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BIG RAPIDS, Mich. — The Alaska Nanooks and Ferris State Bulldogs each have five seniors. Alaska’s senior quintet, though, has never lost against Ferris State, and the Bulldogs’ fourth-year players have experienced only ties against the Nanooks.

Each group of seniors and their teammates are well aware of Alaska’s 7-0-2 streak in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association series. The streak began with a 4-0 win for the Nanooks on Jan. 3, 2004 in the Ewigleben Ice Arena, where the teams meet at 3:05 p.m. AST today and Saturday in the first of two series this season.

Alaska’s seniors have enjoyed a 4-0-2 run against Ferris State, going 2-0-2 in Ewigleben and 2-0 in the Carlson Center.

However, it was as difficult as it was amazing for Alaska to have gone unbeaten in nine games over four seasons against one opponent in the CCHA, which was represented in the last two NCAA Division I national championship games (Michigan State won the title in 2007 and Notre Dame was runner-up this year).

“Every year is different, it’s a new team every single year for both opponents,” wing/center Trevor Hyatt said of the past three seasons for him and four other Alaska seniors against Ferris State.

“It just depends on how the team’s feeling going into the series, and how the other team is feeling,” Hyatt said. “I think we like to play in this barn because it’s small and it’s different from the Carlson Center and it gives a different game plan to us. Other than that, we just want to go out there and do our best, just like any other weekend.”

One thing that’s different about Alaska this season is that its defense leads the CCHA and ranks fourth nationally — allowing an average of 1.5 goals allowed per game.

Bob Daniels has coached Ferris State for 17 seasons, but he said that he’s never seen a CCHA season such as this one, “where you have this many good teams and, really, every single weekend not knowing what you’re going to see.”

That, he said, doesn’t apply to the Nanooks (3-3-0 CCHA and 5-4-1 overall), particularly from what he’s seen from them since Jan. 3, 2004.

“We know that the Nanooks are playing great hockey themselves,” said Daniels, “and that they don’t give up many goals, they’ve got great goaltending and good coaching, and we’ve got to be on our game.”

Nanooks senior goaltender Chad Johnson is 3-0-1 in his career against Ferris State, and entering this weekend, he’s second in the CCHA for goals against average (1.87) and saves percentage (.929). His GAA rank 14th nationally and his saves percentage ranks 19th.

The Nanoks are encountering a Bulldogs squad that’s tied for second with Michigan at 4-2-2 conference and 5-4-3 overall.

Ferris State senior center Brendan Connolly attributes work ethic to the Bulldogs’ first time in second place since the 2002-03 season.

“We’ve got 25 guys who have an incredible work ethic ... ,” Connolly, who leads active Bulldogs with five points (two goals and three assists) in six games against Alaska, said. “We push each other, and what’s made it (success) good is everyone is in the best shape they can be and everyone wants to work harder than the next guy.”

Ferris State wants to work for an end to its winless streak against Alaska, but Connolly said the Bulldogs don’t want to be obsessed with the streak.

“It’s just a streak and a lot of our guys haven’t been here long enough to be involved in it,” Connolly said. “You’ve got to take care of what your game plan is.”

The Nanooks, said head coach Dallas Ferguson, haven’t dwelled greatly on their domination of the Bulldogs in recent seasons.

“As a group, we haven’t discussed ‘we’ve been real successful here and this is why,’” Ferguson said. “In some rinks, you just have to play better, and it just seems like that whether it’s timing or what not, we come to this rink and we been fortunate to get points.”

Ewigleben, though, is one of the CCHA’s toughhest rinks and has some of the liveliest boards in the league.

“Things happen really quick here and you’ve got to be ready and you’ve got to be ready to compete,” Ferguson said.

Ferris has scoring depth, too, as three players — junior left wing Blair Riley, Connolly and sophomore defenseman Zach Redmond — lead the team with nine points apiece. Junior center Dion Knelsen also leads Alaska with nine points, including a team-high five goals.

BLADE BITS: Alaska is the least penalized team in the CCHA, averaging 10.8 minutes per game, while Ferris State ranks second with an average of 21.6 minutes ... By the end of this weekend, Alaska senior right wing Braden Walls will have played 125 career games ... Ferris State and Alaska meet again on Feb. 20-21 at the Carlson Center.