Twice as nice: Wildcats take third for second straight season

Karl Henkel/At the CCHA Championship

DETROIT -- While Saturday’s CCHA Championship consolation game didn’t feature much scoring, but both teams had plenty of chances.
In the end, it was Northern Michigan – last year’s third-place champion – which took care of Alaska, 2-0.

“It’s a very difficult game to play,” NMU coach Walt Kyle said. “Actually it’s a brutal game to play. It feels like we’ve played in this game so many times they should name it after me.”

It wasn’t until the second period that the Wildcats (19-17-5 11-12-5-3 CCHA) took the lead.

Derek May hit Tyler Gron, who beat UAF goalie Chad Johnson on a breakaway for his fourth goal of the season.

“The puck got dumped in the corner and I just wanted to hard-wrap it and get it away from the pressure,” May said.

It turned out to be all the scoring the Wildcats needed, but for good riddance Nick Sirota capped the game off with an empty-net tally.

The loss for the Nanooks was the second in as many days for a team that surprised the CCHA all season long.

“I’m extremely proud of our team,” CCHA Coach of the Year and Alaska coach Dallas Ferguson said. “We’ve got a fine group of young men who competed hard all season long.

Derek Janzen started in place of Brian Stewart for NMU in net and made 31 saves in the shutout. Johnson, the CCHA Player of the Year, collected 26 for UAF (17-16-6, 13-10-5-3 CCHA).