 in the Governor’s Cup,” Nanooks coach Erik Largen said in a postgame interview.
“We know it’s going to be a different situation playing in Anchorage next weekend,” Largen added. “It will be a whole different situation playing in their rink in front of their fans.”
Six different Nanooks scored goals and UAF goaltender Matt Radomsky registered 23 saves in earning the victory. The Nanooks hammered 41 shots on a pair of Anchorage goaltenders.
Kyle Gaffney scored a pair of goals for the Nanooks, while defenseman Markuss Komuls had a goal and three assists for a four-point night. Chase Dubois and Anton Rubtsov each added two assists for UAF.
The victory enabled the Nanooks to even their record at 7-7-2 on the season, while the Seawolves dropped to 2-10-0.
Three different Nanooks — A.J. Macauley, Komuls and Arvils Bergmanis — scored their first goals of the season in the opening 20 minutes. All three are defensemen.
“I think it’s great to see our defensemen get into the offensive swing of things,” Largen said. “It was especially great to see Komuls get going and hopefully that will continue.”
Mcauley got the scoring parade started just 5:07 into the game when he beat Anchorage goalie Jared Whale off an assist from Dubois.
Largen noted things could have been much different if it hadn’t been a great save by Radomksky moments before Macauley’s goal.
“It’s funny how things can change so fast,” Largen said. “If Radomsky doesn’t make that save, this could have been entirely different. Instead, we go down and score and the momentum completely changes.”
Komuls put the Nanooks ahead 2-0 at 11:45 when he buried a rebound with assists going to Payton Matsui and Dubois.
Bergmanis took a long pass from Jonny Sorenson, deked his way around a UAA defender and went in all alone to beat Whale from in close. Xavier Jean-Louis also recorded an assist on the goal.
The Nanooks didn’t stop there as Gaffney scored the first of his two goals at 4:45 of the second period off assists from Rubtsov and Komuls.
After Maxmillion Helgeson scored the Seawolves first goal at 9:58 of the second, the Nanooks responded with Brady Risk’s third goal of the weekend to take a 5-1 lead. Komuls earned the lone assist.
The Nanooks added two more goals in the third period.
Gaffney scored his second goal of the game at 1:11 of the final frame off assists from Rubtsov and Komuls. Simon Falk’s goal just 1:13 later, with an assist from Connor Mylymok, ended the night for Seawolves goalie Whale.
Joey Lamoreaux finished up in the net for the Sweawolves.
UAA scored the final goal of the game at 12:16 when William Gilson found the back of the net for a power-play tally.