2010 NCAA Northeast Regional: Alaska vs. BC

Captains Blog: Derek Klassen

Nanooks captain Derek Klassen sat down and was able to write down some thoughts about the first few days of the trip from Fairbanks to Boston for the 2010 NCAA Regional in Massachusetts:



Well to start off the team is currently in Worcester Massachusetts. In order to get where we are today, we had to fly approximately 4500 miles from Fairbanks to Boston.


Our trip started earlier yesterday which was Tuesday afternoon. After skating at 9:30 at the patty center followed by workouts the team then went home to pack for the trip. The team then met back at the patty center at 2:15 to load team gear and personal bags and headed to the airport for a 4:40 p.m. flight to Seattle.


After a 3 hour flight the team deplaned and had to collect our gear and check in on jet Blue Airlines. The team was excited to fly on a new airline, especially one that has more leg room than we are use to, plus there are televisions in the back of every seat. (Something that everyone enjoyed) This flight was direct from Seattle to Boston which lasted approximately 5 hours. It was a red eye flight so Im sure everyone got at least a couple hours of needed rest


We arrived in Boston are 7:30 a.m. or 3:30 a.m. Fairbanks time. The team felling somewhat tired and hungry was happy to be safely on the ground on the other side of the content. Ironically it is the furthest the team has travelled all year but was by far the teams shortest travel day.

After collecting hockey gear and personal items that team headed to a local diner where we devoured a much needed breakfast. From there we travelled about an hour bus ride to Worcester and checked into the hotel. With some downtime before practice most of the players and staff I’m sure took a pre practice nap.


Practiced started at 3:30 p.m. and the team is always a little tentative to get on the ice with the time change and the all night flight but today the team was ready to go. There is only 16 teams in the country left playing and we are excited to be one of them. After a good hour skate the team felt better than it did before stepping on the ice.


After practice we headed out for supper at a restaurant called 99. Pumped to get a big meal in us we again devoured yet another meal. I nice treat to the supper was Alumni and former CCHA player of the Year Chad Johnson was able to join us and share some stories from his year spent in Hartford and in New York with the Rangers organization.


Now I am here in my hotel room writing this blog. Tomorrow we will continue to get ready for Boston College and a chance at a National Championship. Thanks for reading and thanks for your support.

Nanooks Prepare for BC

The Alaska Nanooks came off a long trip from Fairbanks to Massachusetts for the first day of practice before they take on Boston College on Saturday afternoon in the first round game of the NCAA Regional.

Here are some of the sights from practice:

Coach Meisner on the ice leading the drills for the Nanooks

The group taking instruction from head coach Dallas Ferguson

Former Nanook Chad Johnson, now of the New York Rangers, stopped by practice to watch his former team

Johnson talking to some of his former teammates

Nanooks To Play BC in NCAA Regional

ATTENTION ALASKA HOCKEY FANS: The 16-team field for the 2010 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament is set and the Alaska Nanooks are the fourth seed in the Northeast Regional (being played in Worcester, MA at the DCU Center). They will face off against the No. 1 seed Boston College at 9:30 a.m. AKT on Saturday, March 27. More details (tickets, hotels, media coverage, etc.) to be posted later today on alaskananooks.com.

Go Nooks!

CCHA Playoffs: Round 2, Game 2, Alaska vs. Northern Michigan Live Blog

CCHA Playoffs Round 2 Game 1 Alaska vs. Northern Michigan Live Blog

Preparing for Northern Michigan

The Blue and Gold took to the ice for practice today only one day away from competing in the second round of the CCHA Playoffs. Here are some images from practice. Enjoy and check back for more hockey info and more info about our other spots at championships.

The Berry Sports Complex is a beautiful place. The setup for this place is legit and doesn't look to be a bad seat in the house. There are actually some box seating, not sure for who, but they look nice. Talking with a member of the NMU staff and they say it should be pretty full tomorrow night and that the student section can get pretty rowdy:





The LED board at the arena has this displayed non-stop.


The flags beside the LED board. As you can see we have the American and Canadian flag (standard) and the Swedish flag (not so standard). Do I have any idea why the Sweden flag is there? Sure, they are fans of Henrik Lundqvist (I think).


And here are some images from actual practice today:













Go Nooks.

On the Road: Dion Knelsen

It's Wednesday night in Marquette, Michigan. I've been asked to write a blog about the road trip so far, and I'm not going to lie, I have no idea what to write. We really haven't done much. It's been pretty "business as usual," but for those who don't know what that means, I guess I will go ahead and explain.

We took the Red Eye out of Fairbanks Monday night/Tuesday morning, and arrived in Green Bay Tuesday afternoon around 4 PM (central time). We dropped off our stuff at the hotel, and pretty much went straight to the home arena of the Green Bay Gamblers USHL team for practice. To be honest, as much as I love hockey, it's usually not your first instinct to hit the ice after spending ten hours on airplanes and getting a combined total of three hours of sleep (if you thought putting your altitude-induced elephant feet into shoes was tough, try putting them into skates), but it's obviously the prudent thing to do heading into a weekend series. It's funny, though. Everyone always feels awful at the start of those fresh-off-the-plane practices, but you actually end up forgetting about all those factors after about fifteen minutes and you feel pretty good. It's kind of refreshing. So practice ended up being alright. There didn't seem to be any ill effects from the travel at all.

After that we went for a 9 PM supper at the Prime Quarter Steakhouse. You pretty much get to choose any cut of steak you want and then cook it yourself on a massive charcoal grill. It takes a long time, but everyone considers it well worth the wait when they are eating their huge ribeye or filet mignon. Yeah, we all love the road trip experience (after the flights). We get treated so well. For the rest of the night we all just did our own thing (which for most guys meant "sleeping").

Today we woke up around 8:30 for breakfast. We went to the "full breakfast buffet" at the hotel which offered a wide variety of filling breakfast entrées, including cereal and instant oatmeal. Nobody has a problem with free food, it's just less of a thrill when fruit loops are your only source of energy before practice.

Still, practice was great today. There's not much that can cause us to have a bad practice at this point in the year. The guys are so focused. There's not a lot talking about it, but we all know that we need to be solid in practice this week and have our best weekend of the year if we want to go to the Joe. The playoff butterflies are in the air. Just thinking about the Joe, and now the potential of a national tournament birth gives most of the guys goosebumps. I'm getting pretty anxious to play. Still, everyone knows that the key is to focus on the process and not the results, so we all pretty much have to force our thoughts onto the present and forget about possibilities. Regardless, this is the best part of the year. Who doesn't love playoff time?

We then drove to Marquette from Green Bay, which took us about three and a half hours. We then had a very nice dinner in the upper room of our hotel, the Landmark Inn (an incredibly classy and expensive looking place that is apparently haunted. Look it up) and then were given a few hours to relax. We really do get spoiled.

Later in the evening we went bowling as a team. For humility's sake, I'm not going to go into detail about my team of Andy Taranto, Dustin Sather, and Scott Greenham winning the combined team score event and subsequently earning desserts for ourselves tomorrow, but we absolutely dominated. Actually, we barely slipped into first. It was pretty close between us and Cody Rymut, Coach Meisner, Derek Bradish, and Adam Cardwell's team. There are a lot of good bowlers on the team, especially considering most guys only go once or twice a year. I think everyone had a lot of fun.

Tomorrow, we have a 9 AM breakfast and a 5 PM practice with nothing scheduled in between. That means around seven hours of guilt-free time killing. We are going to have to find something fun to do.

In the evening we will have a video session and then we will all attempt to get a good night's rest before the first big game.

That's about the gist of what goes on while we are away from Fairbanks. Thanks for reading, but better yet, thanks for the support of the team as we set out to bring a championship to Fairbanks.

Dion

Go Nooks!

Hockey Prepares for Northern Michigan

The Alaska Nanooks Hockey team took to the ice this week after a very long road trip to Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Nanooks go into Green Bay and stayed there on Tuesday night at a hotel right beside the Green Bay Packers training facility and Lambeau Field.

The Nanooks left Green Bay and practiced just before leaving for Marquette, MI where they will face Northern Michigan on Friday and Saturday.

Scott Greenham is on top of his game making a save at the beginning of practice

The Alaska defense working in the neutral zone to start a drill

Colin Rundell watches a shot go wide

The team huddles up, led by head coach Dallas Ferguson, to game plan

Alaska will practice tomorrow at Northern Michigan before they take the ice for the first game of the best-of-three series against the host Wilcatst at 3:35 AST on Friday afternoon.

CCHA Rd. 1 Gm. 2 Live Blog

CCHA Playoffs Rd. 1 Live Blog

2010 Governor's Cup CHAMPIONS

2010 Governor's Cup CHAMPIONS!! In case you missed the celebration, here's a montage that Megan Otts and Todd Paris compiled (thanks again)!



GO NOOKS!

Taranto Grabs Rookie of the Month

Taranto Grabs Second CCHA Rookie of the Month Award

Alaska Sweeps UAA

If you missed the Alaska Nanooks weekend sweep of UAA, here's a video that captures Friday night's 7-4 thumping. Thanks to Thomas Bohnet for making the trip south to capture this:



Playoff Tickets go on sale today at noon at the Patty Center and all Ticket Master outlets. Click here for more information.

Senior forward Dion Knelsen has been named one of seven finalists for the 2010 BNY Mellon Wealth Management Hockey Humanitarian Award, given annually to the college hockey player that most personifies community spirit through leadership, effort and time. Click here to read the full release.

He is also ranked second in fan votes (with 13.2 percent) for the 2010 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. YOUR VOTE COUNTS! Fan balloting counts for 1/3 of the total with the remaining 2/3 determined by NCAA Division I coaches and national media members. Log on to the LSC Award website to vote for Dion. You can also text H5 to 74567 once a day (that's up to two votes per day per person).

Congratulations to freshman forward Andy Taranto and sophomore defenseman Scott Enders, who were named the CCHA Rookie and Defenseman of the Week, respectively, on Monday. Here's the full release.

Don't forget this weekend's WHITEOUT for the playoffs. Sport your white gear (from head to toe if possible) or get over to the bookstore to buy some - there should be special discounts on all white Alaska Nanooks merchandise this week only.

GO NOOKS!!

Dion Knelsen for Lowe's Senior Class Award

As you may, or may not, know senior forward Dion Knelsen is a finalist for the Lowe's Senior Class Award.

The Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award is presented each year to the outstanding senior NCAA Division I Student-Athlete of the Year across nine different sports. The acronym “CLASS” stands for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School™.

The Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award celebrates the loyalty of seniors that honor a four-year commitment to their university. The Senior CLASS Award™ recognizes these student-athletes for great achievement during competition and in their community while staying in school.

Award winners are determined by a selection process that includes, NCAA Division I college coaches in each respective sport, national media, and fans. The voting process determines the winner in addition to a Senior CLASS All-America Team.

Here is a video interview of Dion speaking about the award and what hockey means to him:



You can vote for Dion by voting online and text messaging your vote. You can vote online here and you can also text H5 to 74567 to vote. You are able to vote online once per day and text message one vote for day so make sure you vote every day as the voting process accounts for 33% of the final decision. Here is a breakdown of the selection process.

So go and vote!

Knelsen Named Finalist For Lowe's Senior CLASS Award

Alaska Nanooks senior forward Dion Knelsen (Three Hills, AB, Drumheller (AJHL)) has been named as one of 10 finalists for the 2010 Men's Ice Hockey division of the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. Nationwide balloting begins immediately to determine the winner. Lowe’s, an official Corporate Partner of the NCAA, will announce the Senior CLASS Award™ winner in April at the NCAA Men’s Frozen Four® in Detroit, Michigan.

An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School (CLASS), the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award encourages student-athletes to use their platform in college athletics to make a positive impact on their circle of influence.

Finalists were selected from a list of 20 candidates based on personal qualities that define a complete student athlete. The criteria to determine the top 10 included areas of the classroom, character and community in addition to performance on the hockey rink during this season.

The 2009-10 finalists are: Jean-Marc Beaudoin, Quinnipiac University; Cody Chupp, Ferris State University; Matt Fairchild, United States Air Force Academy; Colin Greening, Cornell University; Dion Knelsen, University of Alaska; Martin Nolet, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Garrett Raboin, St. Cloud State University; Rhett Rakhshani, University of Denver; Dan Ringwald, Rochester Institute of Technology; and Eli Vlaisavljevich, Michigan Technological University.

These 10 names will be placed on the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award hockey ballot for a nationwide vote beginning today and concluding March 16. Fan balloting is available on the award’s official Web site, http://www.seniorCLASSaward.com, as well as through text messaging. Fans can text H5 to 74567 to vote for Dion Knelsen. Fan balloting counts for 1/3 of the total with the remaining 2/3 determined by NCAA Division I coaches and national media members.

The hockey finalists have spent almost four years perfecting their game on the ice,” said Tom Lamb, Lowe’s senior vice president of marketing. “We commend their pursuit of perfection in the rink but also their emphasis on getting a college degree and preparing for life after their senior year.”

This marks the fourth year for the ice hockey division of the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award. Michigan State University goaltender Jeff Lerg received the award for the 2008-09 season and Princeton University center Landis Stankievech took home the 2007-08 honor. In 2006-07, University of Notre Dame goaltender David Brown won the inaugural men’s hockey award.

Knelsen, a business administration major at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, is also one of 18 nominees for the Hockey Humanitarian Award. He maintains a near perfect 3.984 grade-point average in the classroom and is second on the team in scoring with 12 goals and 23 assists through 26 games this year. Last weekend at Northern Michigan, Knelsen scored his 100th career point becoming just the 28th player in Alaska Hockey history to eclipse the mark.

Off the ice, the four-year letterman has participated in “Nooks for Books” by reading at local elementary schools to young students. He has volunteered with Sports Night at the Denali Center, which is Fairbanks’ assisted living home for senior citizens. Other community efforts include volunteering time with Big Brothers Big Sisters and going to work with Habitat for Humanity. In 2008-09, he was a volunteer with Connie Seekins’ therapeutic riding program that offered handicapped individuals the opportunity to ride horses on a weekly basis. Additionally, he is a sponsor for one child in the Dominican Republic, while also serving as a co-sponsor of a second child along with his teammates.

Knelsen is the third Alaska Nanook to make the list of 10 finalists in the award’s four-years of existence. Former forwards Trevor Hyatt and Curtis Fraser made the cut in 2009 and 2007, respectively. Both players went on to earn Lowe’s All-Senior All-America Second Team honors.

Alaska hosts No. 12 Michigan State this weekend at the Carlson Center. Games are set for 7:05 p.m. Friday and 6:05 p.m. Saturday.

Nebraska Omaha Video

Here is some video from Jaime Schwartzwald from Friday's game against Nebraska Omaha.

Enjoy

Nanooks alum Johnson gets the call

Former Nanook goaltender Chad Johnson was called up to the New York Rangers on Thursday from the Hartford Wolf Pack, New York's AHL affiliate.

Here is the release per the New York Rangers website:

New York Rangers President and General Manager Glen Sather announced today that goaltender Chad Johnson and defenseman Ilkka Heikkinen have been recalled from the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League (AHL), and goaltender Steve Valiquette has been assigned to Hartford.

Chad Johnson
Johnson, 23, has appeared in 18 games with Hartford this season, posting a 10-6-1 record with a 2.10 goals against average, .926 save percentage and three shutouts. He is currently tied for second in the AHL in shutouts, fifth in wins, eigth in save percentage, and ninth in goals against average.

Johnson registered a season-high four-game winning streak, beginning with his first career AHL shutout on October 31 against Providence to November 7 at Bridgeport. He also notched back-to-back shutouts on November 13 vs. Manchester (26 saves) and November 14 at Worcester (35 saves). The AHL rookie made his debut with Hartford on October 9 at Providence, and recorded his first AHL win the following game on October 10 against Springfield.

Prior to joining Hartford, Johnson appeared in 79 games over four seasons with the University of Alaska-Fairbanks of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA), posting a 25-34-11 record with a 2.33 goals against average. Last season, he earned CCHA Player of the Year and CCHA Goalie of the Year honors, and was named to the CCHA First All-Star Team after establishing career-highs in wins (14), goals against average (1.66), save percentage (.940) and shutouts (six) in 35 appearances. Johnson was also selected to the NCAA West All-American Second Team, and was a top ten finalist for the Hobey Baker Award as the top player in collegiate hockey.

The Calgary, Alberta native was originally the Pittsburgh Penguins’ fifth round selection, 125th overall, in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. He was acquired by the Rangers on June 27, 2009, in exchange for a fifth round selection (Andy Bathgate) in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.

Ilkka Heikkinen
Heikkinen, 25, has skated in 24 games with Hartford this season, registering five goals and 11 assists for 16 points, along with eight penalty minutes. He is currently tied for fifth among AHL defensemen in goals, sixth in points and ninth in assists. He also ranks second on Hartford overall in shots (54), fifth in points, and is tied for second on the team in shorthanded goals (one), third in assists and seventh in goals.

Heikkinen has recorded four multi-point performances on the season, including two multi-assist efforts. He tallied a point (assist) in his AHL debut on October 3 at Binghamton, and notched his first career AHL goal on October 11 at Providence.

The Rauma, Finland native skated in 283 career SM-liiga games with Lukko and HIFK over six seasons prior to joining Hartford, registering 31 goals and 82 assists for 113 points, along with 255 penalty minutes. He finished last season ranked third among all SM-liiga defensemen in points (34) and led HIFK defensemen in goals (eight), assists (26) and points, while finishing second on the team overall in assists, fourth in points and seventh in goals. In 2007-08, he established SM-liiga career-highs in goals (11), assists (26), points (37), and penalty minutes (96).

Heikkinen signed with the Rangers as a free agent on May 20, 2009.

Valiquette, 32, has appeared in six games with the Rangers this season, posting a record of 2-3-0 with a 3.74 goals against average, .852 save percentage and one shutout. He registered his fourth career shutout with an 18-save effort in his season debut on October 11 against Anaheim.

Johnson also had an interview after his first practice, asking about the promotion:



Congrats Chad!

What is on his mask?

The CCHA did a nice video of Nanooks goaltender Scott Greenham about what his mask is all about. You can watch the video via this link or go to the CCHA site.

Here are the highlights from the Nanooks 4-4 tie with Northern Michigan. The Nanooks also took home an extra point in the standings by winning the shootout.

Alaska/Northern Michigan Video Highlights

Here are some video highlights from the Nanooks 3-3 tie with Northern Michigan on Friday, November 27, 2009. Courtesy of Thomas Bohnet. Enjoy