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Chad Johnson said that he feels like he had no junior season for the Alaska Nanooks.

“Last year was almost a blur for me because I had never gone through an injury,” the Nanooks senior goaltender said after a recent practice at the Patty Center.

Thanks to a high ankle sprain, the 22-year-old from Calgary, Alberta, had also never gone through a winless season with the Central Collegiate Hockey Association program.

The injury limited Johnson to only seven games and he compiled an 0-6-0 record with a 3.36 goals against average and .833 saves percentage. In his first two seasons combined, he was 11-13-6 with an 2.84 GAA and .901 saves percentage.

“It’s frustrating for a kid,” first-year Nanooks head coach Dallas Ferguson said recently of Johnson’s junior season. “You come in and you’ve worked all summer, and all of sudden you have injuries that basically keep you out of the lineup for three-quarters of the season.”

This season won’t be a blur for the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Johnson because it’s his last in a blue and gold Alaska uniform. He’s also the Nanooks’ only senior netminder and he’s scheduled to start when the regular season opens against Northeastern and Connecticut in the Kendall Classic on Oct. 10-11 at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage.

“My injury happened early in the year and I didn’t accomplish anything. It was really tough for me but the most part, I don’t remember a lot of last year,” Johnson said. ““But it doesn’t matter what I did in my freshman year, my sophomore year and last year. My senior year is now and all that matters is what I do now.

“I want to make sure that I work hard every day in practice, make sure that I’m ready for games and I want to make sure that I get better and help this team so that we can have a good year.”

In 2007-08, which was Doc DelCastillo’s only season as Alaska’s head coach, the Nanooks went 9-21-5 overall and 8-16-4 in the CCHA for ninth place.

Alaska is nine days away from playing a game that counts, but it showed promise with a 4-0 win over the U.S. National Team Development Program Under-18 Team in Saturday’s exhibition at the Patty Center. Two days earlier in Wasilla, the national team won 4-3 against Alaska Anchorage, which is 6-0-2 against the Nanooks in the last two seasons.

Johnson showed promise Saturday of a better season than his junior experience, as he denied all seven shots he faced from the national team in a 19-minute, 50-second stint before freshman Scott Greenham manned the pipes.

Ferguson, in an interview before the shutout against the national team, said Johnson has the ability to be almost like Tyler Eckford this season.

“He has the skill set and the focus, and he’s an All-CCHA-type goalie,” Ferguson said. “... He’s a great goaltender, he’s very technical.”

All Eckford did last season as a junior was earn All-America, the CCHA Offensive Defenseman of the Year honor and finish as the Nanooks’ second-leading scorer with 31 points in 35 games.

Johnson and Eckford share in common being National Hockey League draft picks. Johnson was selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the fifth round and 125th overall in 2006, the highest pick in Nanooks history. Eckford signed a contract last spring with the New Jersey Devils, who took him in the seventh round and 217th overall in 2004. Eckford is now in the Devils training camp.

Part of overcoming last season and preparing for this one for Johnson was training at the World Pro Goaltending School in Calgary with Tyler Love, who also works in the offseason with Montreal Canadiens goalie Cary Price.

“He’s familiar with my style and he said I play a little like Cary Price — calm, composed and all my movements are really efficient,” Johnson said.

Love also worked with Johnson on being quicker and more aggressive.

“Kind of like how Wylie was,” Johnson said.

Johnson, for the three previous seasons, backed up Wylie Rogers, a Fairbanks native who set nine Nanooks goaltending records.

Johnson also pushed Rogers, and vice versa.

“He’s always battling for the puck,” Johnson said of Rogers, who recently signed with the Rio Grande Valley (Texas) Killer Bees of the Central Hockey League. “He never gives up on any shots, and it doesn’t matter if it’s in practices or games. I can kind of look at him and draw from it.”

The Nanooks can look at Johnson as a player who leads by example.

“Chad’s kind of a silent leader,” said junior right wing Brandon Knelsen. “He doesn’t say a whole lot but when he says something, you listen. He’s a guy who goes out and works hard every day, and you know he’s going to carry you. When he starts making those big saves, he’s got that quiet confidence that displays leadership.”

CAMPUS TRAILS: Wyoming senior linebacker Ward Dobbs, a West Valley graduate, registered a game-high 10 tackles Saturday in a 45-16 loss to Bowling Green in a college football game in Laramie, Wyo. ... Valley City State (N.D.) junior tight end and North Pole grad Jason Hollett had a 39-yard touchdown among his two catches for 53 yards in Saturday’s 44-35 loss to Minot State in Minot, N.D. Sophomore wide receiver Matt Crane from Wasilla had two catches for 24 yards and senior defensive back Michael Weber from Palmer and sophomore linebacker Coty Beck from Seward led Valley City with 10 tackles each. Valley City junior linebacker Cameron Culver had four tackles and fellow North Pole grad and senior defensive back Charles Spencer contributed two ... Nevada-Las Vegas senior wide receiver and East Anchorage grad Casey Flair caught a 41-yard touchdown pass among his five catches for 84 yards in Saturday’s 49-27 loss to visiting Nevada ... Junior cornerback and Lathrop grad Sid Johnson contributed three tackles for Bemidji State in Saturday’s 31-20 homecoming victory over Northern State (S.D.) in Bemidji, Minn. ... Eielson grad and Central Washington senior cornerback Jon Rogers had two tackles and his brother and freshman safety teammate Nick had one in Saturday’s 38-35 loss to Montana in Missoula, Mont. ... Andrew Sprankle, a freshman linebacker and Eielson grad, got his first career tackle for Mayville State in Saturday’s 48-2 loss to Black Hills State (S.D.) in Mayville, N.D.

• Three California State Stanislaus runners from Alaska were among the 278 finishers Saturday in the women’s 6-K of the Stanford Invitational cross-country meet in Stanford, Calif. Freshman Rubye Foldager from Seward placed 190th in 24:45; her freshman sister and fellow Seward grad Denali placed 220th (25:34), and senior and Eielson grad Lindsay Viltrakis placed 237th (26:10).

• Hawaii Hilo senior goalkeeper and Lathrop grad Shanna Brown had nine saves Friday in a 3-1 win over Mesa State (Colo.) in a women’s soccer game in Keaau, Hawaii. Brown is 4-2-0 with a team-high 32 saves this year ... Freshman goalkeeper and Eielson grad Molly Viltrakis recorded her first shutout for Feather River College (Calif.) in a 6-0 win over the College of the Redwoods in a women’s game on Friday in Eureka, Calif. ... Freshman midfielder and South Anchorage grad Carly Butcher scored her fourth goal of the season for the fifth-ranked Southern California women in a 3-0 win over Loyola Marymount last Thursday in Los Angeles ... Sophomore forward and West Valley grad Teagan Cambier had a goal and East Anchorage grad and sophomore forward Ernest Boham chipped in a goal and an assist for Peninsula College (Wash.) in Friday’s 4-0 win over Skagit Valley College (Wash.).

• Stevens Institute of Technology (N.J.) sophomore Jason Ringstad, a Monroe Catholic grad, collected two wins against Cabrini College (Pa.) in the season-opening Monrovian College Invitational men’s tennis tournament on Sunday in Bethlehem, Pa. Ringstad and his partner won 8-1 over Jon Van Wagner and Brendan Hajas in a No. 2 doubles match and Ringstad later downed Van Wagner 8-4 in a No. 2 singles duel.