FAIRBANKS, Alaska American International College jumped out to an early 2-0 first period lead, but Alaska used seven unanswered goals to down the Yellow Jackets, 7-2, in non-conference men's ice hockey action during the opening night of the Brice Alaska Goal Rush from the Carlson Center this evening.
With the setback the Jackets fall to 0-2-0 on the year while Fairbanks improves to 1-2-0 overall.
AIC once again opened the scoring early as just 3:32 into the opening period it was freshman Johnny Mueller (St. Louis, Mo.) finding sophomore Jackson Dudley (Edmonton, Alb.) skating through the neutral zone.
Dudley then moved over the blue line and dropped the puck back to freshman Marc Dubeau (St. Lina, Alb.) and the rookie beat the goalie glove side for his first collegiate goal and the 1-0 Yellow Jacket lead.
Junior Austin Orszulak (Springfield, Mass.) made the score 2-0 headed into the first intermission as he sniped glove side from the right dot off a drop pass by sophomore Johno May (Mahtomedi, Minn.) at 17:56 of the first.
The Nanooks cut the deficit in half early in the second as senior Alec Hajdukovich (Fairbanks, Alaska) fed the puck in front of the net from behind the goal and sophomore Tayler Munson (Fairbanks, Alaska) shot blocker side for the point blank goal at 3:36 of the period.
Munson then took advantage of an elbow to the head call on AIC to tie the game with a power-play goal at 10:24 of the second frame as he skated from left to right into the slot and fired high glove to light the lamp for the 2-2 tie.
Alaska then tilted the game in their favor just over a minute later as sophomore Zach Frye (Spokane, Wash.) found junior Brandon Morley (Burnaby, B.C.) at the top of the crease for a back-handed score at 11:29 of the second for the 3-2 edge.
Frye then set up Hajdukovich in the slot to make the score 4-2 as he shot high glove to beat junior goalie Hunter Leisner (Garland, Tx.) at 14:11 of the stanza.
Fairbanks continued the pressure and scored their fifth second period goal as sophomore Peter Krieger (Oakdale, Minn.) collected his own rebound and punched it home for the 5-2 score at 17:07.
Alaska kept the momentum as senior Tyler Morley (Burnaby, B.C.) sent the puck to the front of the net and it was redirected in just 23 seconds into the final frame for the 6-2 advantage.
Sophomore Bailey More (Laytonsville, Md.) almost gave the Jackets some life as he used some fancy stick stills and sent a back-hand attempt on net at the 2:30 mark of the third period, but freshman goaltender Jesse Jenks (Crofton, B.C.) got his body in front of it to turn it aside.
Tyler Morley then got on the board himself as he flicked home a rebound off Krieger's initial attempt at 9:03 of the third for the final score.
Leisner stopped 39 shots in the game to fall to 0-1-0 on the year while Jenks recorded 22 saves to secure his first career victory and move to 1-0-0 for the season.
The hosts outshot the visitors 46-24 for the game and didn't commit a penalty while going 1-for-2 on the power-play themselves.
AIC returns to action tomorrow afternoon as they battle Alaska-Anchorage to close out their Pacific-Northwest trip at 8:07 p.m. EST.
