The Alaska-Fairbanks took the first home opportunity in the CCHA Playoffs and used it to their full advantage scoring a 6-3 win over Ferris State to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
Cory Rask skated in and scored a power play goal at 3:17 in the 1st for the Nanooks before
Ferris’ Brett Smith tied the game at 11:47 with a triple pump shot that jumped past Lance Mayes.
There was no scoring in the second and the third period was an explosion of goals for the home team. 48 seconds into the third Aaron Voros skated past the left post and back-handed the puck off of Matt Brown’s left leg
Cramer Hickey slammed the puck into the top shelf after he picked up a drop pass from David Keough at 1:21.
Felipe Larranaga skated off of the blue line at 14:20 and then blasted the puck into the net.
At 15:22 Jason Grinevitch drove a slap shot past Brown’s blocker to make it 5-1 in favor of UAF.
Trevor Large closed the gap within two goals after scoring back-to-back at 15:41 and 18:25 in the 3rd, but an empty net goal by Aaron Grosul capped the game for UAF.
FSU came into the series with a two game advantage after beating the Nanooks by a score of 4-1 in both regular season games.
UAF out shot FSU 36-29 in the game, 15-6 in the first, 7-7 in the second, and 16-14 in the third.
It was a blizzard in Fairbanks as the home crowed donned their white sweat-shirts in order to support the Nanooks’s white out in the opening CCHA playoff games.
“I decided to let Lance start because he has been awesome for the past month and the team has confidence in both goaltenders.” said UAF coach Guy Gadowsky. “FSU showed a lot of character this game, I thought that they were going to fold after the four goals we scored in the third period but they fought back and put two goals in.”
